The Witcher 3's director explains why he had to leave CDPR to make his dream vampire RPG: 'We had crazy ideas'

pcgamer.com:

For PC Gamer magazine's upcomingThe Blood of Dawnwalker issue, I flew out to Warsaw to visit developer Rebel Wolves and speak to a number of its key devs, including founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz: Best-known for being the director ofThe Witcher 3, one of gaming's greatest ever fantasy RPG experiences.

Tomaszkiewicz also worked as a co-director on Cyberpunk 2077 before leaving CDPR. The obvious question is why an established and proven director would feel the need to move on from somewhere they'd helped to such success.“I set up Rebel Wolves because I felt that I wanted to make something that is unique with my friends,” says Tomaszkiewicz. “Of course, we have a huge love of RPG games, and what has been done before in the past. [But] I feel that those things, those rules of RPG games, can be expanded and evolved. We had crazy ideas. We knew that, you know, if we wanted to make them, we needed to open our own studio, because it would be hard to convince any big company—you know, with non-IP—to change, and do something new, and do something crazy. Actually, it’s risky, because we’re doing some solutions which are new.

«And the second thing is that we have a studio where we work with the people, and among them, not like at the bigger studios where it’s harder. I felt that a smaller team is capable of doing more, because the communication inside the team, and it’s easier to speak about the vision. It’s easier to feel the creative fire, and to do something special.”

Indeed, Rebel Wolves seems to be packing serious RPG heritage in its veins, as Konrad has been joined at his new studio by multiple other former CD Projekt developers, including the game's design director, Daniel Sadowski, as well as creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, both of which worked on the acclaimed Polish studio's The Witcher series.

Tomaszkiewicz is now game director on Rebel Wolves' new fantasy RPG, The Blood of Dawnwalker, which sees gamers step into the shoes of Coen, a half-human half-vampire.