War Mechanic Interview: Why The Devs Went Back To The Drawing Board

Story Highlights

War Mechanic is an open-world action-adventure by Chronospace that recently went through an overhaul.
The team shifted War Mechanic to a fully open-world structure to expand every system with stronger narrative grounding.
We interviewed Krzysztof Kunicki, Senior Game Developer of War Mechanic, via email.

War has shaped Nordhook for so long that it stopped being a crisis and became a way of life. The island is a place where conflict is built into the landscape itself, shaping its people, its machines, and the stubborn will needed to survive it. In War Mechanic, players step into that harsh reality as they explore a fully open world defined by danger, scarcity, and the uneasy quiet that settles between battles.

The game’s reinvention expands everything that made its original concept compelling and pushes those ideas toward something more ambitious. With deeper storytelling and mechanics that tie everything together, War Mechanic now feels more like a lived-in conflict than a conventional post-war adventure. To understand how the team rebuilt the experience from the ground up and what players can expect from this new vision, we spoke with Krzysztof Kunicki, Senior Game Developer at Chronospace, in an email interview.

After the recent re-reveal of the game, what feature or system change do you believe most defines the difference between the old version and this new War Mechanic?

When we recognized our core concept’s true potential, we knew we had to unleash it fully. The biggest change is our shift toward a fully open-world structure, combined with deeper storytelling, stronger survival tension, and expanded vehicle systems.

Originally, the game was more contained and simulation-focused, but it already had that unique blend of classic game design – reminiscent of titles like Fallout – with a modern twist. What we’ve done is mainly expand on that promise.

Every system that showed potential – exploration, combat, base management, and story progression – has been elevated and more deeply grounded in the narrative.

You brought in Witcher writers to shape the story. How has their influence changed the kind of world and characters players will experience?

Bringing Jacek Komuda and Maciej Jurewicz on board changed our approach to storytelling and worldbuilding primarily. Their experience helped us build something more grounded and emotional.

The world of War Mechanic is a place where war never truly ended – it became part of everyday life. It’s about how people adapt, survive, and find purpose in a reality shaped by endless conflict.

When you reworked the design, was there a mechanic or feature you completely cut because it didn’t fit anymore? What convinced you it had to go?

Yes – we cut several purely simulation-based systems from the early design. They worked technically, but they slowed down the pacing and didn’t serve the larger adventure we wanted to create. Instead, we focused on mechanics that encourage exploration and decision-making. The game now rewards curiosity and adaptability instead of micromanagement.

Reworking a game on this scale usually means rethinking the budget. Did the reinvention expand your costs, or did scaling back certain systems actually make things leaner?

It definitely expanded some areas, but at the same time, we streamlined production by focusing on what really matters to the player experience. So yes, it’s a bigger game, but also a smarter one in terms of development.

What about the scope of the game itself? Is War Mechanic going to be a denser and shorter experience now, or is it much bigger?

Much bigger – but also more focused. Nordhook has expanded significantly from our original plans into a full-scale island with distinct regions, each with its own environmental challenges and strategic value. Players will travel beyond the starting base, claim outposts, face stronger enemies, and slowly discover the truth behind the endless war.

Did you change how progression works during the overhaul, like pacing resource gathering, crafting, or upgrades, so the early game flows better into the later stages?

Absolutely. We wanted to make progression feel more organic and interconnected. Every system – crafting, energy management, base upgrades, vehicle customization – now feeds into the others. Good management of your energy, resources, and vehicle condition directly increases your chances of survival and lets you expand into new outposts. Neglect any of them, and your progress will stall – it’s all about balance.

Switching to Unreal Engine 5.5 clearly opened some doors, but what were the toughest compromises you had to make to keep performance consistent across platforms?

We’re actually shipping with Unreal Engine 5.7 or later, which gives us access to both Epic’s maturing tech stack and the optimizations. UE 5.5 already boosted lighting performance, and 5.7 already delivered game-changing features like FastGeo Streaming for seamless world loading, and most importantly, 5.7’s voxel-based Nanite foliage that helps us pack foliage without spikes. We’re building on that foundation and adding our own solutions where needed.

As we’ve mentioned earlier in the interview, we make the game we want to play – and that includes performance. We are all gamers, and there’s a certain expectation on the team. We all notice when something feels off, and we try to fix it right away.

In short, Unreal 5.7 gave us the tools to push fidelity further without sacrificing stability, and we’ve built our own systems on top of that to make sure the experience feels as smooth as it looks.

Re-revealing a game means resetting expectations. How are you making sure the community understands what’s changed, and maybe what’s no longer in the game?

We really enjoy your questions :) Transparency is key. We communicate through devlogs, Steam posts, or Discord to show what’s new and why we changed direction. Our approach has been to just be straightforward about it. At the end of the day, we chose to make War Mechanic to make the game we actually want to play – one that, to be perfectly honest, isn’t really available in today’s gaming market.

The response after the gameplay reveal was incredibly positive, and players seem to understand that this is a much more ambitious War Mechanic. We’re genuinely excited and happy to keep working on the game, and we can’t wait to share more in the coming months.

How did reinventing the game affect morale within the team? Did it feel like a setback, or more like a fresh chance to get it right?

Once we agreed on the new vision, the energy in the studio completely shifted. It stopped being about fixing things and became about creating something we have fun testing and something we believe in. Everyone knew it meant more work, but it also meant building the game we always wanted to make.

Now that you’ve reinvented so much, what’s the one thing about the new War Mechanic you’re most excited for players to finally get their hands on?

Definitely the mix of survival, combat, and vehicle systems. That connection between the player, their machine, and the world – it’s something we haven’t seen quite like this before.

You’re not just surviving; you’re adapting, repairing, upgrading, and pushing deeper into Nordhook’s mysteries. That’s the heart of War Mechanic – and we can’t wait for players to experience it.

War Mechanic is an open-world action-adventure developed and published by Chronospace. The game can be wishlist on Steam with no official announcements on consoles. We are grateful to Krzysztof Kunicki for his time and answers, and to Shawn Petraschuk for his help.

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