HotA Crew Interview: The Legacy of Horn of the Abyss and the Return of Forge

*The picture above represents only part of the HotA Crew. Please enjoy the interview below. We also invite you to follow our upcoming campaign on Gamefound!

Alongside it, we’re launching a mini interview series that dives into the behind-the-scenes of the project and explores the lore that brings it to life. This series is created in collaboration with representatives from two major Polish Heroes of Might and Magic community hubs: Acid Cave and Behemoth Lair.

We’re kicking things off with an interview with the HotA Crew. Following the warmly received Cove expansion, we’re excited to continue our collaboration on three additional expansions for the game. It’s impossible to overstate the impact the Horn of the Abyss team has had on the longevity of Heroes of Might and Magic III. Years of dedicated work have elevated this cult classic even further. Notably, HotA expanded the number of factions from 9 to 12—not by replacing original towns (as some mods have done), but by seamlessly adding entirely new ones, as if they were official expansions.

At Archon Studio, we’re beyond thrilled that Might and Magic’s brand director, Eric Damian-Vernet, made this incredible journey possible—bringing HotA towns into the board game adaptation of Heroes III, starting with Cove. Now, we have the opportunity to collaborate on tabletop versions of Factory and Bulwark… and, together with Greg Fulton, creatively tackle the legendary Forge.

Interview Questions

Yaaqob (Archon Studio, Acid Cave): Could you tell us a bit more about yourselves and the origins of your project?

HotA Crew: We are HotA Crew, a collection of people old enough to have witnessed and experienced first-hand the golden age of video games that we maintain took place over a few years around the turn of millennium, and also young enough (at least we like to think we are!) to entertain a silly thought of being able to bring some of that feeling back.

Our project, the Horn of the Abyss unofficial expansion pack for Heroes of Might & Magic III, is an attempt to prolong the relevance of a thing that has been a major part of our lives in our formative years and beyond.

...Is there even need to elaborate on that for those who will read this? Like great many of people around the world, we just can't stop playing Heroes III, and we also try to do what we can to keep the process fresh and enjoyable, so we keep adding stuff to the game; some tend to think we are doing a decent job.

On a more serious note, if you are reading this and indeed don't yet know what HotA is, it's a fan-developed, non-commercial project conceived all the way back in 2008 and still receiving updates. We have three new factions, five campaigns, and hundreds of changelog lines to our credit, all in a bid to expand upon the great legacy left to us by New World Computing. Many of our team members are active gamedev or IT professionals who work on HotA at their leisure.
 

Yaaqob (Archon Studio, Acid Cave): What inspired you to create a mod that feels more like a full-fledged expansion rather than a “sandbox-style” experience like Wake of Gods, which was once the most popular mod?

HotA Crew: Wake of Gods was more of a "we can do it so we will" project. Meanwhile, HotA rolls more along the lines of "what good will it do if we do that?". While there is merit in the idea of giving all keys to the game to players, unlimited options are not something everyone enjoys. Choice paralysis is a nasty thing if you run into it head first; sometimes people just want to savor a beautiful, detailed adventure made for them rather than build their own, and we are committed to supplying that, executed to the best of our ability. We loved the menu we got served in the original HoMM III and its expansions, and we thought people might like more of that, so we felt we could try and deliver on that without reaching too far. Furthermore, we value the seamless online playability of our product, and allowing too many choices that alter the game's fundamentals would make the process of finding someone to play a game with pretty tricky. Therefore, we arrived at a solution that would give most players a satisfying out-of-the-box experience without the need to do a lot under the hood. You can be the judge of whether we succeeded.
 

Hellburn (Behemoth Lair): Looking back after all these years, how do you feel about your work on HotA?

HotA Crew: It's been a long, bumpy ride fraught with much uncertainty and inner conflict; at the same time, it has been a powerful sequence of successes and achievements that keep fueling our desire to go on. We had to soldier on after the passing of our dear friend and leader, Docent Picolan, and there's much sadness in the fact that he wasn't there to witness some of the brightest pages in the history of his brainchild, Horn of the Abyss. Whatever point on the emotional spectrum you can imagine, we've felt that while working on HotA.

