How Bethesda Designed Battlecry's Female Characters

The developers behind Bethesda's upcoming PC free-to-play multiplayer game Battlecry have designed its female characters to be "aspirational" to female players, the company explained today at E3 2015. They won't look like strippers, Battlecry executive producer Rich Vogel said during an panel presentation.

"We have both male and female warriors in our game, and one of the things we wanted to do was make sure our female warriors are aspirational to female players," Vogel explained. The game's female characters should represent what female players "would enjoy and be proud of playing," instead of "something you would see at a strip club," he said.

Battlecry is a 32-player online multiplayer game currently in development at Battlecry Studios in Austin, Texas. The game's unique art style comes from the mind of Viktor Antonov; you may not know his name, but you're probably familiar with his work, as he designed Half-Life 2's City 17.

There are no guns in the game (it's set in an alternate history where nations signed a peace treaty forbidding the use of gunpowder), so combat is often up-close and personal. Overall, Bethesda describes Battlecry as a game that accentuates the "nobility" of battle.

Earlier this week at E3, Bethesda announced that the Battlecry beta will be available worldwide later this year; you can sign up for it here.