Interview with Konrad Tomaszkiewicz for Polter.pl

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Interview with Konrad Tomaszkiewicz for Polter.pl

I stumbled upon a somewhat old (like, from two weeks ago) interview with Konrad Tomaszkiewicz for one of major Polish fantasy & sci-fi portals. Mostly known stuff, although there are some new details, I think, that can shed a bit more light on certain things.

The original source can be found here: http://gry.polter.pl...iewiczem-c25966

There is also an additional info regarding couple of other things. I didn't have the time to translate it yet, I'll try to do it tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's the interview.

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Jan 'gower' Popieluch: In 2014 you'll be releasing The Witcher 3, in 2015 - Cyberpunk. If someone had told you in 2004 or 2005, when you were working on the first Witcher, that you will be developing two such games simultaneously, would you believe him?

Konrad Tomaszkiewicz: I suppose not. During the first Witcher we've been working our asses off so that the project comes out really cool. It was our first game and I remember we've all been learning then. We've been riding no hands - we all play games, but most of us are hardcore fans, especially of RPGs. Since my childhood I've been playing everything that was available on the market, starting from Spectrum, through all the Atari games, and so on. Basically what I was working on in the first Witcher was about implementing my ideas, rediscovering the art of designing and creating games. We didn't have any training, we didn't have anyone who had done such projects before, everything we had to discover on our own. We wanted the game to be good, I think that's super important for every gamer who's working in the industry. It was a big part of our lives, and we are able to make something that lives in pop culture, and it is our child of which we are proud. So we did our best to make the child the prettiest and the smartest. We achieved that in nearly 100% - obviously there were a lot of things that needed fixing, but the child has grown pretty well and we've been wondering what comes next. We knew there will be the second Witcher, but that we'll be making the third one in an open world, in such a scale, that we'll be making Cyberpunk - these we didn't expect at all. The future really likes surprises, and I'm happy it turned out to be so.

JP: In recently published materials you've spoken extensively about the witcher's craft, monster hunting, and that the actions in this regard will begin with crime scene investigation. A couple of recent titles also included such investigations: L.A. Noire, Batman. How will it work here? What will keep the player interested instead of being only click-through episodes?

KT: Above all else killing monsters is witcher's craft. Geralt has been doing it in books, he has been making his living out of it, and it's tremendously important for us to increase that witcherity in the third game. Earlier games were obviously non-linear RPGs, we had lots of choices and consequences, but the action played out very quickly, there was no time for any sidetracking. There were side quests, but there was no freedom like the one an open world gives. With introducing an open world, we provide lots of occasions for spending money. The player will feel the need to earn money, and we have to give him the opportunity to do so. The best way to earn money for a witcher is obviously to kill monsters and free people from monster-related problems.

The first thing involved in such investigation is to inspect the crime scene, talk with witnesses, identify what the monster is. Its signs can be found either by talking with people or by using a special mode corresponding to Geralt's heightened senses. Various things that could be related to the monster will be highlighted. After checking those out, new hints will get added to the journal. Next, when we know what we're up against, or when we've narrowed it down to a couple of potential monsters, we can start tracking it down - and there are various ways of doing so. The monster can leave very specific marks and only when we know more we can follow them. It can make specific noises and Geralt, while in the woods and using his very sensitive hearing, will be able to listen for those specific sounds, and then, identifying their source, get to the place where the monster is residing.

JP: So will it be possible for Geralt to be wrong, to incorrectly identify the monster he's hunting for?

KT: It depends on how he interprets the hints. We're still thinking how to implement this. We'll be doing focus tests to find out whether such mistakes will be attractive for players, and if it turns out they are, then it obviously is possible that it will find its way into the game. Monsters found using this new system will be rare and usually very dangerous. They won't be like the monsters in the first or the second Witcher. They will be more demanding enemies, but the combat will still not be based on scripts, but on AI.

