The Witcher’s Lead Story Designer Addressed the Game’s Difficulties During Development Amid the Upcoming Remake

In 2022, CD Projekt RED announced a remake of the very first Witcher installment, originally released in 2007. It was revealed that development would be handled by the studio Fool's Theory; the game would use Unreal Engine 5 and offer fans a completely rebuilt, full-fledged open world. Unfortunately, since then we haven't heard much about the project, and its release date is still unknown.

Artur Ganszyniec, the lead story designer on 2007's The Witcher, recently spoke with CHIP, where he discussed the challenges CD Projekt RED faced during the development of the original title and shared his thoughts on the upcoming remake. According to Ganszyniec, The Witcher was built on an outdated version of the Aurora engine, and the developers had a limited budget. Under better circumstances, the original game's mechanics might have come closer to those of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Unfortunately, the studio didn't have the resources to realize that vision.

Speaking about the remake's development, Ganszyniec noted that the developers face a real challenge in making the game look like the third installment, as the open world will likely need to be built from scratch, since the original game's story was designed around a linear narrative. He also mentioned that if he were involved in the development of The Witcher Remake, he would remove the erotic cards, rebuild the combat system, add a crafting feature, and more. You can check out more detailed information from Ganszyniec's interview below:

“With all due respect to the work of everyone involved, but in some aspects, it was basically a modding effort. We were a group of enthusiasts fighting against an engine in hopes of squeezing something new, something we wanted to create out of it, something for which we did not have a big budget.

The Witcher 3 is spiritually closer to The Witcher we would have made if we had the time, money, technology, and skills. We didn’t have all that. We had Aurora, so we did all we could. If we opened the locations up, there would be more space, and if there’s more space, there needs to be more content. Immediately, the tempo and the scale of the project would be shifted. In The Witcher, many things worked because we knew exactly where the player would be at any given time. We could set up a trigger, fire up a scene, and make it so Alvin appears between the fields and the village. In an open world, we’d have to approach that completely differently.

In the fifth act, when the map revolves around Lake Vizima, one could ask a simple question: if it’s an open world, would I not have a boat? What’s stopping me from hopping on a boat on the outskirts of Vizima and swimming directly to the old manor? It might be exciting from the point of view of a player, but as a designer I can already feel my hair turning gray.”

In addition to The Witcher Remake, Fool's Theory is also developing a new DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt— Songs of the Past, which was announced this May. As for CD Projekt RED, the studio is actively working on The Witcher 4, the first game in a new trilogy, as well as Project Sirius, a multiplayer spin-off set in the universe. It has also recently been revealed that CD Projekt RED is involved in the development of a free-to-play co-op title for PC and mobile devices, although there has been no official announcement about this project yet.

The Witcher Remake is in development for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5, with the game's release date remaining unknown.