Dawn Of War 4 Was Only Possible Thanks To A Kickstarter For Iron Harvest

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 was undoubtedly the biggest reveal of Gamescom Opening Night Live. With Warhammer 40K popularity soaring after Space Marine 2, Amazon’s Secret Level episode, and Henry Cavill’s upcoming project, Games Workshop decided that the RTS series needed a comeback.

You’ll be able to choose from up to four factions, build massive bases, and engage in endless war on Kronus. Set after the events of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, you’ll engage with various enemies across different biomes on the planet. However, it seems developer King Art Games thinks it only got the project due to a Kickstarter campaign for its other game, Iron Harvest.

Dawn Of War 4 Was Possible Because Of Iron Harvest

In a conversation with PC Gamer, senior game designer Elliott Verbiest noted that the studio was in constant touch with its community and Kickstarter donors, sharing updates and concepts for Iron Harvest. While the community wanted larger armies, Iron Harvest just wasn’t that kind of game. But it did give them ideas for future RTS games.

Game director Jan Theysen noted that perhaps someone at Games Workshop saw these updates and thought that the studio could be a good candidate to develop the game. “Someone at Games Workshop must have seen that. Out of the blue, they asked us, if we would do Dawn of War 4, what would we do?”

“We didn’t really expect that anything would come from it,” he added. “Then we released Iron Harvest, it was well received, and while we were working on the add on, Games Workshop asked us to talk a little bit more [about Dawn of War 4].”

Games Workshop probably had several studios in mind for Dawn of War 4, and King Art Games putting its concepts and ideas for Iron Harvest out there could have gotten them a seat at the table. But it’s only after the studio’s pitch and concepts phase for the game that Games Workshop decided to go with them.

It’s likely that if King Art Games wasn’t as communicative with its community, it might have never even been considered for Dawn of War 4.