Clear words and understanding for critical players: CDPR’s Lead Quest Designer, Pawel Sasko, chats openly in his Twitch stream about the development of Cyberpunk 2077. Among other things, he explains what went wrong, what he wants to do better in the future and why he is grateful to even the most hostile Reddit forums .
In this article we summarize Sasko’s very personal view of the situation, you can watch the complete stream watch it here on Twitch.
»We don’t just want to hear positive comments«
In the stream, Sasko answers questions from the community and also goes into detail on criticism. According to his own statement, he reads both the “Low Sodium Reddit” and the “High Sodium Reddit”, more on this in the info box. For him, the often very sharp and loud criticism of the players is valuable.
»Low Sodium« und »High Sodium«: Das Subreddit LowSodiumCyberpunk consciously focuses on positive feedback and enjoying the game. High Sodium Reddit is the name given to the forums in which there was a lot going on, especially after the release, where the mood sometimes turned into real hatred of the developers. But not all users there are haters, it is a colorful collection of critical opinions.
Towards the end of the stream, Sasko answers the viewers’ comments and requests. When asked if he’s familiar with these Reddit groups, he says:
“Yes, of course! I know Low Sodium and I also know High Sodium. I read both of them almost religiously. What I would like to say about this: People often think we just want to hear the positive comments, but that’s not true at all. I know.” Really appreciate what the High Sodium Reddit is doing. The discussions people have there and so on, and the problems they point up. Because honestly, personally, I always want to improve myself as a designer and team leader. “
According to his own words, he appreciates the criticism very much, but would also like the players and the media to perceive better how demanding the development of Cyberpunk 2077 was for the studio:
“I hear a lot from people – what happened? That the company that made The Witcher released cyberpunk and so on. What happened: We reached for a new IP, we tried to learn as much as possible Our goals were extremely ambitious and I don’t really feel that players and journalists really understand how difficult it was to make this game.
I’m not saying you should give us more credit. You should demand a fully functioning and well-made game, that is your right. I am simply speaking of understanding that it was a very difficult and ambitious game and that we tried our best on all fronts. We have succeeded in many and we still have to improve on many. ”
For him the patches that have already been released show where the journey is headed. With Hotfix 1.21, for example, many more quest bugs have been fixed and the police AI has been further improved:
more on the subject
Cyberpunk 2077: Alle Patch Notes zu Hotfix 1.21
According to his own statement, he has no idea when the planned DLCs for Cyberpunk 2077 will be released.
Why was The Witcher 3 easier for him to develop?
The success of The Witcher 3 appears to have been both a blessing and a curse for CDPR. On the one hand, Sasko has learned a lot in over ten years in the studio and has also personally improved as a designer. But he also talks about it it is not easy to build on such a huge success.
“With Witcher 3 we made it to the top […] If you try to get better then you can make mistakes. You can go in a direction that you are not properly equipped to pull off completely. And I think that partially happened to us. “
For him personally it is much easier to find his way around fantasy settings. Partly that would be due to his years of experience with the Witcher series, he was already on board for The Witcher 2. But in general, science fiction is much more difficult. Because with fantasy one can rely on the reality of people in the Middle Ages. For Sci Fi (including cyberpunk), on the other hand, you have to make the whole thing believable for people of today – and the constant improvements in technology make this even more difficult.
PLUS
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What makes The Witcher 3 so special and what Cyberpunk must inherit in 2077
What does he want to do better in the future?
A viewer asks Sasko what he wants to improve in the future after the experience with Cyberpunk 2077. The answer:
“There are so many things that the list would be very long. […] I’m not talking about cyberpunk, but also about myself as an artist and us as a studio. For example, I would like to improve how the individual elements interact so that, for example, scenes, quests and open world flow together better. It all boils down to better coordination, better understanding. We need a lot more training for ourselves and our teams to really get better. “
He seems to be in line with the studio’s official plans on this issue. Just recently, CDPR announced the new strategy, which should lead to better cooperation between the individual development teams:
more on the subject
Cyberpunk 2077: What CDPR wants to improve in the future
His Twitch stream will now run every Sunday evening. In it he explains many design decisions and draws attention to exciting details. Of course you will also find a list with 25 cool Easter Eggs that you have probably missed.
