Cyberpunk 2077 is one of those titles that gamers are going crazy for, even though a lot hasn’t happened with the game yet. Developer CD Projekt RED, best known for it's work with The Witcher franchise, is gearing up to begin serious production. According to one team member who spoke with iDigitalTimes at PAX East 2016, enthusiasm for the project is making it easy to say goodbye to The Witcher franchise and it's hero, Geralt, who will see his final adventure in the release of the upcoming Blood And Wine DLC.
“To be honest, the politically correct answer is yes, it is sad [to finish Geralt’s story]. But the truth is that everyone is so insanely pumped about working on the next project, Cyberpunk 2077,” said Jose Teixeira, a visual effects artist for CD Projekt RED. “We could’ve made a million expansions for The Witcher because there’s so many stories in that world but everyone is crazy excited about Cyberpunk 2077. ”
Cyberpunk 2077 is very, very early in it's development cycle and CD Projekt RED hasn’t said much about what fans can expect. Although the little bits of info they have shared have been met with a huge response that Teixeira says is unlike the trajectory of The Witcher franchise.
“There is a difference between how games like this reach a general audience. With The Witcher it was a snowball effect and there was this core of hardcore gamers that knew about The Witcher and they passed the word along. It was a very slow process,” he said. “With Cyberpunk 2077 all they did was this little mood trailer and it just went insane. It was like an avalanche of interest immediately. It clicks with people instantly and it does the exact same thing with me.”
In order to deliver on the already high expectations for the game, CD Projekt RED is first going to improve the software used in-house to make the game. Teixeira explained that developing The Witcher 3 was such a long and involved process that the team kept notes along the way of the tools they want to make things easier.
“The most important thing that’s happening at the moment is that the programmers are taking the feedback we gave them from working on The Witcher. As cliche as it sounds it was a big learning experience,” he said, explaining that by the end of the development everyone had a list of features they wanted for new dev tools. “The programmers are updating our software quite drastically.”
This includes a brand new visual effects editor, which Teixeira is very excited about. He admits that he’s got a little more enthusiasm for the upcoming project than he did for The Witcher 3. For him, Cyberpunk 2077 represents a chance to explore a genre he finds more interesting.
“I immensely appreciate medieval fantasy games,” he said. “ But I don’t know what it is about Cyberpunk 2077 but it just clicks. There’s something about this game that just clicks with me and I’m really happy to be working on it.”
Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled for release sometime in the next four years, so don’t hold your breath for any big announcements in the near future.
