Announcement Trailer Deep Dive

There are very few assets in the marketing campaign of a video game that are as important as the Announcement Trailer. We put a lot of thought into how we want to frame the conversation around Chronicles: Medieval, and our team put together some truly awesome work to make that vision a reality.

We’d like to take a moment to celebrate our talented colleagues, the awesome work they’ve done, and shine a well-earned spotlight on some of the incredible things they’ve created.

The Protagonist

Backstory From the very beginning, we knew the trailer’s narrative had to revolve around a single character. Chronicles: Medieval is about your own personal story. Tapping into that premise, we chose to focus on one of the many “chronicles” you may write as a player. This particular chronicle? One of a man who never sought battle. But when a brutal raid rips everything away - his family, his home, his purpose - his whole world crumbles.

Grief turns to fury, and fury turns to resolve. A broken man steps onto the warpath. Thrust into the chaos of medieval warfare, he’s dragged into a conflict he never wanted to be part of. Revenge drives him forward… but deep beneath the surface, there’s a quiet, painful search for redemption.

But war changes a man. Once you pick up the sword, turning back isn’t an option. You might’ve been a farmer, a craftsman, a man of peace - but in this world, war finds you. Battle after battle, he begins to lose himself in the thrill of combat, and the spoils of victory. Until one day, he forgets why he ever picked up the blade at all. The path is set. And it’s too late to turn around.

He’s neither good, nor bad. He’s hollow. That trance-like look in the opening shot says it all. You can almost see the emptiness behind his eyes - the flicker of a soul that's seen too much.

The Helmet

We needed our “Commander Shepard” - a recognizable face for the campaign. But we decided to take a different path than Mass Effect did.. After all, Chronicles: Medieval is an immersive, player driven experience.

Our protagonist isn’t a fixed hero. He’s an empty vessel. That was the key to communicating the idea that you could live this story. Or even rewrite it entirely.

That’s why the design of the armor you see (especially the helmet) was far more important than the face beneath it. It’s the outer shell. A blank canvas waiting for you to step into it and change the course of history. Our character art team knocked it out of the park. They created historically sourced, visually striking designs that help the hero stand out from the crowd of soldiers under his command. Dynamic shapes of the helmet reflect his personality, while the chipped red paint hints at many hard-fought battles already behind him. He’s seen war. Fun fact: You might’ve noticed the small cross-shaped holes near the bottom of the helmet. They actually had a very practical use. When knights weren’t in combat, they could use those holes to hang their helmet onto their armor via a chain. It freed up their hands, so they could eat, or just get some fresh air while having their helmet close and ready.

This image actually shows a helmet being attached to a chain, to free up the Knights hands. It is taken from the tomb Effigy of Albrecht von Hohenlohe (d. 1338) at Schöntal Abbey Church in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.