Witcher, The

• Michal Kicinski (Head of the studio) - Codex info page - Forum profile
• Michal Madej (Lead Designer) - Codex info page - Forum profile
• Piotr Panasewicz (Communications Coordinator) - Codex info page - Forum profile
• Ryszard Chojnowski - Codex info page - Forum profile
• Tom Ohle (PR Guy) - Codex info page - Forum profile

• A few words with Michal Kicinski, Co-Founder of CD Projekt
• The Witcher interview
• The Witcher interview

• The Witcher review  

The Witcher 2 News ( Game news )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Wed 03 February 2010, 19:07:23
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CD Projekt considers releasing the console port of TW, Rise of the White Wolf, after releasing TW2.

Development on that title (Rise of the White Wolf) was suspended after things didn't work out with Widescreen Games and that's where it remains, suspended but not cancelled. Ultimately we walked away because of concerns over deadlines and the overall quality of the project and I'd say that the guys at Widescreen weren't solely to blame for that.

Walking away was a very hard thing to do but I think we learned a lot about outsourcing and we'd love to see Rise of the White Wolf released on consoles at some point, perhaps we could go back to that after the release of The Witcher 2.

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Witcher 2 'breakthrough RPG like Fallout 3' ( Interview )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Thu 19 November 2009, 13:28:20
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Polygamia have a thing about The Witcher 2:

We've been to CD Projekt's conference regarding its merger with Optimus. Here are some of the facts we have learned from the conference itself and from speaking to CD Projekt's founders, Michał Kiciński and Marcin Iwiński.

* According to CD Projekt, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is to be a "breakthrough RPG like Fallout 3" that should get over 90% score at Metacritic
* The Witcher 2 development team currently consists of ca. 80 people, both from CD Projekt Red and from Metropolis Software, whose FPS titled They is currently "on hold"
* The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, the console port of the first game, is not canceled but suspended, and will likely be made after all. This time with the use of CD Projekt's own technology, not an engine outsourced from a third party. However, it might not happen until after the second game is finished.
* The Witcher 2 uses CD Projekt's internal, multi-platform engine, which is focused not only on the renderer and physics, but on non-linear quest design. CD Projekt founders believe that it will be in the vanguard among game engines, and especially RPG engines.

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Back-door stock market listing for CD Projekt? ( Company news )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Fri 02 October 2009, 02:04:55
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So the poles @ polygamia are reporting. Thankfully this foreign language news has an English version:

As we managed to find out, CD Projekt, the developer of The Witcher and owner of digital distribution platform Good Old Games is to be bought by the nearly defunct public company, Optimus S.A., specializing in assembly of PCs. Optimus is paying with its own shares, to be owned by the current owners of CD Projekt, so in reality it is a way for CD Projekt, a privately owned company, to enter the stock market without the necessary formalities. The companies have signed a letter of intent today, and since Optimus is public, official information should appear soon.

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Grksky polski Witcher 2 leaked video wka pikachu ( Development info )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Fri 18 September 2009, 11:38:10
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I direct your attention over here for the Witcher 2 internal use only presentation video:

THIS VIDEO IS CONFIDENTIAL - INTERNAL USE ONLY
Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Lots of video of dudes working on PCs at CD Projekkkt
AAA RPG. Original Witcher has over 100 awards, sold 1.2 Million units as PC only.
Features you remember long time!
Incredible graphics first thing you notice. Full advanatge of normal and parallax mapping.
Dragon cool isn't it?
Day / Night cycles, new engine, dynamic shadows has allowed them to produce some of the most realistic environments ever in the history of RPGs. [I shit you not, that's what he actually said].
New dialogue system with dynamic camera which places players smack in the middle of an interactive movie where they deter-mon how e-vens unfold. Really fugly whore on-screen at this point.
Really shity voice-over acting, sounds pretty place-holder though.
Done away with world where Geralt's actions had no effect on other characters.
Gareth's behaviour will now prompt other characters reactions - Geralt then knocks some shit over in front of everyone and everyone basically stands around saying "Who the fuck did that?".
NPCs have daily routines that can fuck Geralt up. They also do push-ups.
Combat system of finishing moves well-known from the first Witcher will be re-vamped making combat even more dynamic, spectacular and bloody, giving players exactly what they want best.
Havok fissiks.
QuickTime Events will be yet another innovation. This technology will take Geralt's confrontation with bosses to another level. Mainly the elevator straight to shit-hell.
This will make boss fights all the more crap-tastic, boring and forgetful [I may have got that bit wrong. Accents and all].
Woosh-woosh swish-oosh.

