This week, CD Projekt RED's Lead Quest Designer, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz talks about the importance of cooperation between different teams, when designing quests. Read the blog entry here.
Assassins of Kings is one the few games where I sat back at various points, shook my head and muttered. "You clever buggers." The labyrinthine nature of the narrative and how it has the creative daring to merely hint at its complexity, that really challenges me to look closer at almost every scene. View it in a movie like fashion, where I think to myself, "what is this scene aiming for."
Whether that be scribblings on the walls of an asylum, philippas smirk as she emerges from Saskias sickbed, the golden hues of Geralts awakening into the game or those little silences and looks that Roche and the white wolf share in Radovids presence.
I also admire the way that the quests manipulate the urgency of the game. When a quest stalls and you are free to pursue your own path for awhile, thus avoiding the cliche of narrative urgency but gameplay meandering. There's a real sense of impetus when the main quest kicks in, but also the chance to explore, question and immerse oneself before that. Highs and lows, like a good novel or film.
