Dark fantasy strategy game Gord has a pretty twisted visual aesthetic, and if you've ever wanted to know where that aesthetic came from, you're in luck. Developer Covenant has released the first in a new video series detailing the processes behind creating Gord, and this inaugural video is all about inspirations.
The series is called "Into the Gord", and the first installment is titled "The Birth of Gord". In the video, Covenant CEO and Gord director Stan Just describes the ideas and background that led him to want to create Gord. Just credits Northgard with the principal idea behind Gord's gameplay; he says he wanted to create a game that combined the gameplay of Northgard with the world design of The Witcher, which he worked on as a producer prior to founding Covenant.
Despite taking inspiration from those two games, Just says he wanted to create his own IP, and Slavic mythology was the perfect fit for doing so. Slavic mythology, Just says, is close to him due to his Polish nationality, and he's also attracted to its "blackness" and "fleshiness", which makes the fantasy of Gord more "brutal and dirty" than other fantasy games might be.
The drawback of using Slavic mythology as a base, according to Just, is that it's complex and open to interpretation, and also that it's not as well-documented as the Greek or Roman pantheons are. As such, Just and his team felt the need to "simplify" the mythology; you'll see mutated creatures and animals in the game, but you'll also meet Slavic deities like Veles, who is a god of many things, including the underworld and the earth itself.
Be sure to take a look at the full video to get a sense of Just's processes and the work that's going into Gord ahead of its release sometime this year. Per a press release, there will be four more episodes of "Into the Gord", which will be released in the coming weeks. They'll revolve around visual design, narrative, gameplay, and systems, so keep an eye on Team17's YouTube channel for those.
Gord is set to arrive on PC via Steam in 2023. You can wishlist it here.