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The Witcher :: Super-Mega Fucking Awesome Edition ( Game news )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Wed 15 July 2009, 10:55:38
More info on Witcher, The - More info on CD Projekt

Take it away CD ProjeKKKt:

CD Projekt RED is excited to announce the upcoming release of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut, allowing gamers in North America to experience the award-winning RPG as the developers originally envisioned. The Director’s Cut is set for release as both a free update for existing owners of the North American version of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition and as a stand-alone product at various digital distributors.

• What is The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut?
  The Director’s Cut is the version of the game our developers originally intended for you to play. It is essentially the same game that gamers around the world have experienced – now available legitimately for the first time in North America.
  
• Where will The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut be available?
  The Director’s Cut update will be available from TheWitcher.com and all applicable digital distributors in North America, including Steam, Impulse and Direct2Drive. We will announce the release date in the coming days, but as of that date, people who buy The Witcher: Enhanced Edition from digital distributors will be purchasing the Director’s Cut, as it will replace the existing Enhanced Edition on those sites.
  
• Will The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut obtained from digital distribution contain 1.5 patch features (i.e. additional adventures)?
  Yes, Director’s Cut version of the game will have all features of patch 1.5.
  
• Do I need The Witcher: Enhanced Edition to get the Director’s Cut?
  If you want to just install the patch to get the Director’s Cut content, then you do need The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. If you’re just buying The Witcher for the first time (or feel like buying it again!) then you can just purchase the product via Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, etc. as they will offer the Director’s Cut as a full product already patched to the latest version.
  
• I don’t live in North America or I imported a copy of the game from outside of North America. Should I get the Director’s Cut?
  You really already have the Director’s Cut if you have the international edition of the game and have installed the 1.5 patch!
  
• What is the age rating of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut?
  The Director’s Cut has received an M rating from the ESRB, with Blood and Gore, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content and Violence.

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Update The Witcher to 1.5 - NOW!!! ( Game news )
posted by Monolith on Wed 08 July 2009, 23:04:44
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The 1.5 patch for The Witcher is available (multi-language version - Polish, English, German, French).

Here's what the official Witcher site has to say about it:

We are happy to inform that latest patch version for The Witcher is now available to download!

Here are the features of patch 1.5:

Modifications:
- copy securities (DRM) are removed
- playing the game no longer requires the game disc in the drive
- patch solves problems with EAX and blurred graphics

Additionally:
- 5 bonus adventures made by the Witcher community: ‘Deceits’, ‘Blight of the Bogs’, ‘Wraiths of Quiet Hamlet’, ‘The Wedding’, ‘Merry Witchmas’.

In order to install patch 1.5 correctly, original Witcher game upgraded to 1.4 (i.e. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition) should be installed.

You might also want to download the new game-difficulty modification, "Flash Mod", prepared by our community member Andrzej "Flash" Kwiatkowski. Now surivivng in the world of The Witcher will be much more challenging than ever before!

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The Witcher: Enhanced Edition² ( Game news )
posted by Monolith on Wed 03 June 2009, 11:52:43
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The Witcher gets enhanced one more time, this time dropping all DRM and copyprotection baggage while adding 5 fan-made adventures. Here's the press release:

The Witcher Version 1.5 Coming Soon!

CD Projekt RED is pleased to announce the upcoming release of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition 1.5!
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition 1.5 is the newest version of the game, including all bonus content from The Witcher: Enhanced Edition and five additional fan-made adventures. Most importantly, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition 1.5 is completely DRM-free! Playing The Witcher will be even more fun without any form of annoying copy protection. Moreover, the 1.5 version of The Witcher will remove the disc check, allowing you to play the game without the DVD in the drive.

