“We Want Players to Create Their Own Class”: Wolcen 2 Game Director Interview at gamescom 2026

At gamescom 2026, VGTimes spoke with Wolcen 2 Game Director Cristian Tudor about the studio's next action RPG. We discussed what the team learned from the first Wolcen, how character building is changing, the redesigned Shadow Form system, co-op, and what players can expect from the endgame.

Tudor also explained why Wolcen Studio has once again chosen Early Access and how the team intends to use real player feedback during development.

VGTimes: For someone who has never heard of the first Wolcen, what is the series about and what kind of game will Wolcen 2 be?

Cristian Tudor: Wolcen is about power and power progression. It's about a rich world you can explore, where you can discover secrets, find rewards, and learn more about the world around you.

It's also about not simply being given a predefined character. You decide who your character becomes. As you play, you master that character and keep pushing them toward the best version of themselves.

Narratively, our characters are trying to get away from their past. They set out on a journey to save the world, but they're not doing it solely for the sake of saving it. They're also trying to escape what came before. Whether that journey ultimately leads to redemption or something else is something players will discover for themselves.

VGTimes: What makes Wolcen 2 different from the first game?

Cristian Tudor: It has its own story, its own characters, and its own storylines. It has something of its own that it wants to say.

You don't need to play Wolcen 1 to enjoy Wolcen 2. Playing the first game can give you additional context and enrich the experience, but Wolcen 2 needs to stand on its own.

VGTimes: What's the biggest thing you wanted to do better than in the first game?

Cristian Tudor: I don't think there's one single thing. Usually, a lot of small things come together to form one big thing.

We look at the history of Wolcen, at what was good and what was bad, and think about how we can improve it. At the same time, we want to preserve the things that people already liked about the first game.

VGTimes: What was the biggest lesson you learned from the first Wolcen?

Cristian Tudor: There were a lot of lessons, and they weren't only about game design. One of the biggest was communication and community: how you talk to your community, how you maintain a dialogue, and how you work with their feedback.

We've tried to take those lessons and apply them to the new game.

VGTimes: When you started Wolcen 2, what came first: combat, the world, or character builds?

Cristian Tudor: Character builds.

But then you start building the other systems around that. We want everything to work together. We don't want to build separate systems that simply exist alongside one another.

One system should affect another, and that system should feed back into the first.

VGTimes: What's been the hardest part to make so far?

Cristian Tudor: Everything.

I'm joking, but I'm also not really joking. Action RPGs are incredibly complex games. You can't think about individual pieces in isolation because everything affects everything else.

Getting all of those systems to work together is the hard part.

VGTimes: The first Wolcen offered a lot of freedom in character builds. How much more freedom will players have in Wolcen 2?

Cristian Tudor: We want players to define their own class and their own character as they play.

You start choosing skills, then you start choosing passive progression. That passive progression might determine which skill upgrades make the most sense for you. Later, a skill upgrade you discover might change which passive progression points are actually meaningful to your build.

The more time you put into your character, the more you define their characteristics.

You might decide that you want to be a guy with a huge sword who runs around slashing things. Then, as you play, you can discover new possibilities that change how you develop that playstyle.

Shadow Form is a special combat transformation that lets the hero assume a powerful, shadowy form. Designed for moments when the odds turn against you, it allows you to overwhelm enemy forces and turn the tide of battle.

VGTimes: How does the new Shadow Form system work?

Cristian Tudor: We looked at what we'd done before. We looked at what felt good about it and what felt bad.

The important thing is that your character's Shadow Form is still your character. It gains power and becomes stronger, but we're layering new things on top of what's already there.

Those additions should make the character more powerful and impactful, but we don't want you to lose the identity of the character you've built and enjoy playing.

VGTimes: How different will playing solo feel compared to co-op?

Cristian Tudor: When another player joins, the game takes that into account. The world and enemies scale accordingly.

The game understands that there's now another player interacting with the encounter and adjusts the world around the group.

VGTimes: How important is the endgame this time? What will the endgame experience be like?

Cristian Tudor: We have several systems planned for the endgame.

One of them revolves around territory control. You'll fight over different territories and try to take control of them.

If you want a particular territory, you'll enter an activity with a randomized level. Complete it successfully and that territory comes under your control.

But the enemy can push back and reclaim it. If that happens, you'll have to return and fight for that territory again.

Cristian Tudor: Imagine there's one last item you need to complete your build. You can farm for it for ages and never get it. We want to address that problem.

You can decide, "I want to hunt for this specific item."

You'll then go through the appropriate activity and its randomized level, and the final encounter will have that specific item on its drop table.

That doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get it, but you have an actual opportunity to target the item you need. You'll also have ways to influence the activity and your chances.

VGTimes: Why did you choose Early Access again?

Cristian Tudor: It gives us time to refine the game and get feedback.

We want enough information from the community to act on it. When you're changing something in the game, you want data that allows you to make an informed decision.

That doesn't mean listening to everybody and immediately changing the code according to every piece of feedback.

If you only play the game internally with a subset of people, eventually you can start thinking, "This is the best game ever." Then you put it in front of everybody else and get a completely different reaction.

Early Access gives us an opportunity to actually talk to the community, get feedback, see what works, what doesn't work, what needs to change, and what doesn't.

It gives the game enough time to mature.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and over that time has attended dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have gathered a wealth of exclusive material. For example, in 2019 we attended a closed showing of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia — CAGS, and we have visited IgroMir several times, where we met Hideo Kojima and other famous developers. In 2024 we traveled to the Land of the Rising Sun for TGS 2024, where we were amazed by the scale of the Tokyo event. In 2025 we witnessed one of Asia's premier gaming exhibitions — ChinaJoy in Shanghai. We also made it to the Thai edition of gamescom 2025 in Bangkok, and at the start of this year attended CES 2026 in Las Vegas and later Computex 2026 in Taipei.