The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Interview

RPGFan recently had the opportunity to quiz The Witcher 2 senior producer Tomasz Gop about the game’s improvements upon its predecessor, its long development cycle, the grey moral choices it will present to us, and more. A snip:

RPGFan: Do you feel that the possibility of a console version has influenced any of your design decisions? For example, the original Dragon Age was developed with PCs in mind and then ported to console, whereas the sequel was developed with consoles in mind and then ported to PC, and it showed in the design of the game. You did show off controller support for the game at E3…

TG: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was designed with only one platform in mind, the PC, which is our first and foremost focus here at CD Projekt Red. Therefore, we didn’t cripple or even compromise the interface or any other aspect of the game for consoles. We realize some players prefer gamepads, so we do support them.

…

RPGFan: Many western RPGs give players a large amount of customization when it comes to the main character, but Geralt is Geralt. What kind of advantages does this give you in storytelling?

TG: The primary advantage is that Geralt is a very strong, highly distinctive character. Since he is described in detail by Andrzej Sapkowski in the entire Witcher series, we obviously had to stay true to that. So, our goal was to show him the way we imagined him when we read the books. You can’t customize how he looks, but you can get to know him in depth his personality, his character. Everything about Geralt is unique; he’s definitely not your generic poster boy from a typical RPG.