The Witcher 3: Years later developers explain why they killed that character

The Witcher 3 It was a game of great influence especially for the excellent level of its narrative. The story is a sequel to the novels, so a number of liberties were taken as well, including the resolution Make a specific character die. Obviously, in order to go deeper we will have to do some Game spoilersSo we advise you not to continue if you don’t want any anticipation.

Talking about this issue is CD Projekt Red Mission Director, Paul Saskowho participated in the GDC 2023 session titled “10 Key Mission Design Lessons from The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077”.

the person concerned, as anyone who’s played The Witcher 3 knows, is Vesemir, Geralt’s mentor and the greatest wizard in existence. “I needed a moment when Ciri would make the decision not to be hunted anymore… and to become a hunter and hunt Wild Hunt. But to do that, I needed a real event that brought her down, and that was the moment when he suggested to our writing team that we kill off Vesmare,” he recalls. Sasco.

“At first they weren’t sure if we should do this. But in discussions with Marcin Placha, our story director, we came to the conclusion that it was a really good decision for Ciri to take this step,” Sasko said.

Also, Vesemir was The ideal candidate Based on the role it plays in the story of The Witcher 3. “Vesemir is built in such a way that it can be used in an immaculate way. Vesemir is so well built and so well presented, you can identify with it… That’s why this moment was so touching. I also wanted to do something The players don’t think we’re doing it. I wanted to surprise them… in a good way, I hope,” said Sasko.

Finally, Sasuke said, It wasn’t about shocking the players, but to “talk about something we haven’t talked about” in the typical AAA video game safe space. He also noted that the mission was set in 2012, which is a very different era in many ways for video games. Sasko says more games today are taking risks on difficult themes, especially indie games.

“We really wanted to do it because we believed Artistic courage If it matters… that’s how I view it as a manager of our company, and I know many managers think the same way I do. We had a goal to create something different, because when players come to us they should feel like they are playing CD Projekt RED. And sometimes we do things no one else will.”

Looking instead at the future of the saga and more accurately at Project Sirius: we know development started from scratch; It’s CD Projekt RED to reveal.