"DONE WHEN IT'S DONE": Mateusz Kanik, director of CYBERPUNK 2077, talks of the game

[Jack_in_the-Green]

"DONE WHEN IT'S DONE": Mateusz Kanik, director of CYBERPUNK 2077, talks of the game

Another cool interview...
http://gamestar.ru/english/cyberpunk_2077_interview_eng.html

Did I mention that my brain can't stop bleeding rainbows...?

I lliked specially this:

Mike is our guardian angel and mentor — a vision holder, but not for the game but the universe. Nobody knows the lore more than him. He helps us, because he feels the world and knows hardcore pen-and-paper fans the most. Of course, we are players too and really feel his work. But we have 50 years of history to cover and Mike helps us assess which ideas will fit his setting.

The game mechanics we are creating are as close to the original as possible. Of course not all skills are applicable in a video game or the PC/console audience would find them not amusing. So we are building prototypes that allow us to merge these two worlds. Our aim is to create a system that allows you to have great fun in front of your screen and then that it would allow you to print out a character sheet and play with your friends using pencils and dice.

And this...
t’s too early to talk about the endings. I can promise you that the gameplay will be diversified and will depend and each goal will have its own means. Not only the story will be driven by your decisions, but also how you play the game. Each class will feel different and even while replaying the game with the same character, you’ll find different approaches.

We want to have a completely new level of non-linearity, achieved by combining freedom in playing your own character, free-roaming the environment and also having choices that have real consequences after you make a decision.

---------------------------------------------------------------
I think the classes in the game should satisfy every Cyberpunk® fan. The abilities which you’ll develop will craft the way you play the game dramatically. Also most skills you can imagine from a game like this are a must.

 

[Cyber_Death]

"The game is done, when it’s done. We’re launching a new IP and this is really important that we get this right. There are huge expectations from the pen-and-paper fans, The Witcher fans as also fans of the genre and RPGs. That’s why we put much attention to what the community tells us. So we can make a game that will satisfy players." - Mateusz Kanik

Take notes BioWare.

 

[braindancer12]

oh man so much awesome interviews at the moment

 

[wisdom000]

For example the guns in our trailer, work the same way as today’s firearms. It’s like Colt 1911, still used by the US Army, but developed. We do the same procedure reaching far into 2077.

Excellent

Our aim is to create a system that allows you to have great fun in front of your screen and then that it would allow you to print out a character sheet and play with your friends using pencils and dice.

Either they are listening to me, it's a fantastic coincidence, or there is a weird mind symbioses thing going on, either way I am so happy to this being implemented....

It’s too early to talk about the endings. I can promise you that the gameplay will be diversified and will depend and each goal will have its own means. Not only the story will be driven by your decisions, but also how you play the game. Each class will feel different and even while replaying the game with the same character, you’ll find different approaches.

We want to have a completely new level of non-linearity, achieved by combining freedom in playing your own character, free-roaming the environment and also having choices that have real consequences after you make a decision.

It is sure starting to sound like glorious glorious mind symbioses....

God I wish they would go with Interlock Unlimited... their issues with skills have pretty much been addressed with IU.... where skills like Geology, which really have no impact on the game directly but still add flavor, are all cycled under the "expert" skill definition...

 

[d1am0ndback]

I read every interview I come across here about this game. Its only 2013, so we're going to be here for a long ass time. By the time this game is done I hope that it becomes the fourth video game to be displayed at the Smithsonian Museum along with Pong, Pac-Man, and Dragon's Lair.

 

[username_3642631]

I read the interview and found one think weird. Mateusz said one of their main influences is Ghost in the Shell (graphic novel). When he got asked about Syndicate, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he said that those games are more transhumanism than cyberpunk. First of all, I always thought that transhumanism is some kind of philosophy or cultural movement, not genre. If anything, transhumanism is part of cyberpunk setting. Second thing. If he is saying that Syndicate, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is "transhumanism genre" not cyberpunk, so what is Ghost in the Shell? To be fair I only watch movies and some episodes of series, I didnt read comic books of GITS. Is novel is so much different from the movie? Because in GITS (movie) transhumanism is very strong theme, at least I think so.

