Users of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt probably remember how much time they spent searching for clues in the so-called Witcher Sense mode. Quest designer Paweł Sasko spoke about the creation of intrusive mechanics.
Image source: Steam (zacsha)
According to Sasko, when CD Projekt Red started The Witcher 3, the gameplay loop with clues seemed something fresh. Sasko worked on the mechanics with experienced quest designer Danisz Markiewicz.
«When we were working on [this mechanic] in 2012, we thought it was a great idea. And when The Witcher 3 came out, we realized that we had gone a little too far, gone too far,” Sasko said in a recent interview with the Brazilian YouTube channel Flow Games.
Sasko recalls that there were so many Witcher Sense sections in The Witcher 3 that it hurt the pacing of the game. Therefore, in the additions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, they tried to reduce the degree of such investigations.
Witcher Sense Effect (Image Source: CD Projekt Red)
Although the gameplay pacing has already improved in expansions for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Sasko called the Phantom Liberty add-on for Cyberpunk 2077 the pinnacle of CD Projekt Red’s efforts in this regard.
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CD Projekt Red is currently working on both the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 (codenamed Orion) and the next Witcher (Polaris). The latter currently employs almost 65% of all studio employees.