Following the success of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, NeocoreGames was confident that the studio could develop a more complex action-RPG with a greater scope, something with more online features and seasonal updates. There were many ideas and pitches floating around, we considered many major IPs, but Warhammer 40,000 was a studio favourite.

"The founders of NeocoreGames and many colleagues are from the same generation," explains narrative designer Viktor Juhász. "They all discovered various brands of science-fiction and fantasy novels in the early 90's in Hungary, among them Warhammer 40,000 (thanks to the novels of Ian Watson), and this world had a special place in our hearts. Some of the developers were even actively playing the wargame."

To the studio's surprise, this seemingly impossible dream started to become a reality, as Games Workshop was looking forward to an action-RPG set in this world. The negotiations began, and the studio soon learned what it's like to work on an existing IP. Games Workshop was kind enough to provide plenty of source materials, and there was a lot of work to do, teaching developers decades worth of lore, constant communication with Games Workshop, because feedback and approval was crucial to create something very faithful.

An action-RPG by necessity has some gameplay features that are not always 100% compatible with the lore, so there were lots of creative workarounds that eventually both parties agreed upon. The team at NeocoreGames had to expand, and during the development of the game the studio almost doubled in its size. Warhammer expert János Tóth joined Viktor to work on the narrative (which started out as a story of a ghost ship), artists started to study the books and miniatures not only to replicate existing assets, but to create new ones that could fit into that world nicely. Eventually the mysterious ship was named Martyr, and the game would have this title as well: Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr. Curiously, the title "Prophecy" was also being considered (among many other candidates), and it was later used for the standalone DLC.

The Founding was a sort of early access phase in which players could support the studio by preordering various packages with digital and physical goodies. The marketing team went on quite an adventure acquiring various parts of the set, assembling and packaging the orders in the "breakfast room" - many colleagues helped with the boxes, cups, and coins, it was a magical time of bonding. We also prepared a massive booth to be used for a gameshow, and two cosplayers helped us out, dressed as Death Cult Assassins.

Meanwhile, the game has changed a lot since its initial prototypes until the release and the eventual 2.0 revision as the studio wanted to push the limits of what an action-RPG could be - experiment with more tactical combat, limb targeting, vast online features, and so on. Some of these were cut, some of them were streamlined, some new features were added, but eventually everything came together. Today, the game is generally well received and popular to this day... although we still remember a rocky launch.

Let Mátyás Csikós (Megapull, who currently works as a producer) share this story: "If I remember correctly, the cable company was doing some unscheduled maintenance in the district on the eve of the launch. This resulted in them shutting down Internet access for a pretty large region that included our offices as well. We kept a fail-safe line up for this exact purpose but that died, too. This all happened a few hours after Steam launch if I am not mistaken. There were a few tense minutes before our Internet access and services came back up. I remember sitting on the floor with the others, waiting for access to come back, while we were messaging the players from our phones. Afterwards I remember what a relief it was to see the online player count climb higher and higher."

He also sheds some light on how the game was then prepared to be supported after release:

"Long before the 2.0 launch (early-mid 2018 I believe), a group of designers and community guys started to formulate ideas about Quality of Life improvements and changes to combat that both we and the players wanted to see within the game. We have received an overwhelming amount of feedback from the players, and evaluating all that data and figuring out how any proposed changes would fit the game best was quite challenging. The board and production were also planning to implement a shift in the game towards snappier, faster gameplay and deeper mechanics, and this led to the formation of the Endgame team, a group dedicated to develop post-release content for our titles."

"At first we were working closely together with the other departments and designers until our major overhaul update, patch 2.0 came out. This required a heroic effort from the whole company (and definitely from the coffee machines as well). It was absolutely worth it though since 2.0 was a huge success - I believe our Steam score basically jumped 10% overnight."

"Afterwards, the Endgame team was given more or less free reign over Martyr in terms of design ideas, provided we can deal with the planned free seasonal updates in tandem. This period of production I remember as immensely challenging but equally rewarding. I have a compilation of positive comments from this era of Martyr saved ready on my desktop at all times when I need some cheering up."

"Throughout the years the Endgame team became a close-knit group and I learned an immense amount during this amazing period. My favourite part was when we introduced Seasons and we loved figuring out mechanics that players can go and run wild with."

With the help of the Endgame team Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr received numerous DLCs and free updates, even when the studio at large has already moved on to other projects (two more King Arthur games and our next title). Most recently, the Seasonal Journey and Offline Mode were major free updates.

The game was also developed for consoles. This time, the studio decided to partner with a publisher, Nacon (formerly BigBen), which made the physical release possible for us. Lately, the console team has been working on securing certification in all regions and both console platforms for Offline Mode which required a monumental for reworking the game code.

Even though we are working on our third game since Martyr, we still have a massive, supporting player base and even more passionate developers within the studio, still tinkering in the background, years after release. Not surprising, Martyr is the reason that NeocoreGames went from a small band of RPG / wargaming fans to a mid-sized development studio.

Is Martyr the longest developed game of NeocoreGames? Turns out, no. As Martyr's development was winding down, there were rumours of what we would do next. Something that's been quietly built over many years... but not yet, not yet. Before that, we wanted to quickly revisit Avalon... and then the pandemic arrived.

But this is a story for another day.