With the sheer scope and the detail of its world, Cyberpunk 2077 is going to push current gaming tech to its limit. Between the open-ended gameplay and dynamic setting, CD Projekt Red believes the expansive sci-fi RPG will be something of a benchmark for this generation of games.
Speaking to AusGamers at PAX Australia, John Mamais, the head of CD Projekt Red’s Krakow studio, discussed the ambition of Cyberpunk 2077, saying the team had to rapidly expand to keep up. “We grew alongside the design as it was developing. And really, you don’t know how many cinematic animators you’re going to need until you have a scope for the number of scenes you’re going to have in the game,” He said. “We didn’t have that in the beginning, we just knew we wanted to have cool cinematics and we knew that we were going to be at least as big as The Witcher 3. We ended up hiring a lot more people than what we needed for The Witcher because the fidelity and overall requirements of 2077 crept up on us.”
Mamais went on to talk about the technological challenges of Cyberpunk 2077, mentioning that CD Projekt is still knee-deep in the process. “You need crowds of people moving around or it won’t look right. It was very technically challenging, and still is. We’re still working on it in fact,” He explained. “Last time I talked to the Technical Director, he talked its current status as a real achievement, where we’ve got all these people in the same space moving around. In Cyberpunk these are all, in a way, unique characters moving around the space. And it’s a combination of AI, tech, and art. I don’t know even know how to explain how it exactly works – but I can say that it was fucking hard and that we’re still working on it.”
In other interviews, Mamais has talked quite a bit about the studio’s current standing. CD Projekt will soon have enough staff to work on two games at once, opening up the possibility of multiplayer-only projects, and he’s doubled-down on the team’s flat rejection of micro-transactions.
For Cyberpunk 2077, Mamais believes CD Projekt has cultivated the last word on what this generation is capable of. “As the technology changes, we’re expected to use it too – and we want to use it cause that stuff keeps looking cooler and cooler, all the time,” He said. “We’ll always keep pushing the envelope on the way a game can look, and that’s one of the most exciting things about working at CD Projekt Red; getting to do just that. I think Cyberpunk is going to be a real show piece in terms of tech. Especially as this generation of consoles is fading out. I think we’re going to be that one last, big, exceptional looking title on this current generation of hardware.”
Cyberpunk 2077 will be available April 16, 2020. Until then, check out our list of the best Cyberpunk games on PC.