Warhammer: Mark of Chaos

• Platform: PC
• Published by: Namco Bandai
• Developed by: Black Hole Games
• Release Date: Nov 14, 2006
• Genre: Strategy
• Multiplayer: Yes
• Online: Yes

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos Interview

Games Workshop's Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 series of tabletop strategy wargames have amassed quite a following over the past couple decades, and along the way they've accumulated hugely detailed lore detailing the armies, conflicts, and worlds that make up the games. With the war-torn fantasy and sci-fi settings, they've always seemed like ripe fruit for video game adaptations, but despite many noble efforts--Final Liberation, Dark Omen, and Space Hulk come to my mind--there haven't been many Warhammer-based games that have really earned themselves lasting places in gaming history. To many, that changed last year with Relic's acclaimed Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, which did justice to the Warhammer 40,000 setting and provided a compelling and deep RTS experience. Now, Namco and Black Hole Games, developer of Armies of Exigo, hope to have similar success with the fantasy-themed Warhammer universe in the form of the upcoming Warhammer: Mark of Chaos.

Tabletop games of Warhammer Fantasy tend to be grander in size than their sci-fi Warhammer 40,000 brethren, and that holds true with Mark of Chaos. The game is intended to depict all out large-scale war, and if current screenshots are any indication it will do so beautifully. Mark of Chaos is for many a highly anticipated title, but there haven't been all that many details released about the game, so I posed several questions to Namco senior producer Chris Wren to try and learn some more about Black Hole's work in progress.

Shack: What are the basic strategic gameplay elements of Mark of Chaos? Given its Warhammer setting can I assume it's more of a "wargame" than a resource-gathering type of RTS?

Chris Wren: Resource management is a critical feature of any war game and Mark of Chaos is no exception. What you will find is that we are shifting the focus of the game more towards the elements of battling and away from resource management. We are adding several layers of command for the player within the battle space to give them more control over what we deem the core experience of a wargame. Resource management will exist, however your role will be primarily military in how you manage these resources. As the commander of your army, you might order your troops to take over an enemy controlled resource like a farm or mill, but you will not be responsible for training farmers and tending to the crops.

Shack: How much contact and/or collaboration is there with Games Workshop over the course of development?

Chris Wren: We’ve been in constant contact with Games workshop throughout the development of Mark of Chaos. They are intimately involved in the campaign story, artwork, and of course the authenticity of all that we’re doing. This summer we had a summit in Nottingham, England to discuss design issues and more importantly get a first hand look at the place where Warhammer was born and meet the people who made it.

Shack: In that vein, what has the experience in general been like to adapt such a huge and well-developed universe?

Chris Wren: Adapting the universe has been easy. There is so much history and art to draw upon that it relieves the pressure of that portion of design quite a bit for us. What’s exciting is that we’re finally at a point with technology where we can emulate the great artwork of the books in amazing real-time detail.

Shack: Further elaborating on parallels to the tabletop game, are there any kind of "painting" tools available in the game for players to personalize their troops?

Chris Wren: Absolutely, there is a customization tool that lets you tweak out everything from clothing and hair styles to colors and decals. This feature will be available for single player, but is really geared around multiplayer gaming. We’re hoping people in the PC gaming world are as proud of their armies online as tabletop wargamers are of their painted armies.

Shack: Are there any specific "gameplay" properties unique to the Warhammer tabletop game you're working to emulate in Mark of Chaos?

Chris Wren: While there is really nothing that translated directly from the tabletop game to the PC (we have no dice and rulers), what we are doing is emulating some of the basic rules about how various troops might behave. We have implemented a strong psychology element into the battle system, and this is consistent with the table top game in many respects. For example, you might find that the Skaven are prone to fear if not managed properly and may flee a battle in panic.

Shack: What races can players expect to see represented in the game?

Chris Wren: There are four playable armies in Mark of Chaos: the Empire, the Hordes of Chaos, the High Elves and the Skaven. The Single Player campaign allows the player to choose either Hordes of Chaos or the Empire to begin the game, and later in the campaign we introduce the High Elves and Skaven as playable Single player races. In multiplayer, all four of these armies will be available for cooperative and competitive play. We’re also including several units from other factions in the Warhammer Universe such as Dwarves, Goblins, Orcs, Undead and Vampires. These units will play smaller roles in the single player campaign and will be available to include in your armies online as “dogs of war”.

Shack: Does the game's single-player campaign have an original storyline, and does the player see it from one army's perspective or are there different "protagonists" over the course of the campaign? Are the single-player missions generally structured around large battles, or are they "goal-based" on a smaller scale?

Chris Wren: The storyline for the campaign is the product of a tight relationship we have with the Warhammer license owner, Games Workshop. We have a writer from the Black Library (famous for so many Warhammer books) who is working closely with the Black Hole development team to create an original story within the core of the Warhammer Universe. The campaign is being written from two perspectives, that of the Empire and the Hordes of Chaos. There are several large battles planned for the campaign, but it is not restricted to these, and the player will be able to choose to focus their attention on smaller scale objectives at almost any point in the war.

Shack: How did Black Hole Games get involved with the project? I assume it was Namco that acquired the Warhammer license?

Chris Wren: Namco was in the process of acquiring the Warhammer license when we set out to find a developer capable of making the kind of wargame we were interested in. We met with Black Hole after playing quite a bit of their previous game: Armies of Exigo. We saw in that game some very powerful technology and beautiful art alongside a strong knowledge base surrounding realtime strategy. Black Hole was very excited to make a Warhammer game with us, they had several members of their staff who were die hard Warhammer fans and the idea of making a game faithful to the Warhammer universe was received really well.

Shack: Have you taken any inspiration from the well-received Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and are there any similarities (of for that matter particularly notable differences) between the approaches of that game and yours?

Chris Wren: Both the folks at Namco and Black Hole have spent a lot of time with RTS games, not only this year, but going back to the early days of RTS gaming. We borrow a little from all of the good ones, and Dawn of War is among those. One thing you’ll find is that with Warhammer, the scale is generally far larger than most RTS games, some battles ranging into the thousands of units. Also, we are not trying to make another clone, there are enough of those out there. You will definitely see elements of traditional RTS games in Mark of Chaos, but setting it apart will be the dynamic war campaign, the focus on battle mechanics and the rich backdrop of the Warhammer universe.

Shack: Do you have a release estimate for the game at this point?

Chris Wren: We’re planning a Holiday release for 2006, however, no specific date has been set.

Shack: Is there anything else you'd like to mention to our readers?

Chris Wren: Look for us at E3 in 2006, We’ll be doing a lot more than just talking about Warhammer Mark of Chaos.

Shack: Thanks for your time.