The first stage is very important, because if we manage to identify the monster, we can prepare for the fight, make potions for instance. We have a new system in place, where monsters inflict different kinds of wounds, for example you can get damage from poison, acid, and so on. The idea is that the player can protect himself from monster's various actions by preparing potions. It has been so in the first Witcher, by the way, where we had an elixir that would poison any vampire that manages to bite Geralt. It's something like this - we can protect ourselves and increase our fighting strength.

JP: You've mentioned before the big importance of the open world. How the witcher skills are related to the world? Were you thinking about setting the game in an open world from the beginning of the series, or are you simply adapting to the current trend?

KT: From the very beginning we wanted to make an open world game, but the truth is, you have to control the risk when you work on your first title with a small team that doesn't yet know much, since this is a thing that requires vast experience. First we wanted to learn how to make single player RPGs with good story, with something that makes games feel cinematic. Now, when we know how to do those things, we'll be trying to create a believable and satisfying world. It's not a simple thing as well - you have to fill the world out, so that the player will have things to do, so that there are events and interesting things, so that you can invoke internal motivation rather than external.

In The Witcher 1 and 2 we made use of external motivation: someone tells you to do something, you have the map, and you simply go and do the task. Now you'll often simply be exploring the world, and you'll see something, let's say a village on the horizon, and above the village some interesting ruins. You'll think: "There is something over there! What could it be?" Now, with internal motivation, with you wanting to see the place because it seems interesting, when you go there something will happen, something that will start a quest. And the quest will not force you to do certain things, but will allow you to learn about the world, and to experience interesting events in the specific place. We try to introduce more things tied to internal motivation, while external motivation is used to guide the main storyline. We mean to create a new kind of game, a non-linear RPG in an open world. Speaking from my experience, we either have RPGs with good story, or RPGs with open world, so it's a tradeoff. And I would love to, as I always have, to create something that would unite both those types, because it could make an ideal RPG. I think this is the way others will also try to follow.

JP: One of the things about Sapkowski's world is that it's quite vast. The towns are distant from each other, we even know approximately how much. It obviously poses a difficulty in bringing such a large area into the game. You have stated you wanted to divide it into three parts. How will the exploration look like within one such part, and how moving between them will be?

KT: It's a matter we're still exploring, but we have a new streaming technology that now allows us to move on indefinitely vast area with no loading times. The major part of the world is located on a single continent, the places are distant from each other, and by simply riding on a horse or running on foot we move between points, and in such manner we can cross the whole area. But we also have locations like the Skellinge Islands. There you will need a boat to get to, but we don't want it to take hours - and that is how it's supposed to be, really, since the events will also take place in distant Novigrad. The other part is the No Man's Land, the war-ravaged areas connected with Novigrad, and the river [Pontar] which separates those lands from the lands between Vyzima and Gors Velen. All those lands will be explorable.

JP: You can go from Novigrad to No Man's Land on foot?

KT: Yes, of course you can. But right now even on a horse it takes a very long time. So it's harder to design this game, relative to the earlier ones, because you have to do the open world perfectly, so that it can be believable and interesting.

JP: Right, so what will you do in order to make the vast world not empty between the main locations?

KT: There are POIs (Points of Interest), places where interesting things take place. When we look at the story, at the main storylines between which we are moving, POIs get our attention between the quest lines and when we're going on a side track. From technical perspective we mark them with objects on the plane and place them in some location. Testers play and measure how often they encounter something interesting, something they want to get closer to. We decide what interval is interesting for us, so that it doesn't tire us out, and then we fill those locations out with various things. Those things can simply be some interesting places that tell a related story - there are no dialogues, but you see, for instance, a destroyed caravan with a corpse, you can search it and find something. Other example of POI could be ruins where a side quest will start once you enter.

Of course behind everything is a story, but these are small events that will lead somewhere. We have monster hunts that don't need to start with someone giving you a task or with us taking the contract from a board. You can just be riding by and see a place where a monster massacred someone. You search the area, find the monster, kill it, and only then go for a reward. Other things are POIs associated with a location, places worth seeing - you go there, usually find something interesting, and get experience for exploration. We have lots of gameplay ideas that will fill the third Witcher's world to the rim.

