Cyberpunk 2077's development is now, for the most part, complete, marking the end of an incredible rollercoaster for CD Projekt that saw the studio go from being one of the most beloved developers in the industry to one of the most criticised, before slowly climbing back up to new heights with the release of Phantom Liberty.
At its lowest, CD Projekt was slammed for the launch state of Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles (that was so poor the PlayStation Store removed it from sale) as well as for crunch culture ahead of the game's release, though for the recently released expansion Phantom Liberty, staff say improvements were made. Lay-offs at the developer have also cast doubt over future projects, of which there are many including a live-action Cyberpunk 2077 project.
IGN spoke with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's art director Paweł Mielniczuk about this journey, discussing the lessons CD Projekt learned as a result of Cyberpunk 2077's turbulent launch, why it wanted to rebuild the game instead of just moving on, and what influences will carry forward into future projects like Cyberpunk 2077's sequel, codenamed Orion.
You can read about all that and more in the full interview below.
First off, what was the response to Phantom Liberty's amazing critical reception within CD Projekt? Did the development team expect such a positive response?
Paweł Mielniczuk: The entire team in the studio believed that Phantom Liberty would be something special; however, it can be hard to completely predict what will resonate with players and how the broader audience will emotionally respond to the game. Only when the first reviews and player comments emerge can we finally breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate the success. It’s safe to say that we are all incredibly satisfied and happy with its warm reception.
CD Projekt also announced its impressive three million strong launch numbers. Could you also comment on this performance? Did it meet or surpass expectations?
I believe everyone had some expectations in mind. Personally, this number definitely fulfilled my expectations and I think it’s something we can be proud of. But besides launch numbers, it was really exciting to observe how many people came back to play Cyberpunk 2077 before Phantom Liberty officially released. We really couldn’t believe it — team members were sharing screens showing stats from Twitch streams and Steam on our internal channels around the clock!
What lessons were learned from Cyberpunk 2077's pre-launch development that were taken into Phantom Liberty? Was CD Projekt Red determined not to repeat the same practices that caused criticism in 2020?
The release of Cyberpunk 2077 was a huge lesson for us, and since then we’ve made many changes based on our experiences. We’ve changed our production processes, the organization of our development teams, and worked on our value system. In short, we’ve changed RED.
Among the most visible changes, and one that affects everyone working on RED games, is the introduction of the "always working game" rule. From an early production stage, we give high priority to ensuring game stability and giving every team member the ability to test the game. Furthermore, we moved away from PC-centric development to testing the game on all platforms together from the very beginning.
We also changed our approach to development and overall project organization. Now, we’ve implemented Agile methods, focusing on multidisciplinary teams that can independently improve and verify the quality of their work, at the same time improving visibility and communication between departments. We’re also more careful when it comes to planning work and defining and approving project milestones and gates. During the final months of development each of these stages ends with a company-wide "playthrough" of the project, which allows us to collect opinions and evaluations from a wide array of internal players. Not only does this increase teams visibility into the entire project, but it also helps to reveal potential problems and verify the direction in which the project is heading.
I could list more changes we’ve implemented, but I hope that the results of our work say enough on their own!
Why was it so important for CD Projekt Red to revitalise Cyberpunk 2077 with its various updates including the final major patch in Update 2.0? Is the game now in a state CD Projekt Red is happy with? Was it previously?
We have always considered Cyberpunk 2077 to be a great game at its core. But it's important to remember that despite our studio’s over 20-year history, many fundamental systems of the game like gunplay, car driving, or the first-person camera, to name a few, were something we designed for the first time.
After Cyberpunk 2077’s release, we dedicated a lot of our efforts and time to improving the technical quality of the game. I’d say that what you see in Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0 are not how we imagined Cyberpunk 2077 from the beginning.
The concepts that became part of the expansion and Update 2.0 came quite organically to us as we saw how players were interacting with the game, what they needed, what was working well, and what areas needed improvement. For example, it became clear that skill trees could be rethought so as to support more intuitive and more effective character building. The result is a game that has been improved over time by listening to players, identifying improvements, and remaining dedicated to creating as good an experience as possible for our players.
As creators I'm sure there's always new elements you'd like to add to Cyberpunk 2077, but are there any features on the wish list that just didn't make the cut in Update 2.0 or Phantom Liberty?
I believe as a developer you can never really finish a game. There’s always a better idea, a new feature, a thought that comes to your mind at night just a day after the final deadline. Time and budget are the only things that can stop a developer from improving. But those new ideas and concepts on how to further improve the game are meticulously noted, and I’m sure many of them will resurface during the development of our next Cyberpunk installment — project Orion.
Similarly, I'm sure as developers you're always learning and evolving your practices and strategies. Did any parts of Phantom Liberty stand out as a major step forward or revelation in this sense that you'd like to take forward?
As a studio, we’re dedicated to creating narrative-driven RPGs, and each new game and expansion is a lesson and a step forward in our philosophy.
In developing Phantom Liberty, for the first time in a long time I felt that we were making the game as a single team, without a clear division between narrative, art, and gameplay, and without siloing the creativity of each department.
The restructuring of the company, joint milestone playthroughs, the introduction of agile processes, all contributed to the more collaborative development of the game — including a greater openness to feedback and streamlining the flow of information between departments. Thanks to this, gameplay flows more smoothly into the narrative, the art better supports the emotion of the story, the open world better complements the context of the location. The result, in my opinion, is stronger player immersion.
From the point of view of the art itself — which I was responsible for — a lot of work went into what we call ‘visual clarity’ and player guidance. Cyberpunk 2077 is a very visually rich game; wherever you turn you can see a lot of shapes, details, colors and lights. It could be easy to get lost in it or lose sight of the enemy. By introducing methods such as color grouping of objects, eliminating specific colors from the environment, building contrasts between enemies and the environment in which we meet them, we tried to build locations that are easier for players to comprehend and navigate.