The developers wanted to “surprise” players with the death of NPCs

Vesmare passed away in 2015 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt It brought me to tears. While I had little knowledge of the games or books before playing the third entry in this classic trilogy of RPGs, the moment my little band of misfit heroes lost a key part of their found family was too much to bring it all to a halt. As it turns out, CD Projekt Red’s decision to kill off this character wasn’t easy. In a recent GDC talk, Task Director Pawe Sasko revealed how difficult Vesemir’s death was but essential to narrative impact and urgency.

Based on the series of novels by writer Andre Sapkosi, the magician Video games march to the beat of their own narrative drum. Developer CD Projekt Red’s decisions on these characters were based solely on their own creative impulses and treading uncharted narrative waters, as the games are set after the books ended. After the second act of the game, Geralt’s mentor tragically dies in a siege on Kaer Mohren’s sorcerer training grounds. It’s a powerful moment, hitting the surviving characters where they’re most vulnerable: a reminder of their own mortality. According to CD Projekt Red, this was a tough call, but one that was needed to give Ciri, Geralt’s ward and virtually adopted daughter, the drive needed to take the fight directly to the game’s opponents.

During a talk at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, A.J reported by IGNSasuke Bowie’s quest director delves into the studio’s difficult decision to kill Vesemir, a central character in the games and books that inspired them. It was all about giving Ciri the necessary motivation to take on the Wild Hunt, which is a great example of why the magician The games handle the themes of Sapkowski’s world very well. Sasuke said about killing Vesemir:

Siri [needed] To actually decide not to chase her anymore. You will be a hunter. You will go after the Wild Hunt. But to do that, I needed a real event that would break her from the inside, and that was the moment I suggested to our writer’s team that we kill Vesmere.

Consider language usage here in light of the world the magician The narrative often muses on what it is like to be a hunter in a world of dark fantasy. Who hunts what and why – and who the real monsters in this world are – is a central conflict in the many quests and overarching narrative. And Ciri’s status as a “wizard” doesn’t follow the direct line that Geralt and other wizards enjoy. So crafting a moment when Ciri feels like a call to “hunt,” but not from a mandate from the world around her, but from a need for leadership to fight back against the real monsters of the world, is simply poetic. It’s a symbol of everything I love about this game.

Reflecting on the discussions that took place during the writing process, Sasko said, “[the writing team] We weren’t sure we should do that,” given the character’s importance in books and games. But when reflecting on potential narrative influence, wanting to embrace “artistic guts” and provide Ciri with a call to action was too strong a move to make. Sasko also set the standard for surprising players, saying that he “wanted to do something that players don’t think we do. I wanted to surprise them in a good way, I hope.”

It’s hard to deny how much of a turning point a character’s death is and is a reminder (the game developers note) how losing a character can offer exciting narrative possibilities. This GDC talk video is titled “10 Key Important Design Lessons From The Witcher 3 And Cyberpunk 2077 movie“It is expected that it will be available to those who have it It passes into the GDC Vault On April 14th.