One of the standout reveals at this month’s State of Play was Project Windless, mostly because of the nine-foot rooster warrior literally towering over the competition.
Like so many others, I’m sold on the concept of a giant, bloodthirsty chicken alone, no doubt making up for all the ones we’ve kicked, killed, maimed, and fed into a lava meat grinder across an untold number of games. And that’s the exact reaction Krafton Montreal was hoping for.
Project Windless is an open world RPG based on the Korean fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears.
“We knew that the hero would create a shock, but I was surprised by the amount of people who were like, ‘What the f—huh?’ but then were like ‘I’m in,’ before three quarters of the trailer had even played,” creative director Patrik Méthé said in an interview with PC Gamer. “Cool, that’s what we wanted.”
The Team Had Four Choices: Rooster, Human, Fire-Breathing Tokkebi, And Reptile
The team had a few choices when it came to what the Hero King might look like: a bog-standard human, fire-breathing tokkebi, immortal reptile (nhaga), or giant warrior chicken — AKA the rekon. Artwork for each race was drafted up when Project Windless started “from scratch,” and in the hiring process, Méthé would show this art to every interviewee; as with State of Play, the burly rooster was the standout.
“When every candidate was leaving, they would say, ‘I hope I will hear from you, but one thing for sure, I want to be able to play that character,'” Méthé said. “All of them. All of them — and we were like, ‘Okay.'”
Given the post-showcase buzz around this game, rekon was clearly the right choice, but it does offer up some interesting questions about what playing as a giant chicken will entail, and thankfully, PC Gamer was kind enough to ask. It’s “too soon to say” whether we can give the Hero King facial hair, he won’t drink tears (the title is a “metaphor”), and Méthé “wouldn’t confirm or deny” if we can romance anyone as this hulking rooster. Fingers crossed, eh?
- Developer(s)
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Krafton
- Publisher(s)
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Krafton
- Number of Players
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Single-player
