Since the very beginnings of Calimacil back in 2004, our community has often been asking for foam replicas of weapons from their favorite video games of literature. Our work with Seyrawyn in the past few years has brought great additions to our catalog of LARP weapons. More recently, our official Destiny foam replicas took everyone in the market by surprise. Working with game companies is very exciting for us and the technical challenge of each project takes our skills to the next level.
We’ve been following the development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance since the beginning. The KCD team focuses on creating an historically accurate RPG game taking place in medieval Bohemia in 1403. Not only have they created a game with challenging realistic sword-fighting, but each weapon actually feels different and uses different medieval fighting techniques. “I was interested to see how they would achieve this in a video game since this is exactly what the Calimacil weapons are about. I’ve been practicing martial arts with various weapon types over the last 18 years and I know how each weapon type should feel different and bring you this unique Fun Factor”, said Patrick Lessard, CEO of Calimacil, when questioned on this new collaboration.
When it all began
On their 13th video update, the Kingdom Come: Deliverance team introduced their medieval combat specialists, Petr Nůsek from ARGO agency and Robert Waschka from Dům rytířských cností (The House of Knightly virtues). We’ve added the video below. You should watch it all as it show how much effort was put in really understand the medieval combat technique. Then, when you get to the Motion Capture part of the video, what do you see? Yes! The very popular Calimacil Bellator foam sword. “What a surprise to see one of our swords being used for the motion capture of a historically accurate game! It is actually a great use: it feels real, it is safe to use and the MoCap equipment seems to fit perfectly on it”, related Patrick.
Calimacil & Kingdom Come: Deliverance - A perfect fit
Martin Klima, Executive Producer at Warhorse Studios, shared the same interest in the project from the start: "As Patrick said, we have used the Calimacil swords to motion-capture all in-game fighting animations, as well as all cutscenes. When Calimacil floated the idea of creating proper replicas for in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, it was like meeting the heroes from your favourite rock band.”
After a few discussions with the Warhorse Studios’ team and the Calimacil team, we have decided our first project should be to recreate the most iconic swords from the game. The visual aspect and theme of the game fits perfectly with the Calimacil designs. Not only was it easy to make both swords, but even the first attempts gave astonishing results.
The 3D printing of the guards and pommel brought a high level of details and an exact representation of the items in the game. Our creation team had to figure out how to make the slim cross guards more rigid for the players to be able to parry and still be safe for LARP use. Then, they worked on the texture to obtain a forged metal look to the handles. Finally, they added a real leather strap to the matrix so the swords would look as real as possible. “When the first prototypes arrived we were immediately excited! The swords look so cool, almost like the metal ones and when we made the pictures with one of our friends from Czech HEMA fighters group, you really can’t spot the difference.”, explained Josef Vitek, Brand Manager at at Warhorse Studios.
A young but successful collaboration
The new collaboration already features two sword replicas from Kingdom Come: Deliverance and the potential to create more replicas from the game is huge. “I am really looking forward to the first public event where we want to show the swords to our fans who missed out on the limited backer edition with sword. Now we can offer them nice durable weapons, which look maybe even better on the wall next to a fireplace!” , added Jiri Rydl, Marketing Manager at Warhorse Studios.
“Working with the Warhorse Studio’s team has been a great experience for us. I feel very privileged that we can build such great collaborations with talented people from all over the world. We’ve made new friends in Czech Republic and we created something unique together”, concluded Patrick.
Calimacil thrives on creating high quality products that feel real but are also safe to play with. Bringing such beautiful designs to life makes it even better. Not only can you wield these weapons in the game, but you can now own them and spar with your friends.
Get the game here: https://www.kingdomcomerpg.com/
