Time for another Indie Development Spotlight! Today we are talking to Mads Støjko Larsen from Campfire Games and asked lots of questions about their upcoming multiplayer Civil War game War of Rights. Check it out and don't forget to vote by hitting the heart!

Let's jump right in! In a short prompt, can you pitch War of Rights to me & the readers? What’s it about? What can players be looking forward to when playing, gameplay-wise?

War of Rights is an online multiplayer first person shooter with a heavy emphasis on historical authenticity and accuracy. The game is set during the American Civil War and features the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Players band up together in companies, learn how to conduct themselves when engaged in our drill camps. They'll follow the orders of their officers when in the field of battle or die trying in both the smaller, more instant-action like Skirmishes or the full blown Historical Battles in which the entire battlefields are available. The game features accurate portrayals of the different regiments with different uniforms and weapons as well as one of the most commonly used manual of arms on the animation side of things.

One of the soon to be included regiments in the Technical Alpha: The 14th Brooklyn

That one probably gets old fast, but still: What inspired you to create a game about Civil War? It seems like an unusual choice for a studio that isn’t from the United States.

We've heard that one a few times, yeah!

One of my earliest memories of watching movies is watching the film "Gettysburg" as a very small kid with my dad - at least the parts that weren't too scary! I've always been hugely interested in history in general but the American Civil War kind of stuck with me ever since watching that movie. Luckily, the other Co-Founder, Emil, is very much interested in muzzleloading warfare in general so when the time came to persuade him to go along with the American Civil War some 4 and a half years ago it was easily agreed upon.

Players gather around the campfire for a song or a story in this player captured screenshot of the Technical Alpha

You mention a lot of places where great battles have been fought in your Indie Dev Fund description. How do you insure that these places are historically accurate?

We've been using period maps, countless of period photographs, real world heightmaps for our terrain creation and have also been using freely available blueprints of the actual historical structures on the battlefields such as Dunker Church or Sherrick Farm for the better part of 4 years now in order to ensure the utmost of authenticity.

Sherrick Farm being created using real world blueprints (exterior & interior)

One of the great instances that springs to mind was a comment on our Facebook page of an image of Sherrick Farm in-game we posted. The comment was made by a Sherrick family member who found much joy in "seeing it as it once was" on our page. Small world!

Sherrick Farm in-game comparison with period photograph

A few months ago, we also finally got to experience all of the major battlefields in person as 4 team members spent our vacation together travelling to the various sites on the east coast. Walking the fields at Antietam was an amazing feeling (especially for me I think, as I'm the level designer of the project) - it literally felt like being home. I knew where every important part and historical farm house etc. of the battlefield was since I had already been there digitally in-game!

Walking towards the Roulette Farm, Antietam Battlefield

We also got to reenact for the very first time while visiting Gettysburg which was a great treat and it gave us quite a few ideas as to how to better portray certain elements in-game.

.Campfire Games is part of the annual Gettysburg Reenactment

Oh wow! That must have been something, walking the very soil where all the action happened and receiving praise from the families of those involved. Suddenly, you get very close to history. I imagine it's a very special feeling of channeling your passion and then construct a game from it which is a very technical process. What made you decide to go with CRYENGINE?

War of Rights is our very first game project. Back when we were faced with the choice of engine in the beginning of the project we really had no experience and thus solely chose the engine because of its amazing visuals compared to other engines on the market at the time. We have been testing out various other popular engines during the development of the game but none have offered us the same performance and usability in terms of the instant feedback the editor of CRYENGINE has done. It is quite simply the best choice for vast, but still highly detailed levels

Technical Alpha map, the Drill Camp - it covers 4x4km in total. As do our other maps

What are the top multiplayer features you’ll be bringing to the player?

The sense of going through what the soldiers of the era had to go through together with your buddies. The proud feeling when a volley has been executed perfectly, a formation change has been done without issues or hesitation and of course, the joy of beating the bluebellies/graybacks in combat depending on your allegiance! We'll be bringing custom tailored spawn systems, class abilities and historical objectives to fight over in accurate settings - all designed around how to encourage the particular playstyle being in a 19th century regiment requires.

At the firing range in this player captured screenshot of the Technical Alpha

Obviously, your game caters to a crowd of very dedicated fans of Civil War re-enactment and history. We heard a lot of role play going on in voice-over in your teaser video. Isn’t this a hard audience to please?

Indeed they are! We're glad, though as we usually say that yes, we do have a Historical Advisor connected to the team & project but we've also got three thousand more on our forum. They catch everything and put it forward to us - down to the amount of dirt on the gaiters, number of buttons on the uniforms, etc. An example as to the depth we're going with the authenticity is the soon to be playable regiment the 12th South Carolina. They were part of the force that captured the Union weapon producing town of Harper's Ferry during the Maryland Campaign of 1862. This resulted in them also capturing a lot of Union uniforms which they made use of. They'll appear as a unique mixture of blue and gray in the game.

Soon to be playable new regiment: 12th South Carolina in a mix of blue and gray uniforms

We obviously can't include everything all of the hardcore re-enactors would like but we do what we can and we're always welcoming more feedback on the forum. They want authenticity and so do we - it's a win-win. :)

Company at the ready in this player captured screenshot of the Technical Alpha

Inquisitive question: How important are Beard physics? Do you have dedicated beard models who are re-enacting the beard-coture of the time for maximum level of accuracy?

Haha! They aren't that important and we're actually discussing if they might be a bit on the soft side at the moment. that being said, our Character Artist, Pat, has been enjoying himself creating just about every thinkable Victorian era beard for the game - they liked their beards fancy back then.

Example of a few of the different beards available

Let’s say I just found out about your game. How can I participate in the Alpha or upcoming beta? Is there any way I can participate, support, play the game right now?

We launched our Technical Alpha about three months ago and are currently hard at work at one of the biggest updates to it yet. War of Rights is 100% funded (that might change if we're lucky enough to get funding from the CRYENGINE Indie Fund) crowdfunded project and thus we have our own crowdfunding site over at: https://warofrights.com/Crowdfunding

There, you'll be able to pledge for different packages. The Technical Alpha is available to Captain tiered backers and higher.

Drilling firing positions in this player captured screenshot of the Technical Alpha

Very imprressive commitment, indeed! what are you going to use the grant for if you happen to win the Incie Development Fund?

Campfire Games currently consists of 13 developers - some are working full time while others are working part time on the project due to the size of our budget. With additional funding we'll be able to change that and kick the production speed up a gear or two which will ultimately result in more content in the hands of the players implemented faster than we otherwise will be able to.

Any comments you would like to ad?

Thank you for featuring us and thank you for creating an indie fund. We can feel way more people are getting interested in trying out CRYENGINE because of it and it really deserves that upped amount of attention.

Thanks to Mads for taking the time to answer our questions and to everyone else: Don't forget to check out War of Rights  on our Indie Development Fund page for more info and press <3 to vote if this is your favorite game in the fund. Comments, questions, feedback; leave them here in the comments, on social media or the forum.

-Nic