The Witcher 3's Script Has Over 450,000 Words

[Steven Bogos]

The Witcher 3's Script Has Over 450,000 Words

It took 2.5 years to complete all the voice recording for The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/witcher%203?os=witcher+3]'s dialog is all completely voiced, from Geralt himself right down to every insignificant peasant he speaks with. It's even more impressive when you consider that the game often features branching conversations depending on the choices you have made, so when we heard that there were over 450,000 words in the game, we weren't too surprised. It is still, nonetheless, a herculean feat from CD Projket Red.

The put things into perspective, your average paperback has around 80,000 - 100,000 words, meaning The Witcher 3 is as meaty as four books. Side [http://side.com/] were the folks responsible for all that voice recording, and has offered us a few more statistics on just how much talking there is in the game. It claims the 50 hours of main storyline for The Witcher 3 required 950 speaking roles, taking more than two and a half years to record. The voice recording began at the end of 2012 and was finished earlier this year.

If you're playing through The Witcher 3 and notice that some of the NPCs sound a bit familiar, Side were also the studio that did voice recording for Alien: Isolation, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Assassin's Creed: Unity.

So next time someone tells you to put down the vidya games and go read a book, you can retort with "actually, i'm reading four books".

Source: IGN [http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/29/this-is-how-big-the-script-was-for-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt]

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[Silentpony_v1legacy]

...neat?
I never understood why long stories automatically equal good stories. Like Oblivion or Morrowind. What was it, 9 Novels worth of dialogue and little bits? And neither could keep me entertained longer than say...30mins.
I'd rather see a game with exactly 10 amazing lines than 450,000 different ways to say "busty wench" and "I'm a pig farmer"

 

[Bat Vader]

I am now going to imagine that CDProjekt Red actually had the game done in 2014 but two two delays happened because the voice work wasn't done in time. Is it wrong? Yes. Is it funny? Yes.

 

[Areloch]

The put things into perspective, you're average paperback has around 80,000 - 100,000 words,

I think that's supposed to be "your"?

On topic, that's a lot of dialog. It says 950 speaking roles, I wonder how many unique voice actors they had to fill those and how much doubling up certain actors needed to do.

 

[NickBrahz]

Good for them? doesn't mean anything if those 450,000 words are boring though.

 

[Erttheking]

*Looks at fanfiction*

When your story is 100,000 words longer than the script to the Witcher 3, that's probably a good sign you should find a way to get to the ending soon.

 

[Shinkicker444]

*Looks at fanfiction*

When your story is 100,000 words longer than the script to the Witcher 3, that's probably a good sign you should find a way to get to the ending soon.

But how many reviews?! That's the main sign of success on that site!

(To be fair though I've seen some stories have like 10-20 reviews that were a thousand times better than some of the tripe in some sections of that site with 6k+ reviews. Been meaning to read 'From the Ashes' for ages. Read your 'New Origins' way back in the day and quite liked it. Seriously wish Eterna1Soldier would update Clash at some point though.)

 

[Elfgore]

Reminds me of when Dragon Age: Origins made the proud claim of nine novels worth of dialogue. It a cool claim to make and could get people with the "WOW! So many words!" approach. Doesn't mean all the words are good though... except in the Witcher's case so far, a good amount of them are.

 

[Metadigital]

If words are wind, then what are 450,000 words?

It's a huge game. The hallmark of AAA titles these days, really. It means they spent a lot of money on the game. I remember when news sites started talking about game budgets (I think around the time of GTA3?). This is a kind of continuation on that, I suppose.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

*Looks at fanfiction*

When your story is 100,000 words longer than the script to the Witcher 3, that's probably a good sign you should find a way to get to the ending soon.

I rationalize my own stuff on FF by pointing out that each of my stories is a collection of smaller stories. My last "arc" was roughly 85000 words, about the length of a short novel. I try to split them up with one shots between my larger stories.
It helps keep everything under one roof so you don't have people grasping around for the next story and needing to dig through five or six individual stories.

 

[Chefsbrian]

The interesting thing to keep in mind with the book comparison is that a novel uses words to depict more than just the dialog. The witcher has, at times, some surprisingly expressive motion on the characters during conversations.

Except the one armorer trying to sell me a crossbow. He's pretty dull.

 

[Porygon-2000]

Wow.

I suddenly feel bad for the poor saps who have to get that translated for the international market. Unless it was a simultaneous release, which would explain the delay.

 

[vallorn]

*Looks at fanfiction*

When your story is 100,000 words longer than the script to the Witcher 3, that's probably a good sign you should find a way to get to the ending soon.

Have you been reading Fallout Equestia? It and Project Horizons have a nightmarishly huge amount of words...

The interesting thing to keep in mind with the book comparison is that a novel uses words to depict more than just the dialog. The witcher has, at times, some surprisingly expressive motion on the characters during conversations.

Except the one armorer trying to sell me a crossbow. He's pretty dull.

But don't you want a Gabrielle? He's a pretty easy game of Gwent too.

One of the things I love about The Witcher is how there are dialogue choices, but at the same time Geralt NEVER breaks character. Everything I've seen so far fits into his character and so it all flows naturally. So it really feels like you are making the choices of Geralt rather than Mass Effect where you are making your own choices and Shepard just happens to BE you.

 

[Strazdas]

Well thats a nice 4.5 novels. Hopefully same 3 lines do not get repeated every time you fight a peasant then.

...neat?
I never understood why long stories automatically equal good stories. Like Oblivion or Morrowind. What was it, 9 Novels worth of dialogue and little bits? And neither could keep me entertained longer than say...30mins.
I'd rather see a game with exactly 10 amazing lines than 450,000 different ways to say "busty wench" and "I'm a pig farmer"

The thing with Oblivion and Morrowind is that most of that 9 novels were actual in-game books.

If words are wind, then what are 450,000 words?

It's a huge game. The hallmark of AAA titles these days, really. It means they spent a lot of money on the game. I remember when news sites started talking about game budgets (I think around the time of GTA3?). This is a kind of continuation on that, I suppose.

A hurricane?

Witcher 3 had a budget of 20 Million USD. GTA 5 had a budget of 500 million USD[footnote]and it appears they couldnt even hire good programmers[/footnote]. Who is wasting money, ill let you decide.