GameCyte

Not two weeks ago, Polish developer CD Projekt sent its dedicated fanbase on a glorious hunt for information about their new console project The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf. But the chase had barely gotten underway when a sly fox by the name of Jakub Styliński ruined the whole thing with a lengthy video interview.

Some might be satisfied with what came to pass -- but not GameCyte. Our blood boiling with rage, we vowed to capture the fox himself. After spending days lurking in the shadow of a large tree, our blade at the ready, we lept out with a cry and pinned our new informant to the ground...

...releasing him and accomplice Tom Ohle only after they had coughed up enough information about DLC, 720p and piracy on PC to satisfy voracious GameCyte readers.

Some of you may be wondering how, exactly, Rise of the White Wolf already has such an excellent collection of screenshots and a CG trailer to its name. The answer is simply that the game, slated for Fall 2009, has already been in development for ten months. Put another way, Rise of the White Wolf has been in the works since back when the spectacular PC Enhanced Edition was announced, and the projects may have occurred in tandem.

That's not to say that CD Projekt is abandoning their PC fanbase by providing this exciting new project to a different, controller-handy audience. No, according to VP of marketing Tom Ohle, it's all about global domination:

Global domination is, of course, the only reason anyone would ever make a console game. Nah, I’m only half serious. Really, there are a lot of factors that played varying roles in the decision. We spent a lot of time making The Witcher – four years or more, plus nearly a year spent on the Enhanced Edition. The end result was a PC game that we’re very proud of, and that has helped us gain a bit of exposure in the industry. But there are a lot of gamers out there who’ve either never heard of the game or have heard good things but can’t play it because they don’t have a gaming-capable PC. We want as many people as possible to experience The Witcher, and that’s probably the leading factor in our decision to make Rise of the White Wolf.

Now it’s up to us to prove that we’re not just slapping together a port and are actually making a game built from the ground up to be an amazing console RPG.

So what, exactly, has been "built from the ground up"? We pressed our blade a little closer to Styliński's throat, and he replied in kind:

We’ve completely redesigned the combat system to be more in-line with players’ expectations on consoles. We’ve gone back and motion-captured a lot more combat animations for the new combat actions, like parries, counter-attacks, enhanced evasion, special attacks, etc. We’re also enhancing the enemy AI to make them more aggressive and perform a wide range of offensive and defensive actions to make the combat a bit more action-oriented.

We wanted to meet console users’ expectations, so we’re giving them full control of Geralt during combat. They’ll determine how and when Geralt parries enemy blows, ripostes, evades them, makes lunging attacks, and which foes he attacks. In general, combat will be more dynamic and will give players more potential for combat mastery through practice.

Impressive -- though a PC user could play The Witcher entirely with the mouse, clicking on targets at the right time to initiate fearsome combos, defensive maneuvers were largely calculated automatically by the computer. The very thought of a more hands-on approach caused our hands to slip slightly, eliciting a cry from Styliński as a significant quantity of his blood ended up on our razor-sharp edge. He didn't hesitate to tell us that the company is aiming for 720p resolution on consoles in exchange for a cotton bandage -- and perhaps seeing a trace of benevolence in our eyes, pleaded for his life with some even juicier information.

When asked whether the world design and quests from The Witcher will stay the same, Styliński replied "Not entirely," and proceeded to tell that the game will include "a new interface, redesigned boss battles, new music, a smattering of new models, and a redesigned character development system."

"And that hardly exhausts the list of new features," he hastily added, watching our sword lazily inch towards his neck.

Before we let him go, Styliński confirmed that DLC is in the works for Rise of the White Wolf; and when questioned about the controversial sex cards from the original, he replied that the company's goal is "to keep the content of The Witcher intact" in the new game. "It’s too early to tell whether we’re going to have any issues with ratings, but we’re definitely aiming to deliver a mature game," he told GameCyte.

With only one VP of Marketing left to interrogate, we hinted at the question that's on the minds of many: Does this move to console have anything to do with sales of the PC title?

According to Ohle, the Enhanced Edition is doing fine...

It’s still chugging along well and we’re getting re-orders from retailers for the holiday season. Word about the game is constantly spreading, so we expect it to have a pretty long shelf life.

...and our threats were unable to solicit a specific response about piracy, only CD Projekt's (laudable) stance on the issue.

Yes, piracy happens. Our goal is to provide as much value to paying customers as possible; the Enhanced Edition was basically like a Collector’s Edition of a game at a standard price point. Rather than spending all our time and effort punishing people who get the game illegally, we want to reward those who legitimately buy the games. We’re doing the same with GOG.com – the games there are totally DRM-free, but we encourage people to pay because they’ll get bonus materials and they can sleep easy knowing they’re not contributing to our demise as a company. Piracy hurts a lot of companies, and there are a few companies that have embraced a progressive stance on the issue… make loyal fans out of your customers and they’ll pay for your games.

Impressed, we decided not to contribute to Ohle's demise as an individual either, and let him continue on his merry way. A little ways down the road, we bodily dragged Styliński out of our meticulously crafted pit trap, and asked him one last question: what does that other company, Widescreen Games, have to do with the diabolical console plot?

WSG built and owns the DaVinci engine and they are handling the whole process of moving our assets and gameplay into their engine. They’re also responsible for making sure that the game works well on both console platforms. In general, we’re very happy to be working with them, and it’s allowed our team to focus on design without having a major impact on the other titles we’re developing internally.

Thanks to Jakub and Tom for the interview.

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