How Cyberpunk 2077 shaped CD Projekt Red's approach to level design
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It's rare to be given an insight into the development of an AAA game like Cyberpunk 2077. But Max Pears, former senior level designer at developer CD Projekt Red, discussed the inner workings of the studio and its philosophies during his talk at Develop Brighton last month.
Pears' talk, entitled 'Johnny Silverhand's Porsche: Designing levels for Cyberpunk 2077,' was explicitly targeting level designers, but also touched upon CD Projekt Red's workplace environment, sharing his experience working with the level design team on Cyberpunk 2077 and its upcoming DLC, Phantom Liberty (due to release on September 26).
Level design was a "new thing" for CD Projekt Red when approaching Cyberpunk 2077, according to Pears, with the developer previously relying on environment artists and quest designers. Quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz previously told GamesIndustry.biz that the team working on Cyberpunk 2077 was "at least twice the size" of The Witcher 3 and was composed of experts from various fields.
In addition to Pears, the design team that worked on the side mission featured in the talk included quest director Paweł Sasko, environment artist Timur Ozdoev, gameplay QA analyst Paweł Kucal, and writer and narrative designer Ola Motyka.
Pears, who joined CD Projekt Red as it was finishing off The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC in 2017, shared that the developer was somewhat wary of working with a dedicated design team.
"It was best for us as level designers to block out the spaces and think about the routes that were available for different playstyles"
"Level design was kind of a new thing for them," he said. "Their pipeline throughout The Witcher
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