JP: There will be Novigrad in the game, a city much larger than Vyzima, with about 30 000 inhabitants. How are you planning to fit such huge scale in the game?

KT: Like the rest of the world. We have the new streaming technology that allows us to have a given number of objects while loading seamlessly and working fluently. Without the technology it wouldn't be possible. In The Witcher 2 we had a world partitioning system and we defined the partitions manually. When we were making the console port, we had to adapt those partitions to fit in Xbox 360's memory. Now the technology takes care of this for us. It automatically partitions the map and loads the parts as necessary. It's a huge achievement on the programmers' part, and a really great thing. Of course Novigrad is way larger from anything we had in earlier games. I get lost in there all the time.

JP: You mentioned horse riding as a form of transport. Which is closer to yours: not very advanced model from Skyrim, or Assasin's Creed with various riding speeds and combat systems?

KT: We're closer to the third game you didn't mention: Red Dead Redemption. It has the best implementation. Gameplay-wise we're still in the process of designing. For now horse is a mode of transport, but we're exploring other possibilities. We obviously can't make Geralt into a cavalryman, since he wasn't one in the books, and what we're doing has to be cohesive story-wise.

JP: You stated that Geralt will be able to swim. Will it be just a way of moving around, or do you see here any story potential? What about diving, fighting in water?

KT: We're not planning on diving, as it's a technologically complex feature and we already have tons of new features we plan on implementing. If nothing changes, the distance you'll be able to swim will depend on your stamina. We want to design hidden places accessible only for adequately advanced characters, where you'd be able to find certain things or meet interesting people or events that will enrich the world.

JP: You want the combat to be more dance-like, spectacular, but allowing for precision as well. What has changed from The Witcher 2?

KT: It's a huge subject; the gameplay team totally redesigned the combat system. First of all we have new animations. It's not anything particularly interesting in and of itself, but the idea is that now one attack equals one animation. Before, a single animation could be two, three attacks, which looked great. We thought on how to reach a compromise between this look and responsiveness. When one animation had two or three attacks and you wanted to avoid from getting stabbed in the back, then either you couldn't break the sequence, or it didn't look very good. In the second Witcher we decided to go with the first approach, since breaking an advanced attack mid-stride led Geralt to freeze in half-swing while he had his sword behind him, or when he was just finishing somersault. Now we one attack is one animation, and you can compose those individual attacks into very cool sequences. It turned out that it's not like you can only have one sequence from those attacks. There are lots of such permutations, and now all the animations play almost randomly during combat. It creates a huge number of combinations that are visually stunning and have the advantage that you can react after each attack. Each of the attacks has its timing, it plays well, and we can be sure that the attack is really fast and that you'd be able to jump back afterwards, use a Sign, or do whatever else, and that you will always have full control over your character.

Targeting system also has been redone. Now there is no doubt as to which enemy you're attacking, and changing targets is intuitive. Another innovation is the camera, which helps you see everything. You can, of course, control it with the controller stick or the mouse middle button, but even without it it's very smart. When you leave it on its own it analyzes what's happening in combat and shows the enemy you're attacking. You always see your back, so you know when someone's running behind you and you have to dodge. You have complete overview of what happens around you, and you control Geralt in 100%.

Combat is now more of a duel rather than a dull hack and slash. Geralt doesn't run while in combat, instead he's always in a fighting stance, and when you're targeting the enemy, you'll be moving around him and always know what he's doing. You can obviously quickly change your target and attack him instead or parry his attack, but you're focused on the enemy, and the combat has the pace that allows you to use tactics. It isn't so chaotic. Curiously, we managed to implement the feature without damaging the dynamics. Everything happens fast, but at the same time you feel that you have control - it's a wonderful thing.

JP: Your gesticulation during the whole interview suggests using a controller. Do all the elements work just as well with keyboard and mouse?


