CD Projekt RED’s Masterplan

I was hoping that an interview with a title like “CD Projekt RED’s Masterplan” as this one has at GamesTM has would delve into The Witcher series as a whole and take us into Cyberpunk 2077 territory, but unfortunately it’s not quite as all-encompassing.  Still, it tosses out some questions at senior game designer Damien Monnier about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the company’s commitment to giving their fans more than just a great game:

Some commentators are saying that ‘˜it’s the benchmark to which all RPGs [this generation] will be judged’. Was that what you were aiming for?

It was our goal to make our own benchmark and say (Okay this is the level of quest design we should always produce), for example. Same with the writing, the exploration, the organic living world and so on. It was our first open world and RPG on this scale so we had to try a few things and really set our own bar.

If other companies want to pick some elements from Wild Hunt that they believe would work in their RPG, go ahead, and if they improve on it then that’s even better; it helps the RPG genre evolve, so that’s a good thing!

Your DLC practices are unprecedented in the industry: 16 free packs for anyone buying the game is an ambitious move. What was the thought process behind this?

To be honest, it’s pretty straightforward: our goal is always to keep supporting Wild Hunt because we also see it as a way to thank people who helped us and supported us; so when our studio director Adam Badowski or our co-founder Marcin IwiÅ„ski asks the team what we think of doing 16 free DLCs, as gamers and you have to remember we’re all gamers here it’s a no-brainer. We unanimously said (Let’s do it). So we just did it. That’s often how things are done here (Wouldn’t it be cool if.) and if it is cool and we can do it, we will. It’s really refreshing as a developer to have this freedom.