What we've learned over these years, is that honest work executed to a certain quality benchmark (which we believe to be fairly high for our project) is always going to resonate with people who appreciate the old school approach to creating things, one that brought about the existence of unforgettable products like Heroes III. There's quite a bit of mental pressure in being responsible for what so many people have grown to enjoy, but we like the challenge. Then there's an additional burden of the fact that people tend to respond very cautiously and sometimes even vexedly to any attempt of adding more to what they're long accustomed to; but we understand it's because they're passionate. In the end, time always gives the ultimate answer to the question of whether you've done something right or wrong. Looking back, we can say there's been a lot of good done right, even if at times there were doubts, inside or otherwise.
 

Yaaqob (Archon Studio, Acid Cave): How would you evaluate your collaboration so far with Ubisoft and Archon Studio, particularly on implementing Cove into the board game?

HotA Crew: The feeling when your digital creation gets turned into something you can touch and feel with your hands is very endearing, and the implementation is as good and faithful as can be hoped for. From what we have learned thus far, the players appear to be satisfied with the Cove expansion, and some of the freshly painted minis we've seen have given us more than just a fleeting moment of pride. So, this collaboration has been one of respect and fulfilment. Here's a good place to extend our special thanks to Jakub Olekszyk of Archon (Yaaqob) and Eric Damien-Vernet of Ubisoft (EricDV) for bringing us into the fray.

Yaaqob (Archon Studio, Acid Cave): What are your thoughts and expectations regarding the new campaign we’re currently preparing together—Factory and Bulwark?

HotA Crew:  Archon's creative team is extremely receptive to our feedback and advice as to the implementation of our content in the Board Game. Therefore, it's been a bliss to co-create this project, and we can only hope that the players will appreciate the effort by many talented people that went into it. Whether you're familiar with what HotA puts on the table or not, there are simply truckloads of very nice pictures, sculptures and game design ideas in there. We like them a lot.

Kastore (Acid Cave): Are there any plans to further refine or expand Bulwark in future HotA updates?

HotA Crew:  Yes. Some polishing is in order, and then there's the upcoming campaign that's going to introduce more Bulwark-related content.
 

Yaaqob (Archon Studio, Acid Cave): Let’s talk about Forge—the almost mythical faction. We’re working on this town together as well, though the nature of this collaboration is a bit different. With Cove, Factory, and Bulwark, the goal has been to translate the original computer versions almost one-to-one into the board game format. Forge, however, is a different story. The board game version is based on a new, refreshed concept developed specifically for Archon Studio by Greg Fulton. At the same time, you’re developing your own interpretation. Could you tell us more?

HotA Crew:  No one who has ever been deeply invested in Heroes of Might & Magic can escape the Forge. From the day it became known to the world, it has been polarizing the community as much as it has been stoking the enthusiasm of those who are eager to explore this side of the M&M universe. HotA Crew is no different: the matter of implementing the Forge as part of our project has been a hot topic for over a decade, even to a point that it was once declared to be part of official plans. Until it wasn't.

But then, we began drawing up the plans for our endgame storywise, and we came to a conclusion that there was no way for us to steer around the Forge. Too big of a "what if" in the minds of too many people. We tried compromising, e.g., limiting the Forge's presence to a couple neutral creatures and their dwellings, but in the end, we had to accept the reality: it had to be made whole to do justice to the legacy of HoMM and everything that was cooking around it ever since the tragicomic way in which it met its original end.

Up to the point when we were invited to participate in the development of the Forge for the Board Game, we were creating our own version of it with the aim to, ahem, galvanize the remains of what was initially done by NWC and implant a few artificial appendages where there were none. A patently Forge-like approach, if you may. Some time later, we learned that Gregory Fulton had created his own concept on Archon's initiative, strongly rooted in the original '99 vision but also updated in many regards. After some three-way discussion and reconciliation, we were able to consolidate our visions and establish two versions of the town, very close but not to a carbon copy level. One that leans a little more towards Gregory's modernized idea will be implemented in the Board Game. The other, a bit more conservative in regard to the original faction draft from '99, which we were graciously provided by Gregory and Archon, will come to HotA. The hero pool will be shared (some characters created by Gregory, others by us), and the storylines accompanying the two versions will be intertwined in an intriguing way.

