Total War: Warhammer director on the journey so far, Omens of Destruction DLC & future plans

Total War: Warhammer 3 has been out for a few years now, but the developers at Creative Assembly show no signs of slowing down. That could be seen in the recent Omens of Destruction DLC that brought three new Lords to the game with unique mechanics and gameplay. So, what’s left to do? How much more content can be packed into TW: Warhammer 3? What lies in the future for the game and Creative Assembly?

We got Senior Game Director Richard Aldridge to answer these very questions, including the design of characters, units, and lore in the Total War: Warhammer series, the rollout of the Omens of Destruction DLC, and what comes next in the future of these games.

Shacknews: When it comes to deciding what faction to design for or focus on in Total War: Warhammer, how does the team decide what lore to approach and expand upon? Does it begin with deciding which faction needs more content, or does the team look at a cool story, hero, or group and go from there?

Aldridge: When first setting out with Total War: Warhammer I, we knew the world was simply too big to do it justice in one go. So, we opted to break it up into three larger chunks (our games) and then smaller chunks with our various DLC.

This allowed us to focus on key areas of the world and the factions that naturally live and fight there. Choosing what goes into these factions is always a tricky but fun task and, if anything, just gets us even more excited about what we might still be able to add in later DLCs. The great thing about Warhammer is that there’s loads of fantastic characters and creatures to make from some 30+ years' worth of Games Workshop material and we’ve only touched a fraction of them to date.

We do have some rules that we like to follow when choosing what we make. Most importantly being what players are asking for and how in-demand they are. But also, what type of character are each of these lords? Are they a fighter, a wizard or a supporting archetype? Having a mix of each is our ideal, to offer varied gameplay and experiences.

We, of course, focus on the most iconic factions and characters first, to ensure that we are creating a world and content which feel right and support the rich lore that Warhammer has. Some of these happen to have some of the best stories or quirks that we can attach gameplay to. I mean, who doesn’t like roleplaying as a crazy rat scientist who can unleash all manner of over-the-top machines and weapons when playing as Ikit Claw, or to embody a hardened mercenary in the form of Golgfag, striving to do dirty business and being paid handsomely for it at every opportunity.

The Warhammer Eighth Edition army books are very much our cornerstones from where we work from and generally find these characters and stories, but you will see us digging into older entries, supplementary books and the like when needed, with Games Workshops’ help and guidance often provided. All in all, it's a lot of fun picking and choosing who we add to the game, and we have plenty more we would still like to add in the future.

Shacknews: What are some of the challenges you face when making a still model move in 3D that's never been in that medium before? Can you speak a bit about the process of translating a miniature and its lore from the books to a working unit?

Aldridge: Generally speaking, some of our biggest challenges come around realizing how a character or creature might move or sound, as a lot of the models that we create haven’t been realized in any other medium to date. It’s a fun challenge to have, though, and one that gets us to think outside the box and really challenge ourselves.

We wanted to create creatures such as the Mangler Squigs since our first Warhammer game but just didn't have the technology to support them at the time. So, it’s amazing to see them crashing and smashing about now in the game.

Likewise, we’ve had other interesting challenges over the years, like how big can we make something, and it still be in keeping and work with the content within the game. Yes, I'm looking at you, Dread Saurian.

Or the technical challenge of having a character being represented by two entities, such as the Sisters of Twilight where they both needed to have equal prominence and be able to speak between each other. That required a lot of thinking and head scratching to get the systems in place to allow for their conversations to come together in-game.

Shacknews: Is your team able to use the CAD models from Games Workshop to help you in the unit design process?

Aldridge: We’re in the very fortunate position that we are sent one of every miniature available to make use of when it comes to designing the various characters and creatures we plan to add to the game. It was a lot of fun piecing together the massive Colossal Squig for this DLC and seeing just how big it really is compared to an Orc or Goblin.

Shacknews: With Total War: Warhammer 3 having come out in 2022, how wild is it to get to continue making content for this game and continuing to add to add to this universe as we approach 2025?

Aldridge: Oh, it’s a dream come true! The team and I are huge fans of the tabletop game, so getting to work on a representation of that and building out an almost complete representation of the Warhammer world through our Immortal Empires map is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Our work isn’t done yet, though, and we look forward to bringing more of the content we love to life.

Shacknews: When you look at the sheer amount of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K content out there in the mainstream nowadays, does it feel strange to be in this space where the IP isn’t confined to game rooms and small sessions of friends? Where it’s out there in front of hundreds of thousands who are enjoying it regularly and begging for more?

Aldridge: I’ve been a huge fan of Warhammer since the early days, so witnessing the evolution of the fandom and playing an active role in it captivating an all-new generation of fans has been the best experience. As much as I’m a developer, I’m a fan first, so witnessing new stories and characters come to life is just as exciting for me and I look forward to seeing how it continues to grow.

Shacknews: More than two years into content on Total War: Warhammer 3, does the team start thinking about the future and how to apply lessons from your work on TW:W3 to the next big thing? Or is it still all TW:W3 on the mind at this time?

Aldridge: Time flies, but almost three years after the release of Warhammer 3, we’re still very much focused on that experience. We might have made our way through a lot of the source material, but there’s still a lot of exciting and intriguing content that we want to cover, so we’re going to continue on a similar journey to what you’ll have seen throughout this year with new paid and free content as well as a continued push to improve the game through our dedicated patching. Our aim from the start of this series was to create the definitive Warhammer experience, and that’s still very much our goal. 

Shacknews: With three games and a treasure trove of DLC behind you, is there anything left on the team’s wishlist for Total War: Warhammer? Is there a particular hero, faction, or story the team still wants to explore?

Aldridge: We’ve always that said that our desire from the start of the series has been to be the definitive Warhammer experience outside of the tabletop game, so there’s still a good few player and team favorites on the wishlist that we would like to add to the game. Earlier this year we even spoke about our desire to revisit a few of the factions that our fans held in high regard, and that’s still very much on the radar for the future, whether they get addressed through our new patching efforts or as dedicated DLC. We can’t get to everything, but we’ll certainly try our best!

Total War: Warhammer 3 and the Omens of Destruction DLC are out now. For more news and updates, be sure to follow the Total War: Warhammer topic right here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.