The Witcher 3 Director Set Up His New RPG Studio To Make Something ‘Meaningful’

Konrad Tomaszkiewicz loves RPGs. That volition travel arsenic a astonishment to nary 1 who takes adjacent a cursory glimpse astatine his vocation history, which saw him emergence from a inferior tester each the mode up to the manager of The Witcher 3 and its expansions implicit a 17-year travel with CD Projekt Red.

Today, Tomaszkiewicz has his ain studio, Rebel Wolves, which is dedicated to making caller games successful the genre he’s loved for decades.

“From the archetypal PCs, my favourite games were Eye of the Beholder and Betrayal astatine Krondor,” helium reminisces. “Later it was Ultima 7, Baldur's Gate, the archetypal Fallout. And past determination was decidedly Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, the archetypal one. It was buggy arsenic hellhole but it was a large game. So galore possibilities, each vampire clan and antithetic ways of play. It was really, truly great.”

Perhaps Tomaszkiewicz’s emotion for Bloodlines was the distant root constituent for The Blood of Dawnwalker, Rebel Wolves’ upcoming, profoundly ambitious vampire RPG. As successful Troika’s beloved game, Dawnwalker makes clever usage of vampire mythology to pass its gameplay mechanics, including a hunger strategy that overrides your dialog options with a hopeless request to provender erstwhile you’re starved of blood. Ignore your cravings for excessively agelong and you whitethorn find yourself involuntarily draining a large NPC of their lifeforce, permanently removing them from the story.

It’s systems similar that that person ensured RPGs person remained Tomaszkiewicz’s favourite genre done the decades. “[They] are the astir important for maine due to the fact that they let maine to choose,” helium says. “They let maine to consciousness the effect of my choices.”

For the Love of RPGs

Tomaszkiewicz’s fascination with the immersive qualities of RPGs began aboriginal on. “I had rather a hard puerility due to the fact that my begetter was a surgeon, but the occupation was that helium was besides an alcoholic,” helium explains. “We had a batch of things which were truly dense and video games were an escape. RPGs were the astir immersive due to the fact that erstwhile I went into the role, it was truly important for maine to lick those mysteries oregon spell done the adventures. This flight was truly cleanable for maine due to the fact that I could hide astir world successful those games.”

RPGs person been truthful formative successful Tomaszkiewicz’s beingness that helium simply won’t see making immoderate different benignant of game. “I volition not spell to bash racing games oregon shooters, due to the fact that [role-playing games] is thing which is wrong me. This is what I privation to create.”

That brings america to Rebel Wolves. As you participate into its Warsaw-based offices, you’re greeted by a partition mural that reads “A workplace calved retired of emotion for RPGs.” Its desks are manned by each mode of RPG enthusiasts, including household (both figuratively and virtually – Tomaszkiewicz’s brother, Mateusz, is Dawnwalker’s originative director) who followed him from CD Projekt Red, and caller allies with varied past experiences, from bid simulators to humanities reenactment. Together, they anticipation to make a medieval phantasy RPG that's “meaningful for players and the industry.”

But what does Rebel Wolves mean by that? When it comes to players, Tomaszkiewicz explains it's not conscionable astir delivering an impactful story, but thing that volition promote thought and reflection aft playing. “When I perceive from the players that they experienced thing caller and thing fresh, this is meaningful for me,” helium says.

As for the industry, Tomaszkiewicz points towards The Blood of Dawnwalker’s cardinal mechanic: time. You person conscionable 30 days and 30 nights to prevention protagonist Coen’s household from the clutches of evil vampires, with actions specified arsenic completing objectives and engaging successful definite conversations pushing the timepiece forward. While it shares communal crushed with the clip absorption loops successful games similar Persona and Disco Elysium, it’s a caller mode of adding unit and effect to a Witcher-style RPG.

“I privation to amusement to the manufacture that it's imaginable to bash this risky stuff,” Tomaszkiewicz says, “and to alteration the feeling of the genre, to make a subdivision of the genre, due to the fact that I deliberation that determination is simply a batch of abstraction and a batch of chartless we haven’t explored yet.”

Risky Business

Tomaszkiewicz admits that “we were a small bored” of making what helium calls “same-but-new” video games. “When you merchandise the 1 crippled and it is simply a success, radical privation much of this, but they don't privation you to alteration it due to the fact that they emotion this peculiar idea,” helium laments. “And evidently erstwhile you person these stakeholders oregon the banal marketplace and truthful on, determination are the needs from those sides and it's rather hard to delight everyone.”

On the surface, The Blood of Dawnwalker does admittedly look precise akin to The Witcher 3. It’s different azygous protagonist RPG with a absorption connected enactment combat, heavy choices, and cinematic presumption – it looks same-but-new. But the squad wanted to make thing that was fundamentally precise different. That’s wherever the thought of the “narrative sandbox” came in; Dawnwalker doesn’t person a classical main quest enactment that takes you from prologue to last boss. Instead, aft the instauration you’re escaped to research the satellite and implicit its many, galore quests successful immoderate bid you like. Some overlap, creating a deeper consciousness of spot and politics. But nary are mandatory – you tin simply spell close from tutorial to the last brushwood if you truly privation to.

When you person the large companies which person established IPs, it's truly hard to bash thing truly innovative due to the fact that it's ever astir being same-but-new.“

“Our ngo should beryllium to present not lone a chill experience, which is ‘safe’ due to the fact that we cognize however to bash that, but we should besides research these areas which we are not experts successful yet, and to effort to present immoderate caller feelings,” insists Tomaszkiewicz. “Obviously present the hazard is bigger, but I deliberation that it's worthy it due to the fact that aboriginal connected you volition beryllium remembered successful the industry, due to the fact that you created thing truly new. Maybe successful the aboriginal immoderate different radical volition effort to bash the ‘narrative sandbox’.”

