Witcher 3 - Interview @ PSU

PSU is the lastest site to interview Game Director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz on various topics for The Witcher 3.

What opportunities for domestic role-playing will be offered in The Witcher 3? Stuff like tavern games, home building, relationships, property, etc.?

At this point I can confirm tavern games and mini-games in general (e.g. axe throwing in Skellige). As for home building, I think we won’t go in that direction--the world is in turmoil as Nilfgaard invaded the Northern Kingdoms and you’ll see more houses burning than being built. That said, we probably will introduce a place or two to keep property in, but that’s to be determined in the future. Relationships will be present in the game but I don’t want to go into details now.

What’s most important, however, is Monster Hunting. Calling it a “mini-game” would be a major injustice so we’re treating it more like a new game mechanic. Geralt is a witcher--he basically hunts monsters for gold. Imagine this: you’re passing through a village and you hear in a tavern that the locals have a problem with people disappearing in the forest. People are desperate so they decide to hire you.

First you’ll have to find clues to determine what kind of monster menaces the villagers, then find the monster’s vulnerability and then the monster itself. The best part of it all is that all these stories are well-rooted in the local folklore--the villagers will tell tales about the monster from their youth, for example. This creates a feeling of a coherent world and it’s one of the things we’re extra proud of.

During the E3 gameplay demo, I saw cliffsides and forests that reminded
me of similar areas in The Witcher 1 and 2 where invisible walls or environmental walls kept players from entering inconvenient areas. Will the same walls guide exploration in The Witcher 3, or can I, say, jump off a 200-meter cliff into the ocean on a whim?

The short answer is: you can go everywhere within our huge game-world without invisible walls. If jumping cliffs is your thing, you can break your neck as many times as you wish! The world you see is as seamless as we can make it.

How will NPC violence be handled this time around? Am I free to attack townspeople, attract guard attention, and the like?

We’re exploring many options at this point. Currently, you won’t be able to attack townsfolk, but this may change depending on the direction the team finally decides to take. It’s a question of the universe itself--Geralt has been trained to protect people from monsters and killing them would mean he’s becoming a monster himself. Killing townsfolk breaks immersion and derails the narrative. Since we deeply value storytelling, we will always go with the option that supports it rather than giving you a choice that the world doesn't benefit from. If we choose not to give you the option to kill NPCs, it's not because we can’t do it, it’s because the overall gameplay experience will benefit from it in our opinion.