Home Gaming How CD Projekt Red beat the Neverwinter engine into submission to make The Witcher

How CD Projekt Red beat the Neverwinter engine into submission to make The Witcher

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The witcher 1

CD Projekt Red has learned a lot since they started development on The Witcher. While The Witcher 3 has set new standards in gaming, The Witcher 1 and 2 were still revolutionary at the time. Back in 2007, The Witcher featured such elements as having towns people run for shelter in the rain, or following normal routines of going to work or heading to the tavern for a drink before going home. But it was a tough learning curve for the Polish team.

Speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Game Director Mateusz Kanik laughs at how young and confident the team was at the time:

You have to remember that back around 2005-2007, we were really young, really inexperienced, even outright naive in that we thought we could accomplish anything. What’s more, we actually believed we had the know-how to do it. In hindsight, I honestly have to say that we were wrong.

Another Game Director, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz explains that their ambitions extended way beyond the capabilities of BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights engine. This meant they had to rebuild the renderer from scratch and create their own means for displaying visuals.

I remember thinking that the [Neverwinter editor] tool was pretty rigid, that it afforded designers little flexibility. I can’t count the number of times we had to resort to scripting unique events. Scripts in Neverwinter Nights were assigned to objects, so oftentimes we would place more complex bits of logic, for instance, in a torch hanging on the wall of a building inhabited by some specific NPCs.

It wasn’t the easiest way to make a game, but Kanik believe that they made up for their lack of knowledge with passion, commitment and hard work. It also worked to teach the team how to make better games, how to build better engines and eventually resulted in The Witcher 3, so we can’t really complain about their lack of experience all those years ago.

Of course, it also makes me curious about the Neverwinter engine – if it could be jimmy rigged to build The Witcher, what other awesome experiences could game developers make out of it?

Last Updated: July 16, 2015

64 Comments

  1. Pariah

    July 16, 2015 at 14:04

    At the end of the article I’m still wondering how they did it. O_o

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 16, 2015 at 14:05

    I just remember those level load times between major areas. Yoh. I’d grab my book & read or go boil the kettle & make a cup of coffee while waiting.

    Reply

    • Greylingad[CNFRMD]

      July 16, 2015 at 14:08

      put in an 8 hour shift of work…

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        July 16, 2015 at 14:11

        haha pretty much. They were probably the longest level loading times I’ve ever experienced in a game.

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          July 16, 2015 at 14:14

          Only because you tried to run the game on a Pentium 200 with 16MB ram and a Riva TNT card…

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 16, 2015 at 14:15

            lol Nvidia. lol. Oh you! VOOOOOOOODOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:16

            Voodoo. I miss those guys.

          • Admiral Chief in Skellige

            July 16, 2015 at 14:15

            Geralt of RIVA!

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:17

            You win the Internet!

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:18

            Didn’t you read our conversation earlier? He’s plugged into everyone. That means he IS the internet.

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:18

            Internet or the Borg?

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:19

            Same thing, just a few hundred years of evolution apart.

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:20

            Seven of Nine…

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:21

            I can find a million more alluring examples in the unevolved format of the internet.

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:25

            More alluring than Seven of Nine? I beg to disagree, my good Sir!

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:27

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:28

            I was saying… (refresh)

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:29

            Not much better. Jeri Ryan is only attractive when you’re 14 and have never seen a real woman before.

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:30

            Sorry Grampa…

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:33

            So you’re 14? And somehow engaged? I think the prudent question is: “Did you get engaged to your imaginary friend?”

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 16, 2015 at 15:25

            How quickly you young whippersnappers forget…

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 15:35

            Wilma!!! (BOING!)

          • oVg Reality is an illusion

            July 16, 2015 at 16:23

            DAM! I bet Buck Rogers bucked her silly off set.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 16, 2015 at 14:32

            I don’t see any difference between those pics.

          • Admiral Chief in Skellige

            July 16, 2015 at 14:37

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:40

            She’s okay. But my Star Trek heart will forever be assimilated by Seven… http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10600000/Seven-of-Nine-seven-of-nine-10677650-1200-1500.jpg

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:49

            We don’t always agree, but on this we do. +1

          • Admiral Chief in Skellige

            July 16, 2015 at 14:51

            Currently re-watching Enterprise, really enjoying it, for more than one reason

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:52

            I need to rewatch them as well. Enterprise and Voyager were such good memories.

