Gwent: The Tumultuous, Untold Story
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had launched just a couple of months earlier, but the emails assaulting the inbox of CD Projekt Red community assistant Paweł Burza were about another game entirely. The community was fiercely hungry for a standalone version of the beloved in-world card game, Gwent. “We got thousands of emails,” Burza tells IGN, “and I mean literally thousands.”
The demand was heartening, particularly as Gwent almost never happened. While it’s a successful digital card game today – with Esports tournaments giving away hundreds of thousands in prize money, a dedicated and consistently growing community, and positive reception from players and critics alike – the journey to get there wasn’t easy.
Five years on from the standalone version of Gwent going public, and seven years on from The Witcher 3’s initial release, CD Projekt Red developers spoke to IGN about Gwent’s humble beginnings, the brutal trials it faced in development, and the success it’s found since.
Let’s rewind. 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, as we all know, was a very ambitious game in terms of scope. The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings featured a dice poker minigame, but CD Projekt Red wanted to enhance the side activities in the third instalment. A card game, the team thought, would allow players to take a breather from quests, add some variety, and increase the authenticity of the world.
But “my lead didn’t really want to do Gwent because we just didn’t have time for it,” says Jason Slama, a UI programmer for The Witcher 3 and eventually Gwent’s game director. “It was just going to be impossible.”
Two CD Projekt Red employees wouldn’t take no for an answer, though. Damien Monnier and Rafal Jaki were card game enthusiasts already and
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