Cyberpunk 2077 Interview
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CD Projekt's previous major project, The Witcher series, was adapted from a series of novels, which meant a fixed protagonist and a relative freedom when it came to developing gameplay systems. Now, the Polish studio is working on Cyberpunk 2077 - a digital adaptation of an established pen and paper RPG that supports multiple classes and playstyles, and that brings its own set of challenges.
With that in mind, you might want to check out this MCV/Develop interview with Cyberpunk 2077's producer Richard Borzymowski that focuses on CD Projekt's efforts to stay true to the source material while enhancing some of Cyberpunk's systems. Here's an excerpt:
While adapting Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy book series for The Witcher was a comparatively smooth transition, adapting a pen-and-paper RPG into an open world game with real-time combat was more taxing, as the game’s producer, Richard Borzymowski explains: “The thing is, every pen-and-paper RPG is essentially turn-based. It’s dice throwing, right? That doesn’t really work when there’s a zillion bullets flying across the screen.”
“We’ve stuck to as much of the original Cyberpunk 2020 as we can, but to keep things enjoyable we’ve had to change some things to make it adapt well into the video game format. From things like character attributes to guns – a lot of it is taken from the core book. We’ve added some new ones, of course, but we’re staying true to what Mike Pondsmith created. It was really important to us to remain faithful to the original, because we know there’s this community of Cyberpunk fans that have been out there since the 1980s. We’re not going to be exploiting the franchise, we’re not going out there saying ‘Hey, this is our game, it’s entirely unconnected to whatever it was before.’ We’re here to enhance Cyberpunk, alongside Mike Pondsmith.”
While stepping into an established franchise with pre-existing fans can be intimidating, as Borzymowski notes, it also allows CD Projekt Red to be more open with fans about what to expect.
“Very often I think, not just in games, but in books and movies too, you see promises being made without actually showing anything behind it – and then you’re building hype essentially based on just your words. Even if the product is very good, people might feel let down, and be like ‘oh, this isn’t what I thought it was going to be.’”
