The study highlights that the construction of an open world with a deep narrative was taken as a challenge.
The third goes to the past due. CD Projekt, today the European video game company with the highest market value, took the final step towards its consolidation with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a title that just turned 5 years old. After a first installment framed in the foundations of the old school and a The Witcher 2 that was already pointing in the new direction, the third chapter stood out for its open world. In an interview with Polygon, Philipp Weber, one of the managers of the missions, explained the reasons why his open world fit so well.
"Our mission manager, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, said that the main goal (of The Witchter 3) was to combine the design philosophy of previous The Witcher video games," he comments in the interview. This involved "creating a complex and adult story that offered decisions and consequences," all within an open world. "There used to be a preconceived notion that open world titles couldn't tell deep or interesting stories, so we took that as a challenge," he confesses.
Branched decisions
The creators of the missions set out to design them in a way that would work regardless of the path each player chose with their decisions. Although he acknowledges that at first there were difficulties by simply opting for the open world, in the end they managed to "improve the missions a lot". According to Weber, by opting for this type of structure, the structure also became more extensive. "We were able to provide players with many more opportunities to experience our stories the way they wanted."
Another pillar of The Witcher 3, says Weber, is that they made the world feel more alive. For example, wolves were able to smell when monsters or animals had been killed, so these creatures quickly moved to that place in search of food. "One of the things that people mention many times" is the time they have invested in it, "which at first was very surprising and fun for us." He admits that during development the studio thought the game would be too short, so they tried to add more content. “Hearing the feedback was a huge relief. It's even better to know that there are still people playing it today. ”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available on Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch. In addition to the base game, CD Projekt RED developed two major expansions.
