CD Projekt RED has been the subject of much discussion lately, and that’s before The Witcher 4’s announcement. Cyberpunk 2077’s redemption saw the studio making extensive changes to its development methods, minimizing crunch as much as possible. However, Ciri’s debut as a protagonist is tapping into the “scrappy energy” used to make The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, per narrative director Philipp Weber.
He described the atmosphere at the time as a “good creative chaos” to GamesRadar, which involved tasks that were “a little bit vibe-based.” “Sometimes I like to say ‘Get it done. Do it dirty. Do it the way we used to do it!
“The way we want to do justice to [The Witcher 3’s] legacy is to take the philosophy we had during The Witcher 3 – how to make a game, how to really care about these things, how to tell stories – and keep that.” However, the developer also has “new questions we want to answer because this is supposed to feel like a true sequel, not just redoing what we did before. And I think it’s really [about] trying to have that healthy mix of moving forward and also trying out some new things.”
There’s apparently no shortage of such – each designer seemingly offered “ten times as many ideas” than what actually ended up in-game. Thankfully, the philosophy of not having fetch quests has carried over from The Witcher 3.
The Witcher 4 won’t launch until 2027 at the earliest, but CD Projekt RED has big plans for its visuals. It recently discussed a console-first development mentality for 60 frames per second with ray-traced global illumination on the base PS5. It’s easier said than done (Xbox Series S performance is something that will require work), but considering the recent impressive tech demo, it should be interesting to witness.
