Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Interview – Bringing the Cards to Life

What’s interesting in CD Projekt RED’s newest game Gwent is the fact that it really isn’t new at all. It is in fact a card game from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that had players so enthralled that the developers decided to make it a standalone title; redesigned rules, animated cards, a full single player experience, and online competitive mode, Gwent is sure to not only pull in the hardcore Witcher fans, but those who are looking for a fun, simple and original card game, all in one.

GamingBolt recently had a chance to sit down with Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, Gwent’s Narrative Designer to answer a few questions that have been on our minds.

"We will support our game as we always support our games. You can expect the highest quality of that."

What was the main reason to release Gwent as a standalone title?

So basically a lot of people have messaged us, by emails, by Twitter, Facebook and so on, after we released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt because they loved Gwent so much as a game in the game; and they asked if we could make this game a standalone game so they could play with their friends. So basically we listened and decided to work on that. Shortly after the release of the game [The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt] we started working on it in secret. One of our programmers has written a big part and that’s how it started.

Will there be more cards or card packs later on, possibly through DLC?

Of course. We will support our game as we always support our games. You can expect the highest quality of these.

Will there be any other DLC besides cards?

The single player campaign expansions [will] in terms of story, characters, cards.

How many cards will we see from The Witcher 3  and how many will be totally new to this version of Gwent?

I don’t know the exact numbers but you’ll find most of the cards from The Witcher 3 Gwent version and there are also a lot that we have added. We have worked the mechanics of the game as well. We have rebalanced the abilities and so on — so we can expect a lot of new stuff.

During the Microsoft media briefing they talked about how certain aspects of the game have changed or been altered compared to the version of went in The Witcher 3; can you give us more specifics on what has changed and why?

Basically it’s no longer a single player only game. So we had to take into consideration the online competitive element into it. Basically we had to rebalance the cards so everyone of them is useful for you when you pull up your decks in the multiplayer. Also we wanted to add more abilities that are interesting and that are very unique, that correspond well to the characters on the cards. Also we have modified deck building rules because you had no limitations. You basically could put all hero cards in your deck. The hero cards are resistant to the weather effects and special abilities and so on. So they were really, really strong. In the multiplayer competitive version that would have been an issue. So basically we decided to address it and straight on word. Basically right now we have a limitation of four heroes per deck.

Are the people who play the game going to be any specific character from The Witcher in the single player experience of Gwent, and if so will the player be able to choose which one?

In the single player you will be playing as a specific character from The Witcher universe. It will be defined for the campaign separately. So you can expect to play different characters.

The Witcher 3 was game of the year from most media outlets last year and CD Projekt RED continues to provide substantial DLC for the game post release; is The Witcher 3 the game that has come to define CD Projekt RED, or are there still more tricks up their sleeves even after achieving game and developer of the year?

Obviously there’s always room for development. I mean, we are always aiming high as always with this game, with Gwent. This is entering uncharted territory for us because we never done a game like this before. We are very excited about it, it’s a very big challenge for us. We are aiming very high, I hope it will do very, very well. It’s a huge, very exciting challenge for us; a new art form we basically haven’t explored yet.

Microsoft have confirmed that Xbox one Scorpio will launch next year. From a developer and technical perspective what kind of gaming experience will be possible without hardware?

For sure it will have better looking games. If this was available when we were working on Wild Hunt I would expect similar quality that we have on PC right now or even better maybe.

"This is entering uncharted territory for us because we never have done a game like this before. "

The Scorpio will feature 6 Tflop of GPU do you think it will be faster than most modern gaming PCs out there today?

This is my personal opinion: I don’t know that much about it. I think PCs are growing and developing super fast. New graphic cards are being released very often and more often than the new consoles being released. So I think it will put Scorpio on par with the PC is that we have at that point. But I think PC is growing so fast that it’ll outpace [Scorpio].

Microsoft is toting the Scorpio is the most powerful console ever created. Do you think there is worried that it may cost too much and appeal only to the hard-core Xbox fans?

No I don’t think so. I think they’ll keep the prices the way they always have. It’s still sometime in the future.

Will you be developing for the Scorpio anytime soon?

To be honest, I learned about it at the Microsoft conference.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I was working on The Witcher story and we’re doing everything we can to make the story in this one [Gwent] as exciting and as deep and mature as it was before. I’m super excited about it. I think we have something very, very special that I’m working on making it as good as possible it could be. So if you like single player content you have something to look forward to.

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