KT: Of course they do. We grew up on PC market, these are our origins, and it always will remain the most important for us. But we do plan to release the game on all platforms, so we're testing it on everything. Our experience tells us that it's easier to create a good combat feel for mouse rather than controller, as controller is harder tool in this kind of game. Just like in shooters - to do it right you really have to struggle. Of course we have it easier, but it's a challenge nevertheless - to make you feel it all, to simply make it all work together.

JP: Will Geralt's dodges also involve rolling on the ground?

KT: No, no, no. We've replaced rolling with pirouettes. Right now Geralt makes pirouettes like in the books, he can get behind his enemies, and so on. We also have been thinking about using somersaults. In the first game they were useful, but I think we overdid them a bit too much. We're thinking how a witcher could do with pirouettes the same thing he was doing with somersaults. We're still testing, but we don't rule out rolling - there are certain attacks where it’s used. In the second game there was the attack where Geralt first rolls, then strikes. This we'll leave, of course, we simply don't want to force players to roll on ground all the time, as it would be weird.

JP: From the very beginning you are announcing how important continuing the story is and that there will be a way to import the save file from the earlier game. But in The Witcher 2 we could have put the world in very different states, even on geopolitical level. Will all those states and choices be reflected in the third game, will they be preserved? How big an influence will it have on events? What about players that will not import saves - will they get a default state, or will they be able to set it up themselves?

KT: We've defined a certain pools of choices from earlier games and they will influence selected quests. There will be tasks depending on what has been done in the second game. I can say that if we've killed a certain character [lit. hero or heroine - darcler] in the second game, there will be no quest with him or her. The war somewhat changed the relations in the world, but everything is coherent, logical, and I'm sure the players who've played the earlier games will not be disappointed. Just like the second game, this one is designed to be approachable for new players as well as for those who know earlier games.

In case of not importing the save file, we assume a default story, easiest to explain for new players. We still think how to make things better. In The Witcher 2 the learning curve could be vastly improved. There were lots of such problems that caused new players that were beginning their witcher adventures, not knowing the books or the first Witcher, to struggle with high entry barrier. Now we're trying to make the barrier much lower, so that everything will be easier to absorb, and that everyone will be able to understand the world of The Witcher.

JP: From the first Witcher game you've been strongly emphasizing the choice and consequence system. I understand that you'll be continuing to do so. In The Witcher 2 you've gone to making two separate acts that were dependent on a choice made by players. Will anything of such scale appear here?

KT: Here we have open world and you can explore the whole map from the start, despite what you're doing in the main storyline. So there are no similar acts. There are, of course, events that, depending on your choices, will set the power balance of the world differently. Political events will change - you don't have to participate in politics, but even this very fact constitutes a choice. And if you support one person or the other, and then when you go back there after some time, the place will look differently politics-wise. Your choices have large impact on the world.

JP: The Witcher 2 was in nVidia's "The Way It's Meant to be Played" program, now you're stating you're switching Havok to PhysX. What about players using AMD cards? Right after launching the second game there were drivers issues that dragged for weeks. Will it happen again?

KT: We won't leave anyone behind, and we're known for thinking about players above all else. Back then we haven’t expected such problems, but we've been fighting them and doing everything we could to fix it all, so that everyone could play normally. Now we're wiser with the experience and we try doing everything we can to avoid such problems. We'll be conducting tests on various machines and we'll try to prepare the game to work correctly on every one of them. But if any problems of such nature happen, we'll be troubleshooting and fixing them for sure.

JP: During community meeting in the fall you've admitted that you've simply run out of time for implementing good mimics. Will you have enough time to do it now?

KT: Technology-wise, we now have completely rebuilt mimics system, it works and it has everything it needs. The system is one thing, but the key are good animations that will make you believe that the character really is mad or happy, and it cannot be a cliché. Right now we're working on designing and recording such animation pool that will make everything believable. We've learned from the second game and now we have a team dedicated for setting dialogues and creating animations for mimics. Technical people also help with that. I believe the mimics will be the best ever in RPG games.

JP: Lots of questions ask whether you'll be returning to Slavic themes in The Witcher 3.

