Four new interviews about the game incl. quest design:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/witcher-3-wild-hunt-the-world-map-the-gameplay-and/1100-6426884/
GameSpot: Perhaps the biggest change that we've noticed between The Witcher 2 and Wild Hunt is how the quests are carried out. Obviously the main quest is still a major focus, but there seems to be so much more going on in the wider world.
How have you guys balanced the main quest with all of this extra stuff that's going on?
As with the previous games, we are very focused on the story line. On the story of Geralt, of Ciri, and Yennefer. At start of production, that was our main focus. But as we've developed the game we have designed side quest lines that were connected very strongly to the main story line.
As you progress through the main story, you can continue on and ignore the story lines of local places or important characters that you meet. You choice, between ignoring those or participating in them, can cause some consequences in the world as well.
And you will have choices throughout those quests. It was also very important for us, as with the previous games, to give players a variety of choices so that you feel like you're playing an established character with Geralt. But there's some degree of freedom in how Geralt behaves. What choices does he make, and how does he impact this world?
We also tried to avoid the black and white division of choices, just like in the previous games. For us it's more like you are in a tough situation and you have to manage somehow. You have to decide what Geralt would do in this situation if you were in his shoes.
Choosing the lesser of evils.
Exactly. The lesser of evils. Sometimes you will even feel that, "Okay, none of these solutions are good. What should I do?"
In one of the sidequests I played, there's a dwarf whose forge was burnt down. I hunted this guy down, the guy who committed it, and he's drunk. I put a spell on him and brought him back. And I thought, "Yeah, now the dwarf's going to give him a punch or something." But he had him hanged! I'm like "Holy shit!"
I wouldn't have done that if I knew that would happen.
Yeah. when we design quests and story lines, we always try to keep everything in the context of the world. Basically in this situation, this dwarf was inhabiting a village that was conquered by the Nilfgaard Empire, and they believe themselves to be very just. But their laws can be perceived as cruel by some. For burning someone's property, especially a dwarf that works for the Guardians, it's basically perceived as sabotage. Like military sabotage.
So, if you analyze it like this, this shouldn't be so surprising. But if you look at it from the human perspective, like you did, it might seem downright evil.
You talked about how the side quests don't feel like side quests. For instance Keira was helping me in the underground dungeon in one of the early-on quests. Then it finished, but she's like "Oh, can you help me with something?"
I could have just walked out, but I decided to help her. And when I helped her with this small riddle, it opened up a whole other quest.
Actually the thing you mentioned is another whole line of quests. It's not just a single quest. It's basically the story line of this character. Unraveling it can have consequences for the world. It can basically impact what will happen later on in the main story line. These side quests are intertwined with the main story line very strongly.
How many of those side quests are there in comparison to the ones in the main story?
I can roughly tell you the number of story lines. I think it's about 8 or 10, and each one of those has 3 side quests. Something like that.
Aside from that we have also normal side quests, which are totally not connected to the main story line.
When you complete the main quest, can you go back to some of those longer side branches, or will not doing them hurt you a lot for the main quest? How does all that work?
Okay, so we have the main story line and very important story branches. These branches end as you progress with the main story line, but there are also side quests, big side quests, that are not dependent on the main story line at all. Once you end the game you can continue playing those.
If you do not complete these side branches it also has an impact on the main story line. That's why you can't go back and change them, because then you would cheat the game.
For example, you mentioned this quest with a sorceress. If you ignore this side quests line, you will learn what happened to the sorceress in the main story line later. If it already happened to her, you can't go back and change that.
But, obviously, you can play the game again and change what would have happened if you had play differently.
Do all of them have impact on the main quest, or do some of them not really matter?
Branches connected to the main story line do have impact. Some of them have very, very big impact on the main story line and on the endings themselves.
We have three alternate endings and about 36 or more combinations of ending states for the world. The branches impact those very heavily.