This and other bits of information came from interview with Marcin Iwinski by Jason for Kotaku Splitscreen.
It was 30-ish minute interview with variety of topics, including crunch talk, and you can listen to it here: https://player.fm/series/kotaku-splitscreen/e3-2018-the-challenges-of-making-cyberpunk-2077
Here is my notes from interview. Questions and answers aren't word for word, but more me just taking up larger points and such.
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Why to show CP77 behind closed doors?
How long was in prep for E3?
They appriciate that people are willing to wait bit longer for CP77, telling them to take their time and get it right
They do QA from early on in development, seeking for any issues and solutions early on.
Teased in 2013, rumors about reboots later. True?
When true dev started?
CDP + GOG is 800-ish people, 600-ish people working on development, 100-ish on Gwent and 500-ish on CP77?
Jason says 400-ish for CP77, Marcin doesn't correct him.
This gen or next?
Crunch discussion. Jason brings up and Marcin addresses interview where it was implied CDPR was against unions
What learned from TW3?
How Gwent is doing?
Minigame like Gwent in CP77?
Did E3 gameplay demo of 77 require full dev team?
When is next CP77 appearance?
Post-release roadmap planned for CP77?
Thoughts on MTX?
Witcher is very Polish game, 77 looks American / European. Polish blood in this?
What gameplay ran on
https://imgur.com/gallery/ag25Ll0
It was 30-ish minute interview with variety of topics, including crunch talk, and you can listen to it here: https://player.fm/series/kotaku-splitscreen/e3-2018-the-challenges-of-making-cyberpunk-2077
Here is my notes from interview. Questions and answers aren't word for word, but more me just taking up larger points and such.
------------------------------------
Why to show CP77 behind closed doors?
- Would love show everyone, E3 format influenced decisions. Only so limited amount of people would have seen it on stage. They decided to show to limited pool of people too, get feedback straight.
- They handed out surveys to everyone who saw gameplay demo.
How long was in prep for E3?
- They started prep in 2017.
They appriciate that people are willing to wait bit longer for CP77, telling them to take their time and get it right
They do QA from early on in development, seeking for any issues and solutions early on.
Teased in 2013, rumors about reboots later. True?
- Coy about answer, but confirms that there has been some soft-reboots on aspects of the game. Iterating. Visual design was one of those things, if I understood context right
- They somewhat changed direction of whole game too at some point. Doesn't address it, but sounds like there was no rumored 100% clean start hard-reboot.
When true dev started?
- They thought in 2013 they could run CP77 and TW3 in parallel, they couldn't. They maybe could have, but decided to go all in on TW3's and expansions quality.
- There was world design etc. work going on at background for CP77 during TW3 development, made starting actual development easier for CP77
CDP + GOG is 800-ish people, 600-ish people working on development, 100-ish on Gwent and 500-ish on CP77?
Jason says 400-ish for CP77, Marcin doesn't correct him.
This gen or next?
- PC + current-gen. Says they have no idea when or what next-gen is, says their tech is ready to scale up to next-gen.
- REDEngine 4 runs CP77, REDEngine 3 ran TW3. They rewrote / improved most of engine for CP77.
Crunch discussion. Jason brings up and Marcin addresses interview where it was implied CDPR was against unions
- CDPR not against unions, they just don't think it's answer to crunch.
- Publicly known that CDPR crunches
- People have to be paid for overtime (read: crunch) in Poland, unlike in e.g. US
- Not proud of need for crunch, but they are open about it and tell new people that it's part of their culture so people know what they are getting into
- Feels that a lots of AAA dev houses are similar, crunch culture all around. Doesn't say that as positive thing, not at all
- They wants to mitigate crunch, from business financial and human cost perspectives. Would be cheaper for them as company and would take less toll on employees
- They make schedules for projects with overtime in mind, but often there is even more overtime than thought
- Crunch is something that they constantly think about and seek solutions to mitigate it, but there is no magic bullet solutions
What learned from TW3?
- Says he isn't developer, but does business and publishing side. Pivots to day to day of CDP
- Day to day on Adam, for game development
- They have big focus on Gwent
- They have company they work with in China, sounded like Gaia but I didn't really catch it
- For CP77 they released English and Chinese versions of the trailer, still learning China as market area
- TW3 never had official release in China
- Gwent got official release in China
How Gwent is doing?
- Learning a lot from live game, GAAS, as company
- Happy with how game is doing
- Excited for full release later this year, will add SP campaign
Minigame like Gwent in CP77?
- He doesn't know, a lot left to do with core game still
Did E3 gameplay demo of 77 require full dev team?
- Yes, but demo is actually all out development build that they used internally for development. Not vertical slice just for E3.
- Proud of their achievement, able to get build into this presentable state was big achievement from the team. From graphics to gameplay to stability of the build
- They had to plan somewhat around E3, fit it into schedule so it gets done by X date.
- Treated this as milestone. Didn't have separate team doing "vertical slice", but everyone working towards same goal and moving game forwards
When is next CP77 appearance?
- Gamescom 2018.
- What they show wont be what was shown in E3, something different / new.
- Don't expect 100% new demo, but something different. New angle on things.
- Doesn't say if this will be behind closed doors or public showing, but Jason also didn't ask
Post-release roadmap planned for CP77?
- Not planned yet, first they want get core games release planned and done
- Witcher 3 and its roadmap worked and did very well, something similar with with 77.
- Don't expect less from us (CDPR). They don't want gamers pre-ordering anything they don't know about much or anything
Thoughts on MTX?
- "By gamers, for the gamers" approach by CDPR
- Different kind lootboxes, good and bad
- BFront 2 made them all seen mostly as evil
Witcher is very Polish game, 77 looks American / European. Polish blood in this?
- "Lets live American dream for little bit"
- Maybe expect some Polish accent. Bottles of vodka.
What gameplay ran on
https://imgur.com/gallery/ag25Ll0
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