Some excerpts from a May 1 PC Gamer preview (full article at the link below):
"Four quest designers worked on the original Witcher. Its more refined sequel had six. The conclusion to the trilogy, which promises 100 hours of content and a 50-hour story, has more than doubled that. “We have about 14, I think,” says lead quest designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz."
"Nor have CD Projekt Red simply padded out The Witcher 3’s Skyrim-exceeding open world with unimaginative busywork. They’ve systematically banished fetch quests from the game—or, at least, as much as a team can when making a high-fantasy RPG. It’s one of the ways the Polish developers are refining their identity through the creation of The Witcher 3, where quest and narrative design is being meticulously worked and reworked right up until release. The philosophy is, if you need to have a fetch quest, make sure the story does a damn good job of hiding it."
...
"Mateusz and Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, lead quest designer and game director respectively, list various types of open-world game, including GTA-style sandbox titles, before explaining why Piranha Bytes’ Gothic series is the most apt comparison. “It’s most similar to our game, I think,” Mateusz says. “A quite perfect combination of storyline and freedom in the open world. It’s quite similar, the Gothic series, in terms of quest design and how we organise the story, but our game has a very, very big landscape and Gothic locations were open world...” “...on a smaller scale,” Konrad finishes."
....
"Various activities fill the world outside of the main story, including monster-hunting quests where Geralt plies his trade. Far from the typical open-world filler of recycled character models, these creatures require tracking and hunting down, and each has a backstory. “They involve hunting legendary creatures,” Mateusz says. “They should be tougher to beat than normal opponents. Each encounter contains a unique creature and each of those hunts is unique. They’re not repeatable, in the sense that they each have their own plot. You can expect each settlement will have at least one of them, if not more.”
....
"Then there’s the scary but exciting notion of the game’s 36 endings. At the time of my interview, work on each unique finale is ongoing – and the team obviously have their preferences over how they’d like Geralt’s story to come to an end. “I think I had an influence over a fair share [of endings],” Szamalek says, “and I’ve spent the last few weeks working on that part of the game. And of course I do have my own favourites – when the game comes out I will definitely be shaping it in a particular way.”
....
"There’s a lot of mythology to relay from the last two games, but they’re hoping to circumvent some of The Witcher 2’s storytelling weaknesses. “We know in The Witcher 2 we were criticised for heavy exposition and the fact you get told about a lot of the background, a lot of the context and the lore at the same time, and it might be very overwhelming to players,” says Szamalek. “It might discourage them from delving into it because they might feel like they can’t catch up. So that’s something we try to change, and I think we succeeded in ensuring you have a smoother introduction to the world and its characters. There are very experienced writers on the team and they’re making sure what the newbies do makes sense.”
....
“We want to create games for really mature players,” Szamalek tells me. “These aren’t games for everyone... We have particular ambitions about what we want to achieve. The games that we make have a complex story you have to work a bit to fully grasp, and I think avoiding bad and good options is also a part of addressing and catering for this large audience, which demands the same treatment they’d get from movies or books.
http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/the-witcher-3-preview-how-to-build-an-rpg-with-36-endings/
"Four quest designers worked on the original Witcher. Its more refined sequel had six. The conclusion to the trilogy, which promises 100 hours of content and a 50-hour story, has more than doubled that. “We have about 14, I think,” says lead quest designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz."
"Nor have CD Projekt Red simply padded out The Witcher 3’s Skyrim-exceeding open world with unimaginative busywork. They’ve systematically banished fetch quests from the game—or, at least, as much as a team can when making a high-fantasy RPG. It’s one of the ways the Polish developers are refining their identity through the creation of The Witcher 3, where quest and narrative design is being meticulously worked and reworked right up until release. The philosophy is, if you need to have a fetch quest, make sure the story does a damn good job of hiding it."
...
"Mateusz and Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, lead quest designer and game director respectively, list various types of open-world game, including GTA-style sandbox titles, before explaining why Piranha Bytes’ Gothic series is the most apt comparison. “It’s most similar to our game, I think,” Mateusz says. “A quite perfect combination of storyline and freedom in the open world. It’s quite similar, the Gothic series, in terms of quest design and how we organise the story, but our game has a very, very big landscape and Gothic locations were open world...” “...on a smaller scale,” Konrad finishes."
....
"Various activities fill the world outside of the main story, including monster-hunting quests where Geralt plies his trade. Far from the typical open-world filler of recycled character models, these creatures require tracking and hunting down, and each has a backstory. “They involve hunting legendary creatures,” Mateusz says. “They should be tougher to beat than normal opponents. Each encounter contains a unique creature and each of those hunts is unique. They’re not repeatable, in the sense that they each have their own plot. You can expect each settlement will have at least one of them, if not more.”
....
"Then there’s the scary but exciting notion of the game’s 36 endings. At the time of my interview, work on each unique finale is ongoing – and the team obviously have their preferences over how they’d like Geralt’s story to come to an end. “I think I had an influence over a fair share [of endings],” Szamalek says, “and I’ve spent the last few weeks working on that part of the game. And of course I do have my own favourites – when the game comes out I will definitely be shaping it in a particular way.”
....
"There’s a lot of mythology to relay from the last two games, but they’re hoping to circumvent some of The Witcher 2’s storytelling weaknesses. “We know in The Witcher 2 we were criticised for heavy exposition and the fact you get told about a lot of the background, a lot of the context and the lore at the same time, and it might be very overwhelming to players,” says Szamalek. “It might discourage them from delving into it because they might feel like they can’t catch up. So that’s something we try to change, and I think we succeeded in ensuring you have a smoother introduction to the world and its characters. There are very experienced writers on the team and they’re making sure what the newbies do makes sense.”
....
“We want to create games for really mature players,” Szamalek tells me. “These aren’t games for everyone... We have particular ambitions about what we want to achieve. The games that we make have a complex story you have to work a bit to fully grasp, and I think avoiding bad and good options is also a part of addressing and catering for this large audience, which demands the same treatment they’d get from movies or books.
http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/the-witcher-3-preview-how-to-build-an-rpg-with-36-endings/
