Interview More Cyberpunk 2077: Pseudo-Interview with Project Director Mateusz Kanik at GameTrailers

[Infinitron]

Tags: CD Projekt; Cyberpunk 2077

Following the release of the teaser trailer, the folks at GameTrailers were granted an exclusive interview with Cyberpunk 2077 project director Mateusz Kanik. Although apparently it's not actually their interview, but just a propaganda piece handed down to them by CD Projekt. Uh, pretty weird. Anyway, I'll post the most relevant bits of it:

And the world itself – how much will you modify 2020 vision? Do you use the original material or do you develop it?​

We modify it a lot. This includes not only the game world, but also the system. A pen and paper system cannot be translated into a video game with every detail. We make prototypes of some of the game mechanics and test how they work. However we want the game to be as close to the original as possible, we even give players an option to print out their character sheet to play with their friends. There are changes in the balance of classes or how particular skills work.​

The second thing is the game world. We have 57 years of history to describe. We discuss most changes with Mike and he gives us feedback, so the world changes all the time now. Currently we can say that we think about 2077 and Mike Pondsmith, creator of Cyberpunk pen and paper RPG system, concentrates on 2020, and together we discuss what happens between these two periods.​

...​

When comparing the game to The Witcher series – how will you change its technology. Cyberpunk will use the REDengine. But the tool is still developing?​

This is an amazing engine! This is truly one of the best tools for creating RPGs and it allows us to make every role-playing title. But some changes are necessary. In The Witcher we didn’t have guns, only crossbows, which are a completely different story. We have to change the physics and ballistics of the game. Character movement will also change – the witcher is a mutated human, but we’ll have a whole system of cyber-implants, allowing you to modify your limbs. These are the main changes in the game engine, but there are a lot of small features that have to be changed and added.​

We just watched the first teaser for your game. What elements we saw will surely appear in the game?​

I think the most important thing that will be brought with the game is the atmosphere.​

The teaser really feels like what we are working on. If you are thinking about the presence of melee combat, yes, we will have those cool arm implants. Cyber-psychos will also be present. These are people who lost their sense of humanity, because of too many cyber-modifications in their bodies. We will have aerial vehicles, the psychosquad, and all the weapons you saw are our modified versions from the rulebook. I hope that the woman you’ve seen in the trailer will also be there.​

Read the rest of the interview for some interesting tidbits about the Cyberpunk 2077 setting. Also if you want to know more about Mateusz Kanik's childhood memories.

 

[deuxhero]

And we still don't know what the gameplay is do we?

 

[Excidium]

I don't think even the guy knows anything about it. It's scheduled for 2015...

 

[bonescraper]

And we still don't know what the gameplay is do we?

We actually do.

In The Witcher we didn’t have guns, only crossbows, which are a completely different story. We have to change the physics and ballistics of the game.

They'll simply take Witcher 2, and implement proper gun ballistics. Ta-da, we now have Cyberpunk 2077.

Poles are crafty like that

 

[Zed]

And we still don't know what the gameplay is do we?

judging from witcher 2:

• probably 3rd-person camera with ridiculously clumsy and gimmicky combat

• dialogue using misleading text not corresponding to what the character will actually say.

• filled with cinematics - many of them cringe-worthy "mature" ones.

• QTE events.

they have said you will get to make your own character though.

 

[Excidium]

they have said you will get to make your own character though.

Did they say if you can choose gender?

 

[Zed]

they have said you will get to make your own character though.

Did they say if you can choose gender?

not that I know of. just that it would involve some char generation.
like.. maybe you'll get to choose hair (shaven or goatee), personality (grim or sulking) and race (white or bioware-black)

 

[Mrowak]

they have said you will get to make your own character though.

Did they say if you can choose gender?

not that I know of. just that it would involve some char generation.
like.. maybe you'll get to choose hair (shaven or goatee), personality (grim or sulking) and race (white or bioware-black)

That's what we know. Hope they are serious about those classes and gigantic arsenals. If they backpedal

 

[Metro]

Why is it that games billed as 'mature' are usually anything but. CDP seems to think mature is a synonym for boobies.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

That's a step up from the rest of the industry. At least boobies add something to the game.

 

[OSK]

That's a step up from the rest of the industry. At least boobies add something to the game.

An appeal to 13 year olds?

 

[Roguey]

However we want the game to be as close to the original as possible, we even give players an option to print out their character sheet to play with their friends.

I have no idea why printing out your character sheet is a feature that matters, but I assume this means they're preserving Friday Night Firefight.

If you are thinking about the presence of melee combat, yes, we will have those cool arm implants.

Well, good luck with making that fun and viable alongside ranged combat.

 

[Kahlis]

Why is it that games billed as 'mature' are usually anything but. CDP seems to think mature is a synonym for boobies.

I like to imagine that CD Projekt are like those 60 year old marketing executives sitting at the head of the board meetings for childrens' television stations like Cartoon Network, trying to figure out what is hip and radical and cool with those young sexy Americans these days. Unfortunately they look at /r/gaming for reference.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

That's a step up from the rest of the industry. At least boobies add something to the game.

