HC.Gamer: Please introduce yourself and your team! Where do you guys live? Have you created any other PC products in the past?

CD Projekt RED: Hi - we're a new team from Poland. Our office is located in Warsaw, but the team includes people from all over the country. The Witcher is our first project, although most of us already worked on other Polish productions (with the exception of Bartek Gulik, who worked in Seattle as a Project Manager in Microsoft on Dungeon Siege and DS addition pack, amongst others). Those productions were not something you'd read about on magazine covers; there were not many people who'd work on larger projects in Poland, which is one of the things CD Projekt RED intends to change. The Witcher is a serious project, and if everything goes according to our plans, it will probably gather a little more attention than other Polish productions (coming to think of it - could you even name any?) I know that the country of origin is not the most important information concerning the game, but I also know for example that Imperium Galactica was created in Hungary :).

HCG: What do you and the team like to do in your spare time? What are your favourite PC games?

CDPR: That would be a long list, as there's over 40 of us, all with their own separate interests. There are paintball fans (me, to be exact) and others who prefer other, more realistic combat conditions' re-creations; our animator plays while he bathes, there are also a number of various RPG and fantasy fans. As far as computer games are concerned, it'd be easiest to name those that we play after hours in the office - WoW and Battlefield 2, earlier - Call of Duty or Hidden and Dangerous. We even have an official gaming night each Thursday after work. Sometimes we prefer to watch some movies on our projector; lately, we've seen "Flesh and Blood" - perhaps not the newest of movies, but definitely a good watch :)

HCG: Please tell us about an ordinary day in your office!

CDRP: Officially we start our work at 9:00, though we get to the office at various times. By 10, the team is usually complete. If it is Friday or Monday, we have various meetings and weekly sit-ins where we're reminded about what's to do this week, we think on what can we do to recover from last week's drawbacks and so on ;-) When we're nearing a milestone or some other important event such as computer expo, we work also on Saturdays, and our workday is longer - according to particular needs. Now it is not too drastic thanks to the amount of experience we have, but before our first E3 the last week saw us working almost non-stop with only some 4-6 hours of sleep at the crack of dawn. It all sounds like a great adventure now, but it was really hard back then.

HCG: How many people are working on The Witcher currently?

CDRP: The numbers are rising very quickly - a week ago it was only 16 people, while now it's 42!

HCG: The story of the game is based on one of the novels of Andrzej Sapkowski. Can you introduce him a bit? What kind of books has he written so far?

CDRP: Andrzej Sapkowski is one of the best known Polish writers. He is also award-winning Polish author of fantasy novels and short stories.

He arose with his saga about The Witcher - a series of five novels about Geralt from Rivia, trained to become evil Witcher. Saga was published in the years 1986-1990 in best known Polish fantasy and science-fiction magazine "Fantastyka".

Every Sapkowski's novel is maintained in fantasy and sci-fi convention, connected with poetic black whodunit as well as myth and legends common for many cultures.

Andrzej Sapkowski is also a laureate of many Polish and foreign prizes.

His novels reached record-breaking sales numbers. His books sold in over 3 million copies and were translated into several languages and published in many countries, such as: France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Lithuania. Based on his novels were made: comics, future film, TV sitcom and PC game.

HCG: Why did you decide to adopt his story for the game instead of yours?

CDRP: First of all we don't think we could create a world as interesting and as original as Sapkowski's. A world created only for the purposes of the game would also be less realistic and not as complete - because we have the books as our background, we have a very intriguing setting with its characters, monsters, plotting and geopolitical situation - all at the very best level of quality, as millions of fans all over the world could attest. It is also important that this world - though similar to other fantasy settings - is very original and does not merely copy all the well-known ideas. This gives the game some additional freshness as well.

Then again, it is not really true that we simply use his tales. Our game is set in Sapkowski's world, but is a completely new story that takes place after the last of books describing Geralt's adventures. It's also important to note that we consulted the author while developing our story and did everything we could to ensure it is as compatible with the books' feel as possible.

HCG: What did he say when you told him about this idea?

CDPR: Mr. Sapkowski was very pleased. As a company, CD Projekt is renown in Poland so it was easier for us to get him to trust our idea, despite the failed attempt at making his books into a movie sometime ago. As time went by and as even the most orthodox fans of his works reacted positively to our work he became, I believe, convinced that this whole affair was a good idea. Of course, we have yet to face the last test - the game's premiere - but I'm sure that even now it is well visible that we treat this game with maximum professionalism and take great pains to develop it well.

The most important thing is that Mr. Sapkowski likes our ideas in the storyline department. We only had to make a couple of minor corrections in order to gain his approval. We're in constant contact anyway, asking different questions all the time - like whether a marriage of this and this character from the books would be feasible, or would they at the very least sleep together :)

HCG: What are the differences between developing a game with a finished and well done story and developing a game with an unfinished story? Which is easier? Why?

CDPR: It is much easier to develop the former game. Firstly - as you yourself mentioned - it is well-written, which is not an easy task to perform. Of course, this sets a number of limitations, but with a proper, creative approach such limitations don't have a large bearing on the whole project. In such a case you can simply concentrate on telling the story in the best manner possible via a specific medium - in this case, a computer game.

When the story as such isn't there, you need to invent and write it. A good story is something more than just the plan of storyline; it includes believable characters, places and situations, interesting endings et cetera. This is a really complicated task - if it is to be on a suitably good level.

Story is a key element in the Witcher, so no wonder we put so much work into it. The story we're telling is to be the main driving force behind the gameplay's advancement.

As you can see, what we have here is a conjunction of both the models you mentioned. We have most of the things ready and we can take them from the books, while the way the action progresses can be carefully planned by our scriptwriters.

HCG: Which RPGs gave the inspiration to make The Witcher? What are your favorite role playing games?

CDPR: We'd much rather see our game in the line with productions of a great storyline like Baldur's Gate (epically drawn plotline) or Planescape: Torment (extraordinary protagonist and his mystery). We ourselves would probable be the closest to calling The Witcher a 'medieval' version of Fallout, mainly due to two similarities - nonlinearity and mature world full of violence and eroticism. Additionally, unlike in the case of titles mentioned above, we have for our disposal a unique protagonist - strongly characterized by his literary background, story and interpersonal relations. This, we think, wins us a lot and works to the game's advantage.

As for my favorites it would be a sin not to mention all of the above titles. They are simply milestones in RPG genre, you don't see such games a lot lately.

HCG: When I first saw The Witcher, it reminded me of Volition's great action-RPG called Summoner. Will there be any similarities between these two games? Is it possible that the true fans of Summoner will especially love your game?

CDPR: This is really quite a funny story. Yes, our game was similar to Summoner in a number of areas - such as epic storyline, similar controlling method and the original world, but these similarities were all coincidental! Most of the crew that started work on the Witcher and that gave the game its prime shape did not know Summoner. When I joined the crew, I noticed the similarities and was very surprised to find out that nobody has actually played Summoner! So all of this is just a lot of coincidence, which just goes on to prove that people can get the same good ideas in different parts of the globe.