The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead quest designer recalls the moment he suggested that one character be killed off, says the team's reaction was 'wide eyes and silence' — 'The weight of it is exactly what the act needs' | Tech Radar
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead quest designer recalls the moment he suggested that one character be killed off, says the team's reaction was 'wide eyes and silence' — 'The weight of it is exactly what the act needs'
Even while facing development challenges, the developer said he was "having the time of my life"
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead quest designer Paweł Sasko says his suggestion to kill off a certain character shocked the team
Sasko argued that "the weight" of the scene was exactly what the act needed
He says the team ran into many technical difficulties during the Battle of Kaer Morhen questline
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead quest designer Paweł Sasko has revealed that he shocked the development team into silence when he originally suggested killing off a certain character.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has just celebrated its 11th anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion, Sasko, who is also the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel associate game director, took to X/Twitter to reminisce on the challenges of writing for the 2015 Game of the Year winner.
After running through the process of writing his first outline for the Bloody Baron quest, Family Matters, which Sasko said he watched fall apart in the review session, and eventually came up with another idea after reading Slavic folktales, the developer touched on one of the most pivotal moments in the game.
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It's when the Wild Hunt appears at Kaer Morhen near the end of the game. Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, and the rest of the dysfunctional gang have reunited to plan their next steps before the antagonists appear and a battle ensues. During the battle, Vesemir, the Wolf School master and father figure to Geralt, is killed by the Wild Hunt general Imlerith.
It's a huge moment that pushes Ciri to her breaking point, and according to Sasko, it stunned the entire development team when he first suggested it. However, despite concerns, he was able to argue how crucial it was to carry the story forward.
"Then comes the Battle of Kaer Morhen. The story outline is just two paragraphs. In a meeting, I propose that Vesemir dies. First reaction is wide eyes and silence," Sasko said.
"The weight of it is exactly what the act needs. Ciri's outburst, the moment she throws the Wild Hunt back, requires that the floor fall out from under her first."
The developer continued, explaining the technical difficulties he ran into when designing the quest, but despite the challenges, he was having a great time.
"I prototype meteors, rifts opening in the forest, Wild Hunt pouring out of them, the ride back to the keep on horseback. So much of it does not work. Technical issues. The quest flow is unclear. Review feedback I get is negative, so I rebuild. Pieces start to hold. I begin to see why something works and why the thing next to it does not. Through repetition, I truly start understanding the craft," he said.
"Most important of all, I'm having the time of my life. Designers are showing each other ideas in the team room. Someone solves a problem, someone else builds on top of it, someone else innovates and iterates. We are playing. We are putting cool things into a game we love. We still do not know if the open world will actually work. We try anyway. We push to finish line and ship."
As Sasko put it, the game went on to sell 60 million copies and is now regarded as one of the best RPGs of all time, and the developer said the development period, including "the skills, the friendships, the failures that taught me more than any success ever could."
Right now, CD Projekt Red's main priority is The Witcher 4, which it has said will be the first game in a new Witcher trilogy it plans to release within a six-year time frame, and is unlikely to launch before 2027.
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Demi is a freelance games journalist who helps cover gaming news at Tech Radar. She's been a games writer for five years and has written for outlets such as Game Spot, NME, and Games Radar, covering news, features, and reviews. Outside of writing, she plays a lot of RPGs and talks far too much about Star Wars on X.
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