Cyberpunk 2077’s growth is now, for essentially the most half, full, marking the top of an unbelievable rollercoaster for CD Projekt that noticed the studio go from being one of the beloved builders within the trade to one of the 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 enlargement Phantom Liberty, workers say enhancements have been made. Lay-offs on the developer have additionally solid doubt over future tasks, of which there are a lot of together with a live-action Cyberpunk 2077 undertaking.
IGN spoke with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s artwork director Paweł Mielniczuk about this journey, discussing the teachings CD Projekt realized because of Cyberpunk 2077’s turbulent launch, why it wished to rebuild the sport as an alternative of simply transferring on, and what influences will carry ahead into future tasks like Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel, codenamed Orion.
You possibly can examine all that and extra within the full interview under.
First off, what was the response to Phantom Liberty’s wonderful crucial reception inside CD Projekt? Did the event crew count on such a optimistic response?
Paweł Mielniczuk: Your entire crew within the studio believed that Phantom Liberty could be one thing particular; nonetheless, it may be exhausting to fully predict what is going to resonate with gamers and the way the broader viewers will emotionally reply to the sport. Solely when the primary critiques and participant feedback emerge can we lastly breathe a sigh of reduction and have fun the success. It’s protected to say that we’re all extremely glad and pleased with its heat reception.
CD Projekt additionally introduced its spectacular three million sturdy launch numbers. May you additionally touch upon this efficiency? Did it meet or surpass expectations?
I imagine everybody had some expectations in thoughts. Personally, this quantity positively fulfilled my expectations and I feel it’s one thing we could be pleased with. However moreover launch numbers, it was actually thrilling to look at how many individuals got here again to play Cyberpunk 2077 earlier than Phantom Liberty formally launched. We actually couldn’t imagine it — crew members have been sharing screens exhibiting stats from Twitch streams and Steam on our inner channels across the clock!
What classes have been realized from Cyberpunk 2077’s pre-launch growth that have been taken into Phantom Liberty? Was CD Projekt Pink 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 based mostly on our experiences. We’ve modified our manufacturing processes, the group of our growth groups, and labored on our worth system. Briefly, 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 recreation” rule. From an early manufacturing stage, we give excessive precedence to making sure recreation stability and giving each crew 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 strategy to growth and general undertaking 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 identical time enhancing visibility and communication between departments. We’re additionally extra cautious on the subject of planning work and defining and approving undertaking milestones and gates. In the course of the last months of growth every of those phases ends with a company-wide “playthrough” of the undertaking, which permits us to gather opinions and evaluations from a wide selection of inner gamers. Not solely does this enhance groups visibility into the whole undertaking, nevertheless it additionally helps to disclose potential issues and confirm the route wherein the undertaking is heading.
I may checklist 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 essential for CD Projekt Pink to revitalise Cyberpunk 2077 with its varied updates together with the ultimate main patch in Replace 2.0? Is the sport now in a state CD Projekt Pink is pleased with? Was it beforehand?
We’ve got at all times thought of Cyberpunk 2077 to be a fantastic recreation at its core. Nevertheless it’s essential to keep in mind that regardless of our studio’s over 20-year historical past, many elementary programs of the sport like gunplay, automotive driving, or the first-person digital camera, to call just a few, have been one thing we designed for the primary time.
After Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, we devoted a number of our efforts and time to enhancing the technical high quality of the sport. I’d say that what you see in Phantom Liberty and Replace 2.0 aren’t how we imagined Cyberpunk 2077 from the start.
The ideas that grew to become a part of the enlargement 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 grew to become clear that ability bushes may very well be rethought in order to help extra intuitive and simpler character constructing. The result’s a recreation that has been improved over time by listening to gamers, figuring out enhancements, and remaining devoted to creating pretty much as good an expertise as doable for our gamers.
As creators I am certain there’s at all times new components you would like so as to add to Cyberpunk 2077, however are there any options on the want checklist 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 recreation. There’s at all times a greater thought, a brand new function, a thought that involves your thoughts at night time only a day after the ultimate deadline. Time and price range are the one issues that may cease a developer from enhancing. However these new concepts and ideas on the way to additional enhance the sport are meticulously famous, and I’m certain a lot of them will resurface throughout the growth of our subsequent Cyberpunk installment — undertaking 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 simply’d prefer to take ahead?
As a studio, we’re devoted to creating narrative-driven RPGs, and every new recreation and enlargement 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 crew, 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 better openness to suggestions and streamlining the move of knowledge between departments. Due to 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 placement. The end result, for my part, is stronger participant immersion.
From the perspective of the artwork itself — which I used to be answerable for — a number of work went into what we name ‘visible readability’ and participant steering. Cyberpunk 2077 is a really visually wealthy recreation; wherever you flip you’ll be able to see a number of shapes, particulars, colours and lights. It may very well be simple to get misplaced in it or lose sight of the enemy. By introducing strategies similar to colour grouping of objects, eliminating particular colours from the surroundings, constructing contrasts between enemies and the surroundings wherein we meet them, we tried to construct places which might be simpler for gamers to grasp and navigate.
Phantom Liberty was clearly an enormous funding for CD Projekt, arriving almost three years after the bottom recreation’s launch and with an enormous funding of cash too. The Witcher 3 had equally beloved expansions, however do you suppose 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, actually not at full capability. All through 2021, the overwhelming majority of the crew labored on the Cyberpunk 2077 Subsequent-Gen Replace and supplied 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 enlargement itself is de facto large, offering many hours of gameplay and providing two fully unique paths — and an extra ending for the bottom recreation. I feel this isn’t a typical strategy 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 better confidence and freedom as a result of they develop on an current recreation that gamers already know.
Nonetheless, we introduced a yr in the past that Phantom Liberty is the primary and final enlargement 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 might be forward of us
Talking of the longer term, will CD Projekt Pink go to additional 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 purpose? How will CD Projekt take the steps to attain this?
Completely, all of the modifications in manufacturing and the corporate’s strategy to recreation growth we have now mentioned are aimed not solely at enhancing the working consolation of staff but additionally permitting us to work on extra steady know-how and in a extra predictable surroundings. This may finally enable us to launch video games in the absolute best state.
REDengine is nice, highly effective, and technologically superior, however each recreation 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 danger. That is one other main change ensuing from Cyberpunk 2077.
In an identical sense, however speaking about Cyberpunk’s sequel Orion particularly, how essential will it’s for CD Projekt to launch this recreation with a degree of high quality akin to Phantom Liberty? Is there a number of strain for its launch? Particularly if it is set to launch across the time a brand new console era launches, there shall be a number of eyes on the present era variations of the sport.
Orion is likely one of the subsequent large issues on our horizon. We’re all tremendous enthusiastic about this undertaking and the way in which the Cyberpunk franchise will evolve; there’s a lot potential there. And as you understand, the event of Orion is being moved to North America, with the newly constructed studio being structured round all the teachings we have now taken from Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll discuss The Witcher all day.