Summary
The Witcher 4’s narrative director has revealed what helped prepare the team for the development of the upcoming solo adventure of Ciri. Fans anticipating the release ofThe Witcher 4have only started recovering from their excitement over their first peek at the game, but the team behind the game was actually getting back into the groove two years ago with a special quest added toThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
The Witcher 3: Wild Huntwas first releasedin May 2015, leading Geralt on a quest that involved protecting his adopted daughter, Ciri, from the spectral warriors of The Wild Hunt. While Ciri was a playable character for some sections of that game, a new trailer released at The Game Awards 2024 in December revealed that she’s ready to step into the leading role forThe Witcher 4.
In late 2022, theIn the Eternal Fire’s Shadow sidequestwas added toThe Witcher 3. This sidequest, which saw Geralt acquiring some long-lost equipment, was both a promotion for the game’s next-gen update and an opportunity to give players a canon reason for acquiring the armor previously worn by Henry Cavill in Netflix’sThe Witcherstreaming television series. In a recent social media post, Philipp Webber, who served as quest designer forThe Witcher 3and is picking up narrative director duties forThe Witcher 4, confirmed that this quest was a starting point for some designers and writers who were just joining the series and served as their initiation before jumping intoThe Witcher 4’s development cycle.
Late Witcher 3 Quest Was a Starting Point for The Witcher 4’s Development
Webber stated in his post that working on In the Eternal Fire’s Shadow as an initiation for new development team members “was the perfect start to getting back into the vibe.” This actually times up rather neatly with the timeline fordevelopment ofThe Witcher 4. The upcoming game, which will serve as the start of a second trilogy starring Ciri, was first announced in March 2022, about nine months before the release of the add-on sidequest inThe Witcher 3. While it’s safe to say that some degree of planning was already in place before the game’s announcement, it gives a clearer picture of the origins of how the people creating the game got there.
The narrative director did not give any names of the team members who were initiated through the sidequest’s development, but it’s likely that at least some of them were transferred over from theCyberpunk 2077team, as CD Projekt Red’s big non-Witcherhit was first released in 2020. There’s also some speculation thatThe Witcher 4may have aPhantom Liberty-like skill tree, and the timeline for the new members could lend credence to that theory.
The Witcher 4
WHERE TO PLAY
The Witcher IV is a single-player, open-world RPG from CD PROJEKT RED. At the start of a new saga, players take on the role of Ciri, a professional monster slayer, and embark on a journey through a brutal dark-fantasy world. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, it aims to be the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date.
