Wartorn is an upcoming strategy game slated for later this year, helmed by a hugely experienced team. Game Rant had the opportunity to interview Stray Kite’s chief creative officer Paul Hellquist, previously the lead designer on Bioshock, to learn more about Wartorn.
Recently, Stray Kite Studios (a studio comprised of developers that have previously worked on franchises like Age of Empires, Borderlands, and Bioshock) revealed Wartorn, a fantasy roguelite with RTS elements. Poised for Early Access release later in 2025, Wartorn marks the start of a new IP that benefits from an experienced team of AAA developers enjoying the freedom of indie game development. Game Rant sat down with Stray Kite’s chief creative officer Paul Hellquist, who divulged a great deal about how Wartorn is taking shape. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Senior Designer On Borderlands Talks New Game Wartorn
Q: Wartorn will be Stray Kite’s first foray into making standalone games from the ground up. What aspects of Wartorn appealed to you over other ideas for a debut title?
A: When the team was discussing games that we wanted to make, roguelite mechanics featured in nearly every idea that was put forth. A tactics game was also high on the list for the team so we decided, “Why not combine those two ideas?” That combination of genres felt like something we hadn’t seen before, and we were excited about the possibilities.
I was excited about Wartorn as a concept for a couple of reasons. The first is that, despite being in the industry for 25 years, I’ve never had a chance to make a fantasy game. The second thing that appealed to me is that I’ve spent almost all of my career in the FPS genre and Wartorn is allowing me to expand my experience as a designer into a new style of game.
Q: You’ve played a major role in the creation of groundbreaking titles, such as the original Bioshock and the Borderlands series. How is that experience reflected in Wartorn?
A: Borderlands and BioShock gave me a huge foundation in systemic game design. What I mean by that is building complex systems that work together to create experiences greater than the sum of their parts. I am a huge fan of emergent systems that create gameplay that players can learn and exploit in creative ways, as well as creating little moments that are unexpected and unique to the individual player. Wartorn is taking those philosophies and skills]to a genre that usually doesn’t delve into those types of designs.
One example of how this manifests itself in Wartorn is in our elemental combat system where you can use your squads in tandem to create outcomes that no single squad can accomplish on its own. For example, if you first douse an enemy with water and then use another squad to zap them with lightning, it creates chain lightning that hits all of the enemies that were made wet by the first ability.
Through these kinds of interactions, the system can also create unexpected results where you can use the enemy’s own abilities against them in clever ways.
Q: How will Wartorn stand out from similar titles (in terms of both genre and mechanics)?
A: Wartorn stands out in a few different ways. As mentioned, tactics and strategy games often do not explore systemic and emergent gameplay. Wartorn is leaning into these design principles as discussed in the previous question.
We have an amazing art style we call “Fantastical romanticism” that really stands out from the crowd by creating a painterly effect that gives the game a unique look and brings a sense of history to our world.
We are also trying to make the genre approachable to more players by keeping the squad count low and with our slow-motion feature that gives players the power to play real-time battles at their own pace. There is also a rich fantasy world and a complete narrative adventure game that serves as the backdrop to the brutal battles.
Q: Stray Kite’s site and Wartorn‘s announcement trailer proudly display the development history of yourself and the team. Can you discuss any examples where that history or experience helped overcome any challenges with the game so far?
A: The simple answer is that the AAA pedigree in our studio has given the team the experience to know what it takes to produce and ship top-quality games. More specifically, our art director, Paul Slusser, worked on many RTS games including Age of Empires 2 and 3 as well as Halo Wars. His experience has helped inform how to make art for the isometric camera view and he provides insight into solutions that have worked in the past, especially for controlling strategy games with a gamepad.
Ryan Slack, our lead programmer, has had a ton of experience with UI from many years in AAA and has helped us build a system so we can quickly make the large number of UIs required for the game. Our lead artist, Kyle King, specializes in animation and his previous experience with cinematics and ability animations from Borderlands has helped us create memorable motion and poses for our characters in Wartorn.
Q: How does Wartorn’s scope compare to the major games you and other Stray Kite developers have worked on?
A: It is way smaller! Wartorn is truly an indie title compared to the major AAA releases many of us have worked on in the past. Stray Kite Studios is fully funding the project with our own money and, of course, we have a lot less money than the big AAA publishers. The big win is that we have unprecedented control over the game we are making compared to what most of us have ever experienced in AAA. Development has been really exciting in that way.
We are also enjoying making a game where every single member of the team has a major impact on what players experience, whether it be in the design, story, or visuals of the title. All that said, we have had to keep our ambitions in check. We have huge grand ideas, and sometimes we have had to remind ourselves that our team is less than 10% the size of the teams we’ve worked on in the past. This limitation has forced us to be more thoughtful about our game and identify what is important to its success.
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Paul Hellquist On the Unique World of Wartorn
Q: The snippets of Wartorn shown off thus far present some pretty original fantasy concepts. What aspects of Wartorn‘s worldbuilding are you most proud of?
A: We are creating an original fantasy world! How awesome is that? The chance to create our own world has been amazing. We are trying to make the world of Talaur feel familiar but different. We don’t want players to feel completely lost because everything is so different from traditional fantasy tropes, but we also want to ensure that many things are unique to Wartorn.
I think what I am most proud of is how the world revolves around the idea of ‘Mantras.’ Mantras are the different philosophies that the peoples of Talaur belong to and identify with. Each Mantra has its own point of view on the world that affects not only what they think and how they act in the narrative, but the Mantras also impact the kinds of abilities and mechanics they have in the combat portions of the game. We are always trying to tie our fiction to our game mechanics and the Mantras are the glue that connects those two parts of Wartorn.
Q: What are the big inspirations for the world of Wartorn and particularly its diverse inhabitants?
A: As the granddaddy of epic fantasy, The Lord of the Rings is, of course, a big inspiration for worldbuilding and the sense of epic adventure. We also took inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons regarding how the different creatures are intermingled throughout our world’s society. I would also be remiss not to mention Magic: The Gathering as an inspiration. I’ve been playing Magic for 30 years now and have always been inspired by the huge diversity of the creatures represented in the game, including types that are less common in other fantasy franchises.
Q: How many unique monsters will players have to contend with throughout the game? How much variety can players expect in terms of enemy types/factions?
A: Except for bosses, every type of enemy you encounter during your adventure you can also eventually get into your own fighting force, which we call a “company.” If you include all of the different units and their upgrades, we are shooting for over 50 different types of squads for early access with that number continuing to grow as we head towards our 1.0 release. That said, some features let you tweak the squads by adding additional capabilities to them, which further increases the number of unique squads at your disposal.
Q: How much story content will there be in Wartorn? Can you discuss Wartorn’s particular relationship between narrative and gameplay?
A: We have planned for what I think is a lot of story content, especially for a game in the tactics genre. We have been inspired by Hades‘ narrative delivery and its narrative’s overall importance.
Players must help Yara and Elani on their journey across Talaur to try and find peace after their home is destroyed, and help them reconnect with their family scattered by the war. Through their adventures and interactions with family and foes alike, they will learn how to make a difference in a world ravaged by war.
Q: You’ve been working on this for a while in secret. Now that you can talk about it a little, what’s something you’ve been dying to tell gamers?
A: Everything, really. We’ve been working on this game off and on for so long that it’s just really exciting to start sharing the game with the world.
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Wartorn is coming soon to Early Access on PC.