Project Windless Devs really wanted to play as Nine Foot Rooster

One of the standout reveals at this month's State of Play was Project Windless, mostly because of the nine-foot-tall rooster warrior that literally towers over the competition.

Like so many others, I'm sold on the concept of a giant, bloodthirsty chicken alone, which no doubt makes up for all those we've kicked, killed, maimed and fed into a lava meat grinder in countless games. And that's exactly the reaction Krafton Montreal was hoping for.

“We knew the hero would create a shock, but I was surprised by the amount of people who were like, 'What the hell, huh?' but then were like, 'I'm in,' before three-quarters of the trailer had even played,” creative director Patrik Méthé said in an interview with PC Gamer. “Cool, that's what we wanted.”

The team had four choices: rooster, human, fire-breathing Tokkebi, and reptile

The team had a few choices when it came to what the hero king could look like: a human standard, fire-breathing tokke bee, immortal reptile (nhaga), or giant warrior chicken – AKA rekon. Artwork for each race was drawn up when Project Windless started “from scratch”, and in the hiring process Méthé would show this art to each interviewee; as with State of Play, the stout cock was outstanding.

“When all the candidates left, they said, 'I hope I hear from you, but one thing's for sure, I want to be able to play that character,'” Méthé said. “Everybody. Everybody — and we were like, 'Okay.'

Given the post-showcase buzz surrounding this game, Rekon was clearly the right choice, but it does offer some interesting questions about what it will mean to play as a giant chicken, and thankfully PC Gamer was kind enough to ask. It's “too early to tell” if we can give Hero King facial hair, he habit drink tears (the title is a “metaphor”), and Méthé “would neither confirm nor deny” if we can romance someone like this damn rooster. Fingers crossed, eh?

Developer

Krafton

Publisher

Krafton

Number of players

Single player