KT: Of course we will. As we've said, there are three main areas of the world. One of them, No Man's Land, has a typically Slavic feel. But we'll also create contrasting feels: Nordic on the Skellige Islands, or cloak-and-dagger in Novigrad. Writers will be distinguishing between these areas as well, and you'll feel there are different societies, different people.

JP: Will the minimal hardware requirements for PC players increase because of you going for PS4 and Xbox One, or will the game still be playable on mid-range computers?

KT: The question is what will be a mid-range computer in 2014 when we'll be launching the game. Now, after the specifications of the new consoles went public, you can see it's a powerful hardware, but I think by the time of the release it will be a standard. We'll see how it will play out. If those predictions are wrong, we'll obviously be optimizing the game so that it will work well on weaker computers.

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EDIT: I've added the part under the interview:

Since considerable amount of time has passed from when this interview was conducted, some things about The Witcher 3 had changed. The text has been updated, but some of the information that didn't make it to the final version is interesting enough that we decided to pass it to you regardless. Some of it concerns ideas that were in the meantime modified. Other concerns things that most likely are still up to date, but which the developers are unwilling to officially confirm.

Just a couple of months ago the devs spoke extensively about the witcher senses, and that they were useful not only when tracking monsters, but in the combat itself. A regenerating wyvern, for example, would be easier to kill if we'd first damage its organ responsible for the regeneration. A charging horned creature would be neutralized by cutting the tendons in its legs. Many people compared the system to V.A.T.S. from Fallout 3, but we've learned that the idea was completely different. When in combat we'd be entering the mode that would highlight active points on the enemy. With large enough stamina we'd simply click such a point to automatically disable the enemy's corresponding special ability. The system would also serve to disarm people or strip them of their shields. Although a mechanic of neutralizing enemy's special attacks will still be implemented in The Witcher 3, it will not be about attacking highlighted points.

Fans of the first and the second Witcher were captivated by the music composed by Adam 'Scorpik' Skorupa. The devs contacted him once more and it seemed we'd also hear Slavic tones of this artist in the third game. Unfortunately they were unable to work out an aggreement and The Wild Hunt will most likely not feature Scorpik's music.

The war with Nilfgaard is an important background story in The Witcher 3 and it had a large impact on the world's situation. It also provides a way to acommodate vastly different geopolitical endings of the second game - the war causes seemingly different situations to come to a single conclusion. Unofficialy we've also learned that due to certain events we will not be seeing Novigrad's neighbor, Oxenfurt - the town with the largest university on the Continent.
 
The world of No-Mand's land is between Vizima and Gors Velen, good, very good. I am glad CDPR recognizes that trying to make the world bigger then that would simply result in diminished quality of villages and towns.
 
he mentioned underwater caves..... could this mean that diving is in at least as a short video to enter an undervater location?
 
blackgriffin said:
he mentioned underwater caves..... could this mean that diving is in at least as a short video to enter an undervater location?

Maybe a cutscene for it. But "We're not planning on diving, as it's a technologically complex feature and we already have tons of new features" is a pretty firm statement that there will be no diving mechanic.
 
GuyN said:
Maybe a cutscene for it. But "We're not planning on diving, as it's a technologically complex feature and we already have tons of new features" is a pretty firm statement that there will be no diving mechanic.

as long as we get some underwater content and water species in the game i'm happy even if we can't swim underwater in the game
 
It's cool that they mention Red Dead Redemption as the game that did horse riding best and inspiration for horse riding in the Witcher 3!
 
Great interview,just found one myself too but its more about cdpr vs gimmicks :

http://gamingbolt.com/the-witcher-3-dev-on-dualshock-4-touchpad-not-going-to-waste-our-time-if-it-doesnt-suit-the-game

I really like cdpr honesty regarding to,well everything :p/>

(Also they state that TW3 launches in the spring,all these sites love to give those guesses and dont have any idea ehh?...)
 
Comrade Darcler, sincere thanks for the article.

