The Witcher - Interview, Media & Attributes @ GameBanshee

GameBanshee kicks off a week-long celebration of The Witcher bunch of media and details of the skill tree for the main attributes, as well as a nice interview with chief designer, Michal Madej. The interview includes the frank admission they would have liked more freedom in the world exploration, as well as clear hints they have more plans for this franchise.  Here's an early snip:

GB: Which games would you say influenced and/or inspired you the most during development of The Witcher?

Michal: We were inspired by all classical RPGs with great stories, like Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, KotOR and the quite underestimated Vampire: Bloodlines. We were greatly influenced by the Gothic series, especially the feeling of a living world, freedom of choice and the realistic fantasy theme. But as it comes to combat, we realized we are much closer to console action-adventure games like God of War with exciting, spectacular and fast-paced battles, rather than turn-based combat or mindless clicking. Finally we always wanted to achieve user-friendliness and intuitiveness of great Blizzard titles like Diablo. We also were tracking some mistakes made in other games, just to be sure we will avoid them.