For those new, The Witcher is a terribly well-received PC RPG based on the novel of the same title by Andrzej Sapkowski. The game wasn't perfect by any means, though, and CD Projekt have no problems admitting it.
As you'd expect, The Witcher 2 should be improved on many fronts. Console gamers will be able to reap the benefits, too, as this one -- and possibly the first at some point -- is planned for them thanks to the studio's new custom-built engine, designed with multiplatform development in mind. PC gamers will still be getting their "true" PC title, though, we're assured.
Andrzej had no involvement with Witcher 2, yeah?
We were in contact with him and are discussing things, bouncing around some ideas, but he's not writing the story or anything. Story of both Witcher 1 and now Witcher 2 are written by us – of course the world and inspiration comes from Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, but it's our invention.
What are his feelings on a sequel? I'm told he's very sensitive about having his work adapted.
First of all it's really hard for me to speak for him. [laughs] I can share my thoughts. Please put disclaimers there. [laughs] He's a writer, so...he's a master writer. In Poland he's considered like Tolkien -- he's our Polish Tolkien. That's a very good comparison. He’s sold close to two million books in Poland, and we're a country of 38 million people. So here in Poland if you're interested in any fantasy, there's a good chance you have The Witcher; everybody knows it. It was a big challenge with the first game to deliver a proper Sapkowski-feel game. Actually working on The Witcher was a dream come true for all of us and at the same time a great honour.
The strength of The Witcher and why we loved it so much was the fact that it mirrors our reality. There's no good or evil, nothing is black or white; there are common world problems, there is racism. Translating that to a game...to fail would be to make a really shallow game, but I think the strength of [the book series] is the story, so we showed this is in a real world, with decisions and consequences. I think he was quite happy. One of the interviews he mentioned we definitely read his books and we understood them. We were very proud when we saw that. I think that is his comment as far as I can go.
Pitching the first game was certainly an enlightening experience for CD Projekt. Marcin has detailed elsewhere one publisher telling them they would consider negotiating a contract with them if they changed the main character Geralt into an elfish woman, as their research told them that's what most gamers wanted.
Marcin: We were talking to a lot of publishers – actually most of the ones, who could handle an RPG. Some were showing us focus-style research, professional reports: “What a Game Should Be”, “What an RPG Should Be.” Some of them made a game based on this and they didn't succeed, so... [laughs]
Seems like they put so much effort into all this research and it turns out they don't really know what they're talking about. [laughs]
It's tough for companies – especially the big ones, as there it's all about mitigating risk. As long as you have a report, so you can say there was a report for somebody so they can be in the line of fire if it goes wrong...That's how it works with really big companies. Fortunately there are people and companies that believe in great ideas and like them and support them -- that's how we got The Witcher out there, but to achieve that we really had to do a lot of the initial marketing and PR ourselves. We got great support from BioWare on using their technology and with the initial contacts in the publishing world. They actually gave us a space and computer on their E3 booth to show the first version of The Witcher. That was very helpful – we are still gratetful for that. Then it was just building the game one brick at a time.
Quite a big risk.
[laughs] Yeah. This is about dreams and about passion. Sometimes there is too much, but yeah, we have a great game. [laughs] And there's another one coming!
How and why did you decide to make The Witcher 2?
The Witcher 1 was very well received – it got over 100 awards, has a huge fan base, and we wanted to continue the story. With the feedback we received, we wanted to do better, improve it; the team really wanted to make another great Witcher game. And when we started The Witcher 2, we'd planned it as a multi-game saga. That's pretty much the main reason; we always intended to continue Geralt’s story.
So we can all expect The Witcher 3 if this one does well?
Really, can you? [laughs] You first have to enjoy The Witcher 2.
What have you learned since the first game?
[laughs] I really like this question. Okay, we learned how to make games. [laughs] We learned how to establish a development studio from nothing, how to market a successful title with no track record... [laughs]
These were very painful and expensive lessons, but we learned you have to be true to yourself and really stand behind your ideas. Sometimes it was easier to just say yes to somebody's idea, somebody coming from outside with a magical recipe how to make things easier, but with The Witcher, from the very beginning we knew what game we wanted to deliver and we were true to that through the whole development process. We had no creative influence from outside and that's why it’s different from other games. It really is our game.
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