Narrative director Philipp Weber and executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga spoke about CD Projekt Red’s approach to creating an open world in The Witcher 4 in an interview with Video Games Chronicle.
Image source: CD Projekt Red
According to Mitrega, The Witcher 4 will “of course” be big. It was previously reported that in terms of the size of the territory to explore, the new game is comparable to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (with or without additions, not specified).
Weber believes it’s not just about size: “The open world doesn’t have to be bigger and bigger and bigger. It can be deeper, more immersive and systematic. I think it’s very interesting.”
«We always say we want a meaningful [open world]. But there cannot be an infinite amount of truly significant and interesting things. As soon as things start repeating themselves, then [the world] is too big,” Weber added.
CD Projekt Red, Weber adds, is trying with The Witcher 4 not to break what the previous three games built, but to improve elements in which the studio previously fell short.
«We are all gamers. We do this for our players: think about the experience, what the world needs and what we want to say. We are creating a game that, as fans of the series, we would like to play ourselves,” Mitrega explained.
The Witcher 4 is being created on Unreal Engine 5 and has no release date. In the story, Ciri has passed the Trial of Herbs and is preparing to become a witcher – CDPR has already confirmed that in the new game the heroine will not be as strong as in The Witcher 3.