Conclusion

FiringSquad: What kind of challenges do you face trying to translate a popular novel series into a game? What kinds of feedback have you faced from fans of the books?

CDProjekt: In the countries where the novels have been published the fans expectations are definitely high, though we hope the gamers will not be disappointed. Obviously, a computer game is a very different type of media, when compared to books, therefore, we were forced to introduce a number of changes and design elements that in books were only traced. Take for example the towns’ and castles’ architecture, meticulously conceived combat system, magic signs and the witcher potions. All the people engaged in development of our game are die-hard fans of Sapkowski’s works, thus we hope that even though the media changes, the character of our work will give justice to the novels’ quality and spirit.

Coming back to combat system – it’s surely been a great challenge for us not only to face the usual development problems concerning the system’s usefulness, playability and balance. We had to stay faithful to various abilities described in the books and expected by the fans, like: the hero’s superhuman agility, pirouettes, bolt rebounding, magic tricks and many abilities included in the novels. Additionally, we had to create a system of combat trainings and types, which are have not been depicted in the books. Naturally, each and every one of us has their own legitimate idea of the world. Yet, we hope our work will be appreciated and will not stir up any controversy among the fans.

FiringSquad: What kinds of games have influenced The Witcher's development? Is there any goal you're aspiring to that's close to what Fallout or a NWN module have done?

CDProjekt: The number of titles that hale had influence on our work is huge, for it consists of virtually all good games we have played since the 8-bit computers. Of course, the most important of them are the revolutionary RPGs like Fallout, whose mature atmosphere and freedom of choice we’re trying to implement into medieval surroundings. The Witcher will also include film-like, epic elements known from games like KOTOR and the RPG evergreen – Baldur’s Gate.


FiringSquad: Is there anything that you'd like to add about your game, perhaps something you feel people are overlooking when writing up their impressions from E3?

CDProjekt: The reception of The Witcher At E3 was exceptionally warm. What we welcomed with greatest joy, was the appreciation of our persistence and determination in making a good RPG game, slightly aside the genre mainstream. It might not be quite trendy to design single-player RPGs these days, still, we believe that thanks to our passion and increasing experience we’ll be able to create something that will easily win the gamers’ heart :) Hopefully enough of them to ensure us some future on the game development market ;)

FiringSquad: Thanks for your time, and good luck!

CDProjekt: Thank you very much for reading!

To find out more about The Witcher, go to the official site.