 

[Aditya]

awesome! this just gave me the chills

 

[Decatonkeil]

I read the interview and found one think weird. Mateusz said one of their main influences is Ghost in the Shell (graphic novel). When he got asked about Syndicate, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he said that those games are more transhumanism than cyberpunk. First of all, I always thought that transhumanism is some kind of philosophy or cultural movement, not genre. If anything, transhumanism is part of cyberpunk setting. Second thing. If he is saying that Syndicate, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is "transhumanism genre" not cyberpunk, so what is Ghost in the Shell? To be fair I only watch movies and some episodes of series, I didnt read comic books of GITS. Is novel is so much different from the movie? Because in GITS (movie) transhumanism is very strong theme, at least I think so.

The graphic novel or manga is divided into three books. The first one has a structure similar to the one you can see in Stand Alone Complex and, as much as SAC has the over arching plots of the Laughing man and the Individual Eleven, so does the manga with the story of the Puppet Master (the one you saw somewhat abridged in the first film).

Now about GITS being trans-humanist and not cyberpunk I've been trying to give a straight answer but found it very difficult. I'm NOT an expert on trans-humanism AT ALL, although I THINK I can identify it when I see it in an instinctive way... but I consider myself a GITS expert. It would help if you could tell us what elements make a trans-humanist work for you (namely those you think you've spotted in GITS), what elements make a cyberpunk for you (namely those you haven't found in GITS but believe to be integral)...

It's sometimes very difficult to define a genre. If you do it in a descriptive way you must not leave out anything that should be aluded, if you do it in a prescriptive way you risk limiting the genre (and then you have a science fiction subgenre divided like the styles of 'metal' music genre... can't we agree that different works in a genre can be their own thing and still be included?).

But maybe this goes too off topic.

 

[eaterwolf]

Great interview. Thanks for posting it. ;-)

The game is done, when it’s done. We’re launching a new IP and this is really important that we get this right. There are huge expectations from the pen-and-paper fans, The Witcher fans as also fans of the genre and RPGs. That’s why we put much attention to what the community tells us. So we can make a game that will satisfy players.

Wish more developers were like this.

 

[wisielec]

Transhumanism would be the "change" factor, ascending to a new level of humanity. Cyberpunk is more down to earth approach, what makes us tick - kind of way. I thinks there is a bit of transhumanism in cyberpunk but it all comes down to the amount. When the transhumanism theme outweights the social and psychological aspect of (how do you feel about the future shock) cyberpunk it furthers it to the border of a sci-fi with cyberpunk elements.... Well, I couldn't be clearer ;D

Aye, its a hard subject, epecially when discussed in foreign language.

 

[Decatonkeil]

Transhumanism would be the "change" factor, ascending to a new level of humanity. Cyberpunk is more down to earth approach, what makes us tick - kind of way. I thinks there is a bit of transhumanism in cyberpunk but it all comes down to the amount. When the transhumanism theme outweights the social and psychological aspect of (how do you feel about the future shock) cyberpunk it furthers it to the border of a sci-fi with cyberpunk elements.... Well, I couldn't be clearer ;D

Aye, its a hard subject, epecially when discussed in foreign language.

I was waiting for ARH+ to expand a little more, but let's... try to tackle your point. And I say try because my words may give in to the "GITS is transhumanist" side, I think it's more how the reader perceives it, but let's go... the world of GITS is this future where something called a Ghost has been discovered. The nature of this Ghost has both the scientific and religious (shinto) communities unsettled, that's why the book uses the word ghost and is always like "not to be confused with a soul" although the similarities are obvious. Every living being (again, in the tradition of shinto) has a Ghost, it's neither exclusive of naturals nor cyborgs. If you look at it as "so there's no drawback to becoming cyborg, as your ghost remains intact", sure enough, you get new abilities, remain human... but the nature of the ghost makes it simmilar to a computer program that can be probed and hacked more easily (there's nothing sacred), creating newer problems.

Some tend to sell GITS short as a "rebellion of the machines" or "what makes us human" kind of story. The thing is GITS kind of laughs at the first kind, and the second one... well, it's arguably more like having an A.I. envy some of the capabilities of the naturals (real reproduction vs replication).

 

[PHYKUR]

"Done when it's done" ..
Sadly remembers me of DNF
And before the flame war begins against me, it's just an observation..

 

[braindancer12]

"Done when it's done" ..
Sadly remembers me of DNF
And before the flame war begins against me, it's just an observation..

DNF is an other story......a sad one...

 

[Kevinik]

DNF is an other story......a sad one...

More like a tragedy with a cruel bad ending.