It happened during one of our evening checks. A hundred soldiers stood in a field before a battle, and everything was in place: armour, shields, banners. And still the picture looked dead. They all breathed in step, shifted their weight at the same moment and stared at the same point. A hundred identical mannequins.
A rule we set ourselves
That evening we wrote down a rule we now check in every scene: no single template for everybody. A man in the line is a man. He is tired, he is bored, he is nervous.
The small things life is made of
Now, before the fighting starts, one looks over his weapon, another glances at his comrades, a third drops to one knee, a fourth simply sits down to rest. Each walks at his own pace, each has his own stride. None of them knows he is part of a single squad, and that is exactly why the squad looks alive.
Blows and falls became different too. A man reels away from the side the blow came from, not “by the script”. He shakes off a light hit, and a heavy one knocks him off his feet. Nobody falls like a log.
Horses with character
Horses got their own habits: one tosses its head, another nibbles grass, a third shifts about restlessly. And when spears are lowered towards them, a horse can take fright just as a real one would.
Why it matters
No player will count how many poses a soldier has. But everyone will feel it if they are missing. We want you to look at an army and see people.