CostinMoroianu said:
The world of No-Mand's land is between Vizima and Gors Velen, good, very good. I am glad CDPR recognizes that trying to make the world bigger then that would simply result in diminished quality of villages and towns.

Yes, it is excellent. They broke their silence about the map, and the map they design makes a perfect sense. So we have Gor Vellen to the West, and probably from here we will go to Skellige, Vizima to the south, and Pontar to the North to delimit NML. So NML is in Temeria only, though I hope for a part of Brokilon. In Novigrad region we'll hopefully have Oxenfurt as well. I am already one happy panda, but if Oxenfurt and Brokilon are ever confirmed, I will be one very happy panda.

This interview addressed my concerns about TW1-2 story continuity. It looks like they do it properly, and we'll have different developments depending on geopolitical situation and on who we left dead, or alive. Sounds great. I hope they will find a way to do this on X1 and ps4 as well.
 
vivaxardas said:
In Novigrad region we'll hopefully have Oxenfurt as well. I am already one happy panda, but if Oxenfurt and Brokilon are ever confirmed, I will be one very happy panda.
Alas, in the part I haven't yet translated it's stated that Oxenfurt will not be in game (although it's as of yet unofficial). Can't say I'm not disappointed, but then I prefer they'd focus on what they have included instead of overextending themselves.
 
darcler said:
Alas, in the part I haven't yet translated it's stated that Oxenfurt will not be in game (although it's as of yet unofficial). Can't say I'm not disappointed, but then I prefer they'd focus on what they have included instead of overextending themselves.

How can they have Novigrad without Oxenfurt? It doesn't make sense geological wise.
That's a darn shame. So we can only travel to Novigrad by boat?
 
Senteria said:
How can they have Novigrad without Oxenfurt? It doesn't make sense geological wise.
That's a darn shame. So we can only travel to Novigrad by boat?
The fragment goes like this: "Unofficially we've learned that due to certain events we will not be seeing neighboring with Novigrad Oxenfurt". Perhaps it will explode - because Wild Hunt
 
darcler said:
. Perhaps it will explode - because Wild Hunt

Wait...but (and i quote) "that fucking idiot" dandelion is there :(

Kinda wanted to see oxenfurt too,ahh well 35 bigger world is fine for me too.
 
Very good interview and translation . One part that intrigued me was the part about the camera and mouse adjusting the camera via middle mouse wheel .
 
gregski said:
It's cool that they mention Red Dead Redemption as the game that did horse riding best and inspiration for horse riding in the Witcher 3!

I assumed those three would be mentioned. Red Dead had the best horseback riding in my opinion.

I'm sad that Oxenfurt is not planned but on the otherhand it will give more resources to Novigrad. I'm torn!
 
Tommy said:
Very good interview and translation . One part that intrigued me was the part about the camera and mouse adjusting the camera via middle mouse wheel .

Good news for you and me both. I hate letting the game control the camera for me, and to zoom out with mouse wheel is awesome.
 
Are there still people who don't know that CDPR make the games they like to play? Is there still any doubt that CDPR are thinking about a geographical consistent map of their open world as they like to find if they had to buy TW3 instead to create it?

CDPR like the same games we like and they are making the bigest-greast-almost'perfect-game all we dream about, so is it that how to be surprised about their explanation of the game? We are not talking about an adventurous indie or a creepy-wallet-quick-search-publisher product but about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It will not be perfect but neither is it a bunch of inconsistencies and poorly planned design. Map included.

Nonetheless, I love hear(read) CDPR interviews awarding us these little and precious pearls time from time.... like the pieces of their secret puzzle. />

slimgrin said:
to zoom out with mouse wheel is awesome.

Oh!, yeasssss!
 

Agent_Blue

Guest
Regarding the Oxenfurtlessness:

The potential problem is that Oxenfurt would have forced CDProjekt to craft a respectably sized Novigrad, just so to maintain contrast between the two. As it stands, there's no measure of comparison, so it's a carte blanche situation.

Let's wait and see what it means «to get lost in Novigrad».
 
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