Kingdom Come Co-Founder Is "Bored and Tired" of Power Fantasy RPGs

Martin Klima, co-founder of Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Warhorse Studios, has taken aim at a staple of the genre. In recent comments, Klima said he is "bored and tired" of role-playing games that lean on power fantasy, describing them as experiences "for teenagers."

The criticism fits neatly with how Warhorse has approached its own work. Kingdom Come: Deliverance drops players into 15th century Bohemia as Henry, the son of a blacksmith, who starts out underskilled, underequipped and routinely outmatched. Progress is slow and earned. Sword fighting is clumsy at first, survival systems like hunger and sleep matter, and a single mistake can leave you beaten in the dirt rather than cutting through a crowd of enemies.

That design has been the studio's calling card, and also its dividing line. Fans praise the sense of weight and consequence, while detractors find the early hours punishing. Klima's remarks suggest the team has no plans to soften that identity just to chase the broader appeal of games where the hero becomes a near-unstoppable force within a few hours.

The comment is also a pointed jab at a large part of the RPG market. Plenty of the genre's biggest names are built around escalating strength, loot and spectacle, with players steadily growing into demigods. Klima's position is that there is room, and perhaps a need, for RPGs that treat the player as an ordinary person in a believable world, where growth feels meaningful because it is hard won.

Whether every player agrees is another matter. Power fantasy remains hugely popular, and many would argue that wanting to feel powerful is hardly a mark of immaturity. Still, the quote offers a clear window into the creative mindset at Warhorse. For the studio, realism and vulnerability are not obstacles to fun but the whole point.

For fans waiting to see where the team goes next, the message is simple: expect more of the same grounded, gritty approach, not a pivot toward the genre's more bombastic trends.