and focus on the exploits of the
common man, chimed with Ibidil’s
interest in medieval Britain. “It was
as if TaleWorlds had read my mind,”
he says. He saw an opportunity.
“Videogames can make stories and
history come alive.” Britain was ripe
for the coding.
The freedom presented by Mount
and Blade: Warband’s open world let
Ibidil tell stories in a unique way.
Playing games to Ibidil “means
experiencing history in a different,
more hands-on, way”. The obscurity
of the Dark Ages made it the perfect
setting for him to weave his own
adventures. The mod was named
after the old British term
‘Brytenwalda’, or ‘Britain-ruler’. As
Mount and Blade: Warband is about
claiming land for your kingdom, the
name was apt.
Brytenwalda was never intended
for other players, it was “a simple
mod, just for myself ”, says Ibidil. He
wrote a quest here, changed textures
there, and little by little the fictional
kingdom of Calradia turned into
Britannia. But Ibidil couldn’t hide his
desire to tell stories. He released a
rough beta of the mod, and Warband
modders loved it. An opportunity
arose—“I wanted everyone to enjoy
the Dark Ages,” Ibidil says.
Ibidil was wise to the low
completion rates of mods—the
TaleWorlds online forum is peppered
with blogs for mods that never left
TOP: Viking
Conquest includes
Saxons, Britons,
Vikings, and other
warring kingdoms.MET THROUGH A MOD
These studios came to be through modding
TRIPWIRE
INTERACTIVE
After making the
Red Orchestra:
Combined Arms
mod for UT 2004,
this studio found
fame through the
Killing Floor series.TEAM
PSYKSKALLAR
Psykskallar’s game
Cry of Fear
originated as a mod
for Valve’s original
Half-Life before
becoming its own
standalone title.TORN BANNER
STUDIOS
Chivalry: Medieval
Warfare began life
as Half-Life 2 mod,
Age of Chivalry,
before Torn Banner
formed to develop it
into its own entity.Their expertize in modding, and
history, made for a productive
harmony.
Thankfully, the rest of the team
came to see Britannia through Ibidil’s
eyes. “I remember first reading
Ibidil’s post about his pursuit to
create a historical mod about Britain
in the seventh century, and thought,
‘Who is this guy?’” Adorno says. “I
certainly didn’t think such a
relatively obscure time period would
make for a popular mod.” But as the
blank spaces in the seventh century
drew in Ibidil, they also captivated
the others. “Almost everyone knows
about the Roman era in Britannia,
the legendary King Arthur, and the
Viking raids on the British Isles. But
the seventh century! What happened
there?” Adorno says. As the mod
developed, the players were brought
into the fold, too. “Your own passion
for something can infect others,”
Adorno adds.OVERWHELMING FEEDBACK
There may have been seven modders
but there were hundreds of
contributors to Brytenwalda. The
mod has been downloaded nearly
100,000 times on Nexus Mods alone,
and each player had suggestions for
tweaks and changes. “It’s both
helpful and motivating,
but also challenging, since
you need to keep focus.
You can’t satisfy everyone,”the nest. He knew that to succeed he
couldn’t go it alone, so he tapped into
Warband’s budding mod scene.
Asbjørn Lindegaard ‘Adorno’ Møller
from Denmark had been developing
scenes and locations as a hobby, and
decided to join forces with Ibidil
before the mod’s first official version.
As more versions were released, the
team kept growing; Michael
‘Motomataru’ Richter from the US,
Matthias ‘Phaiak’ Grohmann from
Germany, and Marco Aurelio
‘Yeyo’ Balbás Polanco, Leyre
‘Elyllon’ Ramirez Erviti and
César ‘Caesar’ Iñarrea
Sangués from Spain
were brought
into the fold.