An appeal to 13 year olds?

I guess it goes under "art direction"? I mean you could avoid the boobies if you really wanted to, and click away from them quickly too if you were really offended. If worst comes to worst, you can always install LundBs modesty mod.

 

[Excidium]

Can never go wrong with boobies.

 

[Brayko]

Since I dig cyberpunk and really don't dig the edgy emo fantasy setting of Twitcher games but do dig some of the other game elements I think I'll give this a day 1 purchase. Hey, someone's gotta report how shitty it could be as a warning.

EDIT: Just saw the trailer and it almost made me retract my statement, will wait for future and hopefully better ones.

 

[Jaesun]

I really really really really want this to be a good cRPG, but it is CDProjeckt.... :/

 

[OSK]

That's a step up from the rest of the industry. At least boobies add something to the game.

An appeal to 13 year olds?

I guess it goes under "art direction"? I mean you could avoid the boobies if you really wanted to, and click away from them quickly too if you were really offended. If worst comes to worst, you can always install LundBs modesty mod.

Art direction?

I'm a fully grown man with firsthand, personal experience with breasts and an unlimited supply of pictures and videos of boobs available at my fingertips. Seeing breasts in a videogame neither offends nor excites me. Other than 13 year olds with no personal experience and no access to pornography*, I'm not sure how video game breasts would add anything to a game.



*And Bioware fans, but they're probably the same people.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

I'm a fully grown man with an unlimited amount of pulp fantasy drawings at my fingertips. I guess that means I can't appreciate such art when it appears in a game.

 

[Metro]

The problem -- and granted they are drawing on source material from another person -- is that it's laughably oversexualized. I don't recall off the top of my head but I'm guessing there's the opportunity for around a dozen (possibly more) sexual encounters in the game? And it doesn't add anything to the atmosphere. Quite the opposite, in fact. Rather than create a 'mature setting' it only serves to make it comical.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I haven't played Witcher 2, but I definitely prefer the first Witcher's way of handling sex to say, Bioware's. Sure. it's kind of juvenile, but I prefer that to the creepiness of say, Mass Effect's treatment of relationships. If you remove the silly sex cards and cut down on the amount of encounters in general, I think it would be just fine.

On that note, I thought one of the first Witcher's good points was the way it handled friendly characters - perhaps a side-effect of being based on a series of novels. Simiar to the Gothic games, the characters feel like they have their own lives and goals that don't entirely depend on Geralt's existence. They don't sit in some tavern or spaceship, waiting for the player to grace them with his presence, but go about doing their own thing. You sometimes run into them in the course of doing sidequests or following the main plot, and they provide assistance, but they're not brainless sycophants.

Come to think of it, I really dislike the tendency (was it KotoR that started it?) to just put the NPC you don't have in your party in a stronghold of some sort, waiting till you have need of them. Was the way BG2 did this really so inconvenient for the retards? Too hard to find Keldorn's house in Atkathla?

 

[Metro]

Anything's more mature compared to Bioware.

 

[Excidium]

That's a step up from the rest of the industry. At least boobies add something to the game.

An appeal to 13 year olds?

I guess it goes under "art direction"? I mean you could avoid the boobies if you really wanted to, and click away from them quickly too if you were really offended. If worst comes to worst, you can always install LundBs modesty mod.

Art direction?

I'm a fully grown man with firsthand, personal experience with breasts and an unlimited supply of pictures and videos of boobs available at my fingertips. Seeing breasts in a videogame neither offends nor excites me. Other than 13 year olds with no personal experience and no access to pornography*, I'm not sure how video game breasts would add anything to a game.



*And Bioware fans, but they're probably the same people.

So, what do breasts feel like?

 

[tuluse]

The problem -- and granted they are drawing on source material from another person -- is that it's laughably oversexualized. I don't recall off the top of my head but I'm guessing there's the opportunity for around a dozen (possibly more) sexual encounters in the game? And it doesn't add anything to the atmosphere. Quite the opposite, in fact. Rather than create a 'mature setting' it only serves to make it comical.

I thought it was all about the power fantasy. Go through life hunting monsters, talking trash to villains and bureaucrats, protecting kings, and fucking hot chicks every day.

 

[Roguey]

I haven't played Witcher 2, but I definitely prefer the first Witcher's way of handling sex to say, Bioware's. Sure. it's kind of juvenile, but I prefer that to the creepiness of say, Mass Effect's treatment of relationships. If you remove the silly sex cards and cut down on the amount of encounters in general, I think it would be just fine.

Turning sex into a collect-a-thon is supergross. Witcher 2's body-slapping softcore sex scenes were grosser and more ridiculous than any sex scene Bioware's done.

How the fuck was TW2's combat clumsy or gimmicky? It was smooth as baby's ass. Probably one of the smoothest acshun games from those I've played. It was nothing complex or challenging, either.

Context-sensitive animations are extremely clumsy unless you can transition out of them. Witcher 2 doesn't let you.