Cyberpunk 2077’s growth is now, for essentially the most half, full, marking the tip of an unbelievable rollercoaster for CD Projekt that noticed the studio go from being probably the most beloved builders within the business to probably the most criticised, earlier than slowly climbing again as much as new heights with the discharge of Phantom Liberty.
At its lowest, CD Projekt was slammed for the launch state of Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles (that was so poor the PlayStation Retailer eliminated it from sale) in addition to for crunch tradition forward of the sport’s launch, although for the just lately launched growth Phantom Liberty, employees say enhancements have been made. Lay-offs on the developer have additionally forged doubt over future initiatives, of which there are a lot of together with a live-action Cyberpunk 2077 challenge.
IGN spoke with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s artwork director Paweł Mielniczuk about this journey, discussing the teachings CD Projekt discovered because of Cyberpunk 2077’s turbulent launch, why it needed to rebuild the sport as an alternative of simply shifting on, and what influences will carry ahead into future initiatives like Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, codenamed Orion.
You’ll be able to examine all that and extra within the full interview under.
First off, what was the response to Phantom Liberty’s wonderful important reception inside CD Projekt? Did the event workforce anticipate such a constructive response?
Paweł Mielniczuk: Your entire workforce within the studio believed that Phantom Liberty could be one thing particular; nonetheless, it may be arduous to utterly predict what’s going to resonate with gamers and the way the broader viewers will emotionally reply to the sport. Solely when the primary opinions and participant feedback emerge can we lastly breathe a sigh of reduction and have a good time the success. It’s secure to say that we’re all extremely glad and pleased with its heat reception.
CD Projekt additionally introduced its spectacular three million robust launch numbers. Might you additionally touch upon this efficiency? Did it meet or surpass expectations?
I imagine everybody had some expectations in thoughts. Personally, this quantity undoubtedly fulfilled my expectations and I believe it’s one thing we might be happy with. However moreover launch numbers, it was actually thrilling to watch how many individuals got here again to play Cyberpunk 2077 earlier than Phantom Liberty formally launched. We actually couldn’t imagine it — workforce members have been sharing screens displaying stats from Twitch streams and Steam on our inside channels across the clock!
What classes have been discovered from Cyberpunk 2077’s pre-launch growth that have been taken into Phantom Liberty? Was CD Projekt Crimson decided to not repeat the identical practices that brought on criticism in 2020?
The discharge of Cyberpunk 2077 was an enormous lesson for us, and since then we’ve made many modifications primarily based on our experiences. We’ve modified our manufacturing processes, the group of our growth groups, and labored on our worth system. In brief, we’ve modified RED.
Among the many most seen modifications, and one which impacts everybody engaged on RED video games, is the introduction of the “at all times working sport” rule. From an early manufacturing stage, we give excessive precedence to making sure sport stability and giving each workforce member the flexibility to check the sport. Moreover, we moved away from PC-centric growth to testing the sport on all platforms collectively from the very starting.
We additionally modified our method to growth and general challenge group. Now, we’ve carried out Agile strategies, specializing in multidisciplinary groups that may independently enhance and confirm the standard of their work, on the similar time bettering visibility and communication between departments. We’re additionally extra cautious in the case of planning work and defining and approving challenge milestones and gates. In the course of the last months of growth every of those phases ends with a company-wide “playthrough” of the challenge, which permits us to gather opinions and evaluations from a big selection of inside gamers. Not solely does this enhance groups visibility into your complete challenge, however it additionally helps to disclose potential issues and confirm the path during which the challenge is heading.
I may record extra modifications we’ve carried out, however I hope that the outcomes of our work say sufficient on their very own!
Why was it so necessary for CD Projekt Crimson to revitalise Cyberpunk 2077 with its numerous updates together with the ultimate main patch in Replace 2.0? Is the sport now in a state CD Projekt Crimson is pleased with? Was it beforehand?
We’ve got at all times thought of Cyberpunk 2077 to be a terrific sport at its core. However it’s necessary to do not forget that regardless of our studio’s over 20-year historical past, many basic methods of the sport like gunplay, automobile driving, or the first-person digital camera, to call a couple of, have been one thing we designed for the primary time.
After Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, we devoted numerous our efforts and time to bettering the technical high quality of the sport. I’d say that what you see in Phantom Liberty and Replace 2.0 usually are not how we imagined Cyberpunk 2077 from the start.
The ideas that turned a part of the growth and Replace 2.0 got here fairly organically to us as we noticed how gamers have been interacting with the sport, what they wanted, what was working nicely, and what areas wanted enchancment. For instance, it turned clear that talent timber may very well be rethought in order to help extra intuitive and more practical character constructing. The result’s a sport that has been improved over time by listening to gamers, figuring out enhancements, and remaining devoted to creating nearly as good an expertise as potential for our gamers.
As creators I am certain there’s at all times new components you want so as to add to Cyberpunk 2077, however are there any options on the want record that simply did not make the lower in Replace 2.0 or Phantom Liberty?
