Dark Horror and Adventure in the Warhammer World

An Overview

Warhammer

The Game of Fantasy Battles

Twenty years ago, few people would have predicted that a set of fantasy wargame rules designed to allow players to fight tabletop battles with hand-painted miniatures and produced by a small Nottingham-based company would grow to become the world-wide phenomenon that is Warhammer today.

And that Games Workshop, the company that nurtured and developed this hobby would grow to become a multinational company with direct operations around the world, whilst still retaining its cottage industry feel and a passionate belief in the quality and depth of its products.

And that by 2002, Warhammer itself would be published in seven different languages - English, French, Spanish, German, Italian Japanese and Mandarin Chinese! And that over the last five years the game and its associated products would generate revenues for Games Workshop in excess of $330m.

Over the years, Warhammer has of itself spawned a whole range of additional games and supplements. Warhammer Fantasy Role-play (WHFRP) became a best selling role-playing system. Man O' War enabled players to take to the high seas and fight naval battles in the Warhammer world. Warhammer Quest was a classic 'dungeon bash' board game and the recently published Warmaster allowed players to fight tabletop battles on a sweeping epic scale.

But far more than simply being a game, Warhammer and its science fiction cousin - Warhammer 40,000 - have grown to become widely known fantasy worlds that encompass tabletop wargaming, Black Library fiction, comics, role-playing games, computer games, collectable card games and art-books.

Often copied and imitated… Warhammer and its imagery has now almost become part of the visual language of fantasy gaming. Its rich dark, gothic setting replete with monstrous creatures and underlying cosmology of Chaos sets the standard for dark fantasy and horror across the world.

Warhammer Online

A living online world

Following our success with a number of licensed computer games, including the Warhammer inspired titles - Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen which sold over 750,000 units on the PC and PSOne - we felt that there must be a way in which we could really capture the dark character and feel of Warhammer world and offer it back to our players as a gaming environment.

A hard-core group of staff at GW had always been fans of pen and paper RPG's, play-by-mail (PBM) games, online MUD's and similar persistent world games. It was through this group that we became aware of the possibilities being offered by games such as Ultima Online and Everquest.

It was an exhilarating moment, when we realised that we could take the game-play from our own already successful role-playing system - Warhammer Fantasy Role-play (WHFRP) - combine it with elements of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and then place it at the core of massively multiplayer online game. It was at this point that the idea of Warhammer Online was born.

In order to deliver on this promise of a massively multiplayer Warhammer game, we needed a partner. Despite having years of experience in designing and developing games and miniatures at the Nottingham Design Studio, the world of computer games and in particular online games was new to us.

We needed someone who had the software and development skills to match our vision of a world on the edge of collapse.

Climax Development was founded in 1988 by Karl Jeffery and has grown to become one of Europe's largest independent development houses with Studio's in London, Brighton, Portsmouth and Nottingham. Almost as soon as we'd met with them and they'd shown us what their game technology could deliver, we knew that we'd found our partner, and as a result, in the spring of 2001, Warhammer Online Ltd was formed.

Warhammer Online

It's a service not a product

Warhammer Online Ltd is the joint venture company set up by Games Workshop and Climax to deliver the promise of an online Warhammer world game. Under the deal, Games Workshop is funding the game and Climax provide their development expertise, new MMOG technology and project management skills.

As a result, in early 2001, the Climax Nottingham studio was established with the goal of successfully developing Warhammer Online and creating a whole range of new MMO technologies. The studio is located close to Games Workshop's design studio and headquarters to facilitate a free flow of people and ideas into the project. Artists and designers from Games Workshop did much of the initial conceptual and design work on the game and they are now watching in awe as many of the creatures and monsters they've only ever known as metal and plastic figures are starting to come to life!

As an MMOG, Warhammer Online promises to be something very special. Rather than simply creating a landscape for a game, Warhammer Online is quite literally a 'realisation' of an already existing world. Driven on by the desires of the designers, the team at Climax have pulled out the stops to develop both new server technology and a render engine able to deliver a frighteningly authentic in-game experience to the players. The brief has been to literally 'make real' a vast area of the Reikland complete with its cities, towns, villages, streets, characters, castles and dungeons.

At the heart of the game will be this combination of fantastic new technologies coupled with the deep, dark, gritty Warhammer background and some extremely innovative player and character development within an online RPG.

Post-launch in early 2004, Warhammer Online Ltd will take over both the management and the development of the game from Climax. A positive player experience is key to the success of an online game and we will have an in game and online customer service team of trained Warhammer enthusiasts always at hand to make sure that any game-play problems get solved quickly cheerfully and efficiently.

Warhammer Online

Key features of the game