It feels great to collaborate on a project like that with a legend like Gregory Fulton, and the amount of mutual respect we have seen in this three-way partnership with him and Archon is truly heartwarming. We believe that the balance in accommodating the established visions of everyone involved has been achieved, to the benefit of everyone in the community who looks forward to enjoying the Forge on whatever medium they prefer.
 

Kastore (Acid Cave): In your recent interview on Heroes Community, you mentioned that Forge is intended to be balanced around the concept of powerful yet low-numbered and expensive units. Factory, which is essentially a proto-Forge, already features this motif, as the faction has two Tier 7 units. How will Forge’s army, which is a lore-wise, more over-the-top faction, compete in terms of unit strength, cost, and low growth with a town that possesses two Tier 7 units? Are you planning to balance Forge for PvP, or is Forge intended to be conceptually unbalanced and primarily serve a narrative purpose?

HotA Crew:  Now this is mostly a balance-related question. Too early to address it with any degree of exactness, but you can already notice how it's very tricky to convert the availability of two Tier 7 units in the Factory into advantage on most widely played maps or templates; it's hard to even afford both buildings if you're playing against any semblance of a resistance. That being said, a Forge player will have different balance-induced concerns to attend to as they build up their town and army. In any event, rest assured that it's going to be a veritable hell of a challenge to amass Forge forces.
 

Kastore (Acid Cave): Since you are now working on bringing back the most famous unused faction idea from NWC, what do you think about another unused faction concept from them - the Clockwork Town? It was proposed by Jennifer Bullard and rejected by Greg Fulton (per the 2020 interview with Greg Fulton for Behemoth Lair). Would that sound interesting to you?

HotA Crew:  Of course we have heard about that concept, and there's a lot that could be done with it, but given the existence of the Factory and the future addition of the Forge, it would probably be an overkill to consider adding a third technology-heavy faction to HotA.
 

Dark Dragon (Acid Cave): You’ve collaborated with Ubisoft and Archon Studio before; are you going to continue collaborating on future Might & Magic projects?

HotA Crew:  There is always a way where there's desire.
 

Dark Dragon (Acid Cave): How did it feel to be approached after so many years to be a part of official Might & Magic games?

HotA Crew:  What can we say? It felt exhilarating to find out our work is appreciated to such an extent. Not every copyright holder can claim to be this receptive to community-developed content.
 

Alex K (Archon Studio): Have you ever considered expanding the story of Enroth beyond the events of Armageddon’s Blade, either by introducing new storylines or exploring alternative outcomes to those events?

HotA Crew:  We would prefer not to elaborate too much on this point at this time, so as not to spoil the fun for our dedicated players. However, I'll say one thing: we've considered every possibility to explore every corner of Enroth where existing storylines could be expanded upon or new ones introduced, with full respect to what's been established in the world. We've also considered every plot vehicle established in the setting to decide on what we can or cannot do with this. The lively interest expressed by the community after the news of the Forge appearing in HotA broke leads us to believe that the path we decided this story will take is going to be well-received, given the expectations. And once again we will note: we like what Might & Magic RPGs did about structuring their storylines. Make of this whatever you may!
 

Hellburn (Behemoth Lair): Have you ever considered creating an RPG in the style of Might and Magic VI–VIII, using HotA assets? You already have quite a substantial foundation to build on.

HotA Crew:  Here it would be best to point you towards a project by our friends, started by Tavern of Might & Magic founders, the Age of Silence RPG currently in development (https://ageofsilence.net). While not set in the M&M world, it is meant to be a spiritual successor to Might and Magic VI–VIII, and we endorse it wholeheartedly. As for ourselves, no; while an enticing idea, an endeavor of that kind would be well beyond the scope of what's possible with the resources we command.
 

Hellburn (Behemoth Lair): At one point, you mentioned working on your own video game project. Is there anything more you can share about that?

HotA Crew:  This is an on-and-off topic that keeps springing up among the Crew every now and then, but we haven't been giving it any serious, extended consideration in the last five years or so. Realistically, you shouldn't be looking forward to anything of that sort; but who knows what time will bring?
 

Yaaqob (Archon Studio, Acid Cave): Thank you so much for the fantastic collaboration on our shared projects, and for taking the time to answer our questions. All that’s left is to wish all of us—and the entire Might and Magic brand—continued success and the very best going forward!

HotA Crew:  We wholeheartedly second this wish and hope that our combined efforts will bring more joy to this world.