I imagine as a developer you’ll be able to by no means actually end a sport. There’s at all times a greater thought, a brand new characteristic, a thought that involves your thoughts at night time only a day after the ultimate deadline. Time and finances are the one issues that may cease a developer from bettering. However these new concepts and ideas on tips on how to additional enhance the sport are meticulously famous, and I’m certain lots of them will resurface in the course of the growth of our subsequent Cyberpunk installment — challenge Orion.
Equally, I am certain as builders you are at all times studying and evolving your practices and techniques. Did any components of Phantom Liberty stand out as a significant step ahead or revelation on this sense that you just’d prefer to take ahead?
As a studio, we’re devoted to creating narrative-driven RPGs, and every new sport and growth is a lesson and a step ahead in our philosophy.
In creating Phantom Liberty, for the primary time in a very long time I felt that we have been making the sport as a single workforce, and not using a clear division between narrative, artwork, and gameplay, and with out siloing the creativity of every division.
The restructuring of the corporate, joint milestone playthroughs, the introduction of agile processes, all contributed to the extra collaborative growth of the sport — together with a higher openness to suggestions and streamlining the move of data between departments. Because of this, gameplay flows extra easily into the narrative, the artwork higher helps the emotion of the story, the open world higher enhances the context of the situation. The outcome, for my part, is stronger participant immersion.
From the standpoint of the artwork itself — which I used to be answerable for — numerous work went into what we name ‘visible readability’ and participant steerage. Cyberpunk 2077 is a really visually wealthy sport; wherever you flip you’ll be able to see numerous shapes, particulars, colours and lights. It may very well be straightforward to get misplaced in it or lose sight of the enemy. By introducing strategies reminiscent of coloration grouping of objects, eliminating particular colours from the atmosphere, constructing contrasts between enemies and the atmosphere during which we meet them, we tried to construct places which can be simpler for gamers to understand and navigate.
Phantom Liberty was clearly an enormous funding for CD Projekt, arriving almost three years after the bottom sport’s launch and with an enormous funding of cash too. The Witcher 3 had equally beloved expansions, however do you assume CD Projekt will proceed to make these premium DLCs sooner or later given the funding required? Particularly as CD Projekt’s growth timeline grows busier and busier, will there nonetheless be room for these expansions? What are their advantages?
It’s price noting that the manufacturing of Phantom Liberty didn’t final for 3 full years, definitely not at full capability. All through 2021, the overwhelming majority of the workforce labored on the Cyberpunk 2077 Subsequent-Gen Replace and offered help for the bottom model of the sport. After that replace was launched, manufacturing on Phantom Liberty hit full momentum and was carried out in parallel with work on Replace 2.0. The growth itself is de facto massive, offering many hours of gameplay and providing two utterly unique paths — and an extra ending for the bottom sport. I believe this isn’t a typical method to producing expansions.
Personally, I like engaged on expansions for our video games — I had the pleasure of engaged on Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Phantom Liberty after all. These smaller and shorter productions are created with higher confidence and freedom as a result of they increase on an present sport that gamers already know.
Nonetheless, we introduced a yr in the past that Phantom Liberty is the primary and final growth for Cyberpunk 2077. Proper now, as an organization, we need to give attention to full-scale productions, sequels to video games well-known to gamers and new ones which can be forward of us
Talking of the long run, will CD Projekt Crimson go to further lengths to make sure upcoming video games do not launch with the identical points as Cyberpunk 2077? Will launching video games within the state of Phantom Liberty be the objective? How will CD Projekt take the steps to realize this?
Completely, all of the modifications in manufacturing and the corporate’s method to sport growth we now have mentioned are aimed not solely at bettering the working consolation of workers but in addition permitting us to work on extra steady know-how and in a extra predictable atmosphere. This can finally enable us to launch video games in the absolute best state.
REDengine is nice, highly effective, and technologically superior, however each sport we developed required in-depth rebuilding and customization of the engine. That meant we labored for years on the know-how itself in parallel to the sport, and that demanded many compromises throughout manufacturing. We imagine that the transition to Unreal Engine 5 and the strategic partnership with Epic Video games will enable us to cut back this threat. That is one other main change ensuing from Cyberpunk 2077.
In the same sense, however speaking about Cyberpunk’s sequel Orion particularly, how necessary will it’s for CD Projekt to launch this sport with a stage of high quality akin to Phantom Liberty? Is there numerous stress for its launch? Particularly if it is set to launch across the time a brand new console era launches, there will likely be numerous eyes on the present era variations of the sport.
Orion is without doubt one of the subsequent massive issues on our horizon. We’re all tremendous enthusiastic about this challenge and the best way the Cyberpunk franchise will evolve; there’s a lot potential there. And as you realize, the event of Orion is being moved to North America, with the newly constructed studio being structured round all the teachings we now have taken from Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll speak about The Witcher all day.