            Still, 2 more seasons of Dr Who to go before I can start something else. 😛

          • Admiral Chief in Skellige

            July 16, 2015 at 14:56

            I need to get a good quality version of Voyager and DS9

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 15:02

            Series like these are worth buying the DVD/Blu Ray collections for.

          • Admiral Chief in Skellige

            July 16, 2015 at 15:05

            Aye, would not mind a blu ray set

          • Admiral Chief in Skellige

            July 16, 2015 at 14:19

            On a related note, CLEAR YOUR BROWSING HISTORY. Flippit man

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:20

            Too much Dr Who and WoW for your tastes? (There’s a thing called incognito – use it)

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 16, 2015 at 14:23

            Too much Dr BowchickaWoW!

          • Kromas,powered by windows 10.

            July 16, 2015 at 14:25

            War(craft) never changes.

        • Mossel

          July 16, 2015 at 15:30

          Nothing beats ME1 elevator loading times! I played it on my current PC and it loads for about 30seconds.

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 16, 2015 at 15:35

            Try 5/6 minutes. ME1 elevators have nothing on this.

          • Mossel

            July 17, 2015 at 08:24

            Yoh that’s hectic! I played Witcher 1 last year and don’t recall loading times though, I also have an SSD so that probably made the difference.

    • Brady miaau

      July 16, 2015 at 14:12

      Funny, I seem to not recall that, but I recall much of the game!

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        July 16, 2015 at 14:16

        You play the enhanced edition maybe? That improved things a lot. I played it before they patched it.

        Reply

        • Pariah

          July 16, 2015 at 14:17

          Funny how that’s a kind of street cred lately. “I played it before they patched it.”

          http://3io9kj3rajqhyi3ej3xme9pe.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/watch-out-we-got-a-bad-ass-over-here.jpg

          Reply

          • Aries

            July 16, 2015 at 14:17

            lol

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 16, 2015 at 14:19

            I had to walk through snow 5 foot deep for miles just to get to my PC too!

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:20

            Back in my day, we got patches on a cover disk.

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:21

            Back in my day we loaded our games off tapes!

          • Pariah

            July 16, 2015 at 14:22

            Tapes? We had to blow half our lungs out to get cartridges to not show weird lines on screen.

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:24

            Cartridges? What sort of sorcery is THAT?!

          • Kromas,powered by windows 10.

            July 16, 2015 at 14:25

            I hear it is the next big thing and will make punch cards obsolete!

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 16, 2015 at 14:26

            Sweet Lords above! This evil, heathen cartridge will never replace the purity of the punch card!

        • Matthew Holliday

          July 16, 2015 at 16:07

          i only just realised now that you were talking about witcher 2 and not witcher 3.

          Reply

        • Brady miaau

          July 16, 2015 at 16:57

          I did play the enhanced edition

          Reply

  3. Kromas,powered by windows 10.

    July 16, 2015 at 14:20

    But can you build Crysis on it?. 😛

    Reply

  4. Ranting Raptor

    July 16, 2015 at 14:23

    Townspeople ran for shelter in rain? Huh. Definately haven’t seen that in W3

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      July 16, 2015 at 14:24

      Have you played it? 😛

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        July 16, 2015 at 14:29

        W3 yeah. I remember thinking to myself “You know what urks me? It’s pouring with rain and people are standing around doing their own thing. Why not seek shelter?”

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          July 16, 2015 at 14:35

          They do! I’ve seen them do that a lot.

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief in Skellige

            July 16, 2015 at 14:35

            Ditto

        • Admiral Chief in Skellige

          July 16, 2015 at 14:36

          *irks

          Reply

        • Pariah

          July 16, 2015 at 14:36

          Maybe you got the non-pathetic NPC’s who aren’t scared of a little rain?

          Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          July 16, 2015 at 16:04

          and seeing the same people in the pub, all day and night, every day.
          how can these peasants afford this?

          Reply

          • Ranting Raptor

            July 17, 2015 at 07:24

            It’s terrible because I sit playing and thinking “I wish I could afford to go to the pub now”

    • Kromas,powered by windows 10.

      July 16, 2015 at 14:24

      Helps if you don’t kill every single one of them. 🙂

      Reply

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