Windstorm is a series of movies, books and games centered around the eponymous black stallion and his friend and rider, a young girl called Mika. Previously, the stories around Windstorm across media have primarily taken place around the Kaltenbach Estate in modern day Germany.
How, then, is Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori going to add to this same story by taking place in 13th century Mongolia? Read on to find out.
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Myths of Origin
Mongolian Culture and Folklore is rife with myths and legends surrounding horses, as the animals have been critically important in everyday life on the steppes for centuries. The Windstorm movies take inspiration from that horse-based culture in the myth of Nojrsodsch, the sleeper – a person with the gift of understanding the language of the horses.
In the series' history – across movies, books and games – the Windstorm universe plays around with how it treats this understanding, sometimes implying an actual mythical power, sometimes focusing more on horses' real-life needs and body language, and how those sometimes get ignored in modern competitive equestrianism.
🚧Work in Progress🚧
Until now, the connection between the Windstorm narrative and Mongolian myth has been on the subtler side. That Kaltenbach’s horse loving hermit and Mika’s eventual mentor bears the name of Mr. Kaan is no coincidence for example, but a deliberate nod to the Mongolian inspirations.
With Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori however, we are taking the Windstorm story to the source of its inspiration – and opening up a whole new world with it. We’re thrilled to confirm that Mika will play an important role in this game’s story, but that your protagonist will be customizable.
🚧Work in Progress🚧
Choosing Premise and Setting
When Aesir Interactive was working on early concepts for a new Windstorm game, we were initially discussing a modern, European-based setting and a gameplay loop focused on equestrian competition. In contemplating the game’s appeal to different audiences however, we came to realize that we had a chance to do something quite different: Once that thought sparked, we realized this pivot in setting would make sense on multiple fronts:
🚧Work in Progress🚧
🔺While Windstorm and Mika participate in the occasional equestrian show in the movies, a focus on competitive riding does not really fit the narrative spirit of the series. The Windstorm stories are all about freedom, friendship and fairness in how we treat our four-legged companions, not about fame or glory.
🔺Within the niche of “Horse Games”, we noticed a desire for something new: Anyone who’s played games in this genre has inherited an old barn and built it up with money earned in show jumping competitions a dozen times over. We wanted to give the horse enthusiast audience something new and exciting, not just more of the same. Many people who have grown up with horse games are ready and eager for a more mature approach to horse-focused gameplay.
🚧Work in Progress🚧
🔺We wanted this game to appeal to a wider audience than Aesir’s previous horse riding games: Being a courier rider in historical Mongolia is going to sound cool to a lot of players who would not consider picking up a modern stable simulator game. By thus expanding our audience, we see a chance to bridge the gap between the horse game niche and the wider gaming world in a way that even successful past horse-focused games have not been able to.
🔺Choosing to take the Windstorm series to this setting was immediately exciting for everyone involved. Our Artists dove into researching materials and ancient craftsmanship, our Game Designers plunged into lists of flora and fauna that would fit the steppes and mountain ranges of Central Asia. And blessedly, all the involved decision makers were similarly excited to brave new frontiers in making a historical horse game for the very first time.
🚧Work in Progress🚧
Balancing Authenticity, Realism and Fun
Realism and authentic representation are a crucial topic in this project: For our horses to have the depth and complexity that horse lovers want (and deserve!), we’ve been researching the finer details of horse coat color genetics and building complex control rigs for equine facial expressions.
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We’re conducting early playtests with the horse enthusiast audience to get the feeling of riding right, and we’re launching in Early Access very early in our development process, precisely so we can improve and iterate with the feedback of those that care the most.
🚧Work in Progress🚧
In order to do justice to our Mongolian setting, the entire team has been researching, watching documentaries and consulting with people from Mongolia. We have the opportunity to tackle a setting and time period that doesn’t usually get represented in mainstream media, and we intend to treat that with all the care and respect it deserves.
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While realism – cultural, historical and equine – is a big part of our process as you can see, our main goal remains making a game that is fun and engaging to play. We, therefore, take liberties with our source material wherever it makes sense for gameplay reasons. An early example of this is that our camp structures include wooden pens for horses, to give players an easy way to access their steeds, while a real life Mongolian nomad might have trekked for a few miles to wherever their herd was grazing, since wood can be a scarce resource on the treeless steppes.
🚧Work in Progress🚧
Thank you for reading! We’ll be sharing more insight and some WIP footage on our socials, so make sure to give us a follow and join the official Aesir Interactive Discord server! Please also consider Wishlisting if you have not already! 🧡
If you too want to be part of future playtests, make sure to sign up right here!
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