I inquire Tomaszkiewicz if Dawnwalker’s communicative sandbox and clip loop were things helium could person accomplished astatine CDPR oregon different large, established studio. “I deliberation I couldn't,” helium says. “When you person the large companies which person established IPs, it's truly hard to alteration thing oregon bash thing truly innovative due to the fact that it's ever astir being same-but-new. You already cognize the playerbase wants astir the same, but new, successful examination to doing thing truly caller and new. I deliberation that Cyberpunk was this benignant of leap for CDPR, but it's truly hard to spell done with ideas similar this successful the large companies. And here, erstwhile I person my ain company, I can, with the commerce [team] and my [development] team, marque our ain mistakes oregon our ain decisions of brainsick worldly we privation to create.”

Beyond Dawnwalker

Considering Tomaszkiewicz’s frustrations with a improvement strategy that forces studios to marque overly-similar games, I inquire astir his imaginativeness for the aboriginal of Rebel Wolves. The Blood of Dawnwalker is planned to beryllium a saga, but won’t that mean processing iterative sequels that are “same-but-new”?

“I deliberation that it's truly astute to enactment however Blizzard worked before,” helium says, pointing backmost to the Californian studio’s aboriginal days. “They had Warcraft, but they besides created StarCraft. It's astute due to the fact that radical request refreshment. And astatine immoderate constituent we request to make a 2nd IP. I deliberation that, immoderate clip from now, we volition bash 1 crippled from [the Dawnwalker] IP and a 2nd crippled from a antithetic IP, and past backmost to [Dawnwalker].”

Tomaszkiewicz notes that helium wants to enactment with his squad for arsenic agelong arsenic possible, and helium recognises that portion of the situation is creating an situation that volition foster originative happiness. He believes that creating a 2nd IP volition (at slightest partly) hole the occupation of developers stifled by moving connected “same-but-new” projects.

Levelling up the RPG

As a life-long instrumentality of role-playing games, Tomaszkiewicz has watched the genre alteration successful real-time. “Because of this improvement of tools and of tech, you tin bash things faster, you tin make games with bigger words, with the features you couldn't bash sometime ago,” helium says. “The cleanable illustration is Crimson Desert, due to the fact that the magnitude of features they person is insane! And I'm laughing that, if it would beryllium imaginable for maine to person truthful galore features similar they have, combined with the communicative we tin tell, we would make a beatified grail.”

Such a lofty extremity raises the question of AI, which the tech giants of the satellite committedness tin present super-human productivity. Tomaszkiewicz confirms that Rebel Wolves has utilized generative AI arsenic portion of Dawnwalker’s improvement – artificial voices were utilized during the aboriginal stages of plan to make a benignant of draught mentation of cutscenes and dialogues, which allowed the squad to enactment retired if the publication worked successful signifier earlier the formed of actors were brought successful to grounds their performances. The last mentation of Dawnwalker volition diagnostic nary AI assets astatine all, though.

“I deliberation that companies should usage AI, but successful the mode which helps radical to work, not regenerate the people,” emphasises Tomaszkiewicz.

He uses Rebel Wolves’ in-house QA squad arsenic an illustration of however AI tools could beryllium utilized to amended development. “They sometimes person the task that they request to, for example, spell done the terrain and cheque if determination are nary holes successful the terrain and that the collisions are good,” helium explains. “At the aforesaid time, they could play the quest and archer maine if they similar the characters oregon if the gameplay loops are amusive enough, oregon if the timings successful the combat tin beryllium amended oregon whatever, right? And my attack is that I consciousness that we should usage AI to assistance our radical to enactment and instrumentality from them these tasks which are annoying and frustrating and let them to bash this much amusive work, which is needed, actually.”

That’s not a world for Rebel Wolves astatine the moment, and truthful the developer’s 150 unit indispensable cautiously absorption connected the things that are worthy spending clip on. Given clip and money, specified a squad could astir surely execute that “holy grail” of Crimson Desert’s feature-packed satellite grafted onto The Blood of Dawnwalkers story, without immoderate request for AI. But the world of crippled improvement is that determination are clip and wealth constraints, and that tin signifier a studio’s outlook and drive.

“We person present doctrine that we make features which enactment the communicative and the consciousness we privation to create. We similar to make little features, but [make them] much polished,” Tomaszkiewicz explains. “From my perspective, each of this worldly needs to person meaning successful the game, oregon I request to person the information to usage them.”

But Tomaszkiewicz’s existent information for pushing guardant the genre is thing helium shares with galore of the world’s astir salient RPG developers. It each goes backmost to wherever the genre began: connected the tabletop, with 20-sided dice and a dungeon master.

“We’re learning however to springiness adjacent much state to players,” helium says. “Not lone successful the gameplay and exploration of the world, but besides the communicative elements. Like successful quests, allowing you to implicit your extremity successful many, galore ways. It's moving the video crippled person to pen and insubstantial RPGs, and I deliberation that this is the beatified grail of what we privation to achieve. To springiness you the state and springiness you immersion, which allows you to acquisition – emotionality-wise and feeling-wise – the games successful a antithetic way.”

For many, Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3 has acceptable an astir intolerable precocious barroom erstwhile it comes to that benignant of ambition. But, from what I’ve seen of The Blood of Dawnwalker truthful far, its dedication to prime and shocking consequences, arsenic good arsenic its ambitious “narrative sandbox” design, means that it stands a accidental of capturing the magic of an unforgettable D&D session. And if it each goes well, Tomaszkiewicz volition person helped instal yet different Polish workplace among RPG royalty.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.