CD Projekt RED Blog Update: The Devil is in the Details

The folks at CD Projekt RED have penned another blog entry, this time dedicated to story and quest design, and the relationship between the two. As the title argues, the devil is in the details.

Here’s a snip:

In the pre-production period at the beginning of the project, the story team prepares the outline of the main storyline. This documentation consists of information about backstory, characters, factions, places and the connections between all of them. Finally, the story team works on a plan of general events that should take place in game. The exact number of quests that should be in main and side- storylines is planned between story and quest departments, and, based on this, the structure for the game is prepared. After this happens, the storyline is divided into the smaller fragments that we call (quests). Then, the story team provides the quest team with ideas and most important elements for each main storyline quest.

Based on these documents, the quest team starts working on more detailed scenarios. Each designer chooses quests he/she wants to work on, and then designs the quest in detail. This includes thinking about what dialogue is necessary to implement, what cutscenes will be needed, and what gameplay elements will be implemented in a quest. At this point we also list the assets that will be required to implement a quest. During this step, quest designers cooperate with story designers, as quite often some changes must be introduced to the original storyline outline to (mend) plot holes that might have been undetectable on the macro level. Last, but not least, both quest and story designers have the opportunity to design side-quests all by themselves, although ultimately these scenarios must be planned in detail by quest designers as well.