CD Projekt Created New Engine for Witcher 2's Story

[Logan Westbrook]

CD Projekt Created New Engine for Witcher 2's Story

Its non-linear story is The Witcher 2's "ultimate feature," says developer CD Projekt.

CD Projekt senior producer Tomasz Gop said the developer had created a "tailor-made engine" for The Witcher 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Witcher-2-Assassins-Kings-Pc/dp/B003VJNPPE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286179954&sr=8-1], so that it could tell the story the studio wanted to tell without being constrained by the aging Neverwinter Nights engine used in the first game.

Speaking at this weekend's Eurogamer Expo [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-03-story-is-witcher-2s-ultimate-feature], Gop said that the engine had been written from scratch, allowing CD Projekt to enhance the game in all areas. This had given the studio the ability to build things on a much larger scale than before, he said, for both locations and encounters. To illustrate the abilities of the new engine, Gop showed off the prison break trailer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103729-Witcher-2-Shows-Off-Its-Varied-Gameplay-in-Stealthy-and-Stabby-Video-NSFW] from last week, which saw lead character Geralt escaping from a prison in a variety of different ways and demonstrated The Witcher 2's non-linear gameplay in the process, and then a previously unseen "cursed battlefield" with hundreds of ghost soldiers roaming it at the same time.

Gop said that The Witcher 2 will be a story-driven game that will be around the same size as the first one, supposedly around 80 hours of gameplay. He also said that the fetch quests that made up a significant portion of those 80 hours in the first game have been scrapped, and that the game will be "more intense" overall.

The Witcher 2 will be released for PC some time in 2011, although CD Projekt does want to bring the game to consoles as well.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-03-story-is-witcher-2s-ultimate-feature]


Permalink

 

[Hippobatman]

Sounds interesting. Never did play the first one, but might look into this one when I've read reviews etc.

There are too few good western RPGs in the marked, in my opinion.

 

[SyphonX]

Yeah, Bioware's old NWN engine is starting to show it's age. No argument there.

This is a little surprising, I though they would just use the same engine again. I'm curious and a little excited to see what they've done with the new one.

 

[Master10K]

Well this intrigues me. I'm always up for a lengthy single player RPG, especially one with a great story to tell, a diverse array of dialogue options and 80+ hours of some non-linear gameplay does intrigue me greatly. Just hope the melee combat and stealth elements are much better than the RPG I'm currently playing (Vampire: Masquerade Bloodlines).

 

[Megacherv]

Wait, CD Projekt? The guys who did the god-awful port of Saints Row 2 to PC?

I'm skeptical about this...

 

[Zhukov]

Will half of those 80 hours still be made up of loading screens?

 

[Keava]

Wait, CD Projekt? The guys who did the god-awful port of Saints Row 2 to PC?

I'm skeptical about this...

To clear things out. The team that worked on the port was CDProjekt Localisation Centre, while the team that did Witcher and works on Witcher 2 is CDProjekt RED. The difference? Those are pretty much separate studios working under a banner of one company, just like every publisher out there is built. It's funny tho they were tasked with making the port considering Localisation Centre as the name suggests mainly does audio and text language versions.

Also the news is quite old. They announced rewriting the engine from scratch back when they first confirmed they are working on Witcher2, even the first Witcher used very heavily modified version of Aurora engine.

 

[Poopie McGhee]

I hope it does get on consoles, mostly the 360, as my PC is not wonderful.

 

[Nexus4]

I hope it does get on consoles, mostly the 360, as my PC is not wonderful.

Good news for you then, it is coming onto 360 and ps3!

 

[Blue Musician]

Weren't we had been clear about all this when the first footage was leaked?

 

[Delusibeta]

I hope it does get on consoles, mostly the 360, as my PC is not wonderful.

Good news for you then, it is coming onto 360 and ps3!

Eventually. Assuming the finished game doesn't make PS3s spontaneously combust.

 

[Jared]

We all like non0linear, but how much so is going to be the serioous question.

And then, the rest of the interface too. I have high hopes but im not holding my breath

 

[Poopie McGhee]

I hope it does get on consoles, mostly the 360, as my PC is not wonderful.

Good news for you then, it is coming onto 360 and ps3!

I hope it does get on consoles, mostly the 360, as my PC is not wonderful.

Good news for you then, it is coming onto 360 and ps3!

Eventually. Assuming the finished game doesn't make PS3s spontaneously combust.

Awesome... It looks pretty awesome...

 

[icyneesan]

Uguuu~ Need a new video card really badly D:

 

[Royas]

Ahhh, one of the games I'm most looking forward to. I loved the original Witcher, especially after CD Projekt released the enhanced edition patch. The only thing I didn't like about it was that some of the fetch quests started to get a little monotonous. The story and the combat, though, were great in my opinion. I really want to get my hands on the sequel and see what they've done with it.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

The downside to the unbridled glee I feel whenever I even think about getting my hands on this game is that I then come to resent the future for holding out on me. Stupid future, hogging all the good stuff.

Seriously, I can't wait to play this - the first game was a fantastic RPG that was admittedly a trifle rough around the edges (though most of those were polished off in the Enhanced Edition, which was free), a sequel not bound to the rickety Aurora engine with revamped combat = hell yes. I've been waiting to play this game since the moment I finished the first one (my thoughts at the time "Oh man, they had better make a sequel to this because damn do I ever want to know what that last cutscene was about!").