About
Warrior Kings is a 2002 real-time strategy game developed by Black Cactus and published by Microïds, with a Mac OS X port released the following year via Feral Interactive, set in a fantasy medieval world exploring pagan tribalism, renaissance enlightenment, and imperialist theocracy. wkbre is an open-source engine reimplementation of Warrior Kings (Battles) that can open the original game's data files, load levels, and render the game world; the ability to actually play through the engine is still in development. It requires a copy of the original game, available on Steam and GOG, and currently only runs on Windows, though a cross-platform port is planned.
How it differs from the original
Rather than reproducing gameplay from scratch, wkbre currently functions primarily as a level and terrain editor: it lets players open existing savegames, create, move, or delete characters and buildings, and build new custom skirmish maps that save back into a format the original game engine can load and play, alone or with friends.
Getting started
Players need their own copy of Warrior Kings or Warrior Kings: Battles (from Steam or GOG); wkbre can then open savegames or create new skirmish maps, which are saved and loaded back into the original game to actually play, since in-engine gameplay is still under development.
Known limitations
- platform: Currently only works on Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and later); a port to other operating systems is planned.
Additional notes
- External link
- A companion 'WK Modding Kit' for viewing and editing game files is available as a separate project by the same author.