Witcher 3 - Interview with Jakub Rokosz

The Koalition has a new interview with Jakub Rokosz, Senior Quest Designer for CD Projekt RED for The Witcher 3.

DJ: Can you first tell me a bit about where Geralt is at both in terms of the story and just mentally as a character, near the start of The Witcher 3?

JR: Geralt has grown up as the world changed around him.  He has seen a lot in his days – he helped kingdoms rise and fall, killed many enemies. He was forced into a lot of these events, now he is just tired. He wants to return to his occupation as a “simple” monster slayer and find his lost love.

The war changed everything. Those once in power have lost it and are no longer interested in Geralt. New players, however, arrived on the scene and have plans for the Witcher. Such transitional times are really dangerous, but at the same time there is a much greater threat looming above all nations.  A cavalcade of ghastly specters, the Wild Hunt, appears in the sky and will again cross its path with Geralt.

DJ: Which elements do you think The Witcher 2 was missing that held it back from being the fully realized vision that you're planning for The Witcher 3 to ultimately live up to?

JR: From what I’ve already mentioned we changed the difficulty curve. It doesn’t mean we’ve dumbed the game down, but we adjusted the difficulty curve so that it increases at a gradual and more natural rate. The last game started pretty tough, but by the end there was little challenge at all.

Also we designed the user interface with every specific platform in mind. Many players complained about the inventory system, and this time it will not be problematic at all we hope.

But I feel like the most important change is with the open world. At last we can fully show what being a Witcher - the monster hunter - is all about.

DJ: Are you making any major changes to gameplay that you want to talk about? The jump from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2, in terms of combat specifically, was very large.

JR: The open world is definitely something new in the franchise, so this introduces new gameplay mechanics and activities.

The game will have no chapters and you will be able to go everywhere all the time, with no loading times in between.  New means of exploration will be introduced. This doesn’t mean you should go everywhere all the time – some regions might be too dangerous when you start. But it means that if you want to check out new settings you don’t have to wait until a chapter is complete.

DJ: Do you plan to maintain the same mindset with DLC and additional content post release, or will you be changing your approach to DLC and DRM for The Witcher 3?

JR: We won’t do anything that tempers the experience of our fans. You can be sure that The Witcher 3 will have no DRM on PC, for example, thanks to GoG.com.