CD Projekt RED’s Patrick Mills Talks Quest Design

PCGamesN recently chatted up CD Projekt RED’s Patrick Mills, quizzing the quest designer about the approach they take when constructing the quests in all of their titles, with an unsurprising primary focus on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its expansions. There are a number of side topics discussed, as well, so I highly recommend giving it a whirl:

“We’ve never backed away from complexity,” he states. “We trust our audience. If we’ve made something interesting, we trust that if players are engaged they can understand and appreciate complexity. The only time people really shy away from complexity is when it’s presented in such a way that they’re not engaged with it or they feel powerless to it. If you give people agency and you engage them in it then people gravitate towards complexity, not away from it. Trust your audience. They’re smart people.”

We frequently hear about games being made increasingly accessible, but that should never be seen as the same as simplified. Making your game engaging is what makes it accessible. And sometimes that engagement comes from a narrative that’s multi-layered and, importantly, mature in the correct manner.

“We are willing and happy to make games for adults that deal with adult subjects and, most importantly, treat the audience like adults,” says Mills. “We know that you can handle this. We know that you aren’t stupid. We know that you are interested in good storytelling.”

“Sometimes you see games that claim they have mature storytelling when really it’s adolescent storytelling. It’s just tits and blood, and yeah that’s ‘mature’ because it’s rated R, but it’s not the same thing.”