The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Interview

While at a hands on event for The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, I had the pleasure of playing the game, which you can read about here, but I also had the pleasure of speaking with Philipp Weber, a quest designer on the game.

Maxi-Geek: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

Philipp Weber: Not at all

MG: Was it always the plan to make 3 games in the Witcher universe?

PW: The team always wanted to make 3, but it was never the plan to make them a trilogy, we wanted each game to be its own experience, you would not have to play any of the other games to be able to experience the story in The Witcher 3.

MG: How long has the game been in development for now?

PW: Development started back in 2011 on the game, the engine the game is built on had its development started earlier, but all the characters and story was 2011.

MG: Now PC is where The Witcher series started, was it always the plan to make the third game for consoles as well?

PW: The team wanted to bring The Witcher 3 too all platforms that could support it, which meant working towards consoles that, at the time, had not been announced yet. They designed what they could and just had to hope that the new home consoles could support their vision.

MG: So no Wii U version planned, no Directors Cut?

PW: Sadly no, the machine is just not capable of running the game we wanted to make.

MG: Now how long would you say it would take to complete the story and then do everything the game has to offer?

PW: If you are only going to do the story, rushing through it, then about 50 hours. If you wanted to do everything, then you would be looking at 100 hours, minimum. The team wanted to ensure that players could experience the game well past the main story, side quests are designed by a person so they are not simple fetch quests.

If a player has completed all possible missions, they can still play more of the game. We have horse racing, card games like Gwent and more.

MG: What about for those players that complete every single thing the game has to offer, what will there be left for those players?

PW: We have already announced some DLC will be coming to The Witcher 3, post release and I know the team is thinking about what else could be offered. For some-things, like horse armour or other small packs, they will be released for free. But for the larger pieces of content those will have a cost against them, of course we have nothing to announce right now, the team is busy getting the game finished first.

MG: Obviously you guys recently announced another delay, this time til May, was that a hard decision to make?

PW: The entire team wants to make this the best possible game they can make, not just in the Witcher series, or in a RPG, but out of all video games. We never think delays will happen, but in order to provide the player the best possible experience, we realised we needed to delay the game again.

MG: One thing from your announcement is that I did not see a lot of flak online about the delay. Other games, recently have copped quite a large backlash for delaying games, but The Witcher 3 seems to have avoided that.

PW: Well, I think that is because games that are made at CD Projekt Red are made by gamers, I myself joined the company because I wanted to make Witcher games, but we know what we need to do, in order to help satisfy what players are after. We never want to delay a game, but we know if we do, we hope the players will be happy with our reasons.

MG: How many people are working on The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt?

PW: There are around 200 people working on the game, the studio is a lot larger than that, but on the game, it’s about 200 directly.

MG: What else is the studio currently working on?

PW: Well we have a team that managed GOG.com, if you know that.

MG: I do.

PW: So there is that team and we have a team still working away on Cyberpunk 2077, we was announced in 2012. They are working in tandem with the games creator to ensure that it is Cyberpunk.

MG: Do you see this being the final Witcher game, or would you like to keep the series going?

PW: I would love to make more games in the Witcher world.

MG: What about outside of games, do you see movies, comics or animated shows happening?

PW: It is funny, there was actually a Witcher movie that was released in the early 2000’s and a TV series as well. CD Projekt Red had nothing to do with them and most people don’t even know about them. The rights to any movies are now with the studio who made the opening cinematic for the game.

MG: That is pretty cool, that opening video. So of course you have now set a new release date for The Witcher 3, when is it time for you and the team to say enough is enough, it has to be released?

PW: Well we are happy with the game now, we just need to squash bugs and polish the game. I am sure the team will continue to add more items and tweak things until the final moments, I myself just last week added some hunters to the region around Skelgrad, with dogs as well, because I thought it needed something more. So I spoke with other members of the team and they thought it was a good idea. So work on it will never stop, not until it has to.

MG: Once development is wrapped, what is the first thing you plan to do?

PW: Well once we are done, the company holds a party to celebrate, so that will be nice. Like most people I will probably take a few days to rest up, but then it will be back into the studio and getting to work on post release support.

MG: Finally, I know you mentioned Gwent before, do you hope that it has a life outside of The Witcher 3?

PW: The team that created that game, they took their time and really committed to making a proper card game, so I personally hope it has a life outside of the game, yes.

MG: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, it was a treat.

PW: And thank you as well.