All available versions of the game will be upgraded to 1.5, including the forthcoming The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut for North American gamers.

As usual the patch containing the additional content will be available to download for free from our website for all registered The Witcher and The Witcher: Enhanced Edition owners!

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The Witcher - Sure is JRPG around here ( Review )
posted by baby arm on Sun 24 May 2009, 23:58:40
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Habitual pottymouth and occasional reviewer Andyman Messiah has lashed together a review of The Witcher: Extended Edition and posted it on the forums.

So anyway, if we now throw “dark and mature” aside, what the fuck do we have left? “Well-written”. Yes, the story is well-written. If you know how to read fucking POLISH that is! Because holy hell, the official english translation is nothing more than a declaration of war! I know I'm not really one to talk, I'm probably up to my dick in typos and grammar shit right now but even before I found out the truth about this castrated english translation I sensed that there was something incredibly wrong with it. It's obvious that it had been cut down to pieces for some reason, most likely because – drum whirl, please – the translators did a really shitty job and you don't need to look further than DarkUnderlord's Year in Review article to see examples. This is not good work! If this was the best they could do they should not even have thought about releasing the game in english-speaking countries. Unless you know polish it's entirely out of the question to have any kind of a really intelligent experience with The Witcher, and I'm only basing this on things polish people in my vicinity have told me. If I knew how to read polish I might have found out that the polish text sucks equal amounts of ass but I doubt it and I do trust the polish men and women I keep hidden in my basement.

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More Witcher Gossip - Everyone blames everyone else ( Company news )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Thu 30 April 2009, 03:17:35
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First up, the cancellation of the Witcher Console Edition has been confirmed. By the guys who were out-sourced to do it and they blame CD Projekt:

“After having a payment being broken by CD Projekt - a big payment that we were supposed to receive - and after having committed to the project but not being covered financially on it for three months, I hold no choice but to put the team on hold,” said Widescreen boss Olivier Masclef in a phone interview this afternoon.

Masclef also said CD Projekt’s deal with Atari was out of kilter with Widescreen’s agreement with CD Projekt in terms of milestones.

The suspension came after a meeting between the three parties, called by Masclef.

It is sad that we cannot talk with WSG in normal business way, but communicate through media. It is absolutely not our style of making business, and we answer here as we feel forced to do this to clarify the unclear information:
1. All payments were done on time according to milestone plan.
2. Truth is that payments were later than originally planned but this was solely due to delays in production. The delays were growing in the project due to WSG continued to miss the deadlines.
3. Delays and risks of further development by WSG were unacceptable by CD Projekt (this happened even though CDProjekt RED was constantly increasing main team involvement to help in the production). The most important fact is that development process didn’t make planned release date possible and moreover propositions of the new release date were changing few times. Besides the schedule, technical incapability created a risk of missing planned quality which is absolutely unacceptable. And this brought an end in our cooperation with WSG.
4. Currently the works are on hold. We are evaluating all possible options to continue the production.
Making this decision was extremely difficult and sad as we know that many people are waiting for this project. We do our best to find a way out of this situation. But final decision must guarantee high quality of the product, otherwise we won’t continue the production no matter what consequences it will bring. We are committed to the highest quality of all our games, and this is unnegotiable for us.
So no matter what the final decision or solution we will find, please be sure that it will be the best for the game quality, and satisfaction of gamers, which is the most important for us!
Michal Kicinski
Joint CEO
CD Projekt Group

From what you're saying, I gather that WSG is hugely responsible for this situation. In spite of that, the company accuses you of not paying and blames you for suspending the project.. Can you explain what happened, from your perspective?

WSG behaves in a way that is far from our business ethics. But their accusations are serious and, what is most important, untrue that is why we published a correction under the article on vg247.com. We paid for all the milestones on time, just after they had been accepted. Of course, it was later than planned, because the milestones were presented for acceptance with delays and they were inconsistent with the specification.

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The Codex interview CD Project's Michal Kicinski ( Interview )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Wed 29 April 2009, 11:31:46
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Some time ago - namely before yesterday's news item about CD Projekt cancelling the console Witcher port and their other projects - we sent Monolith to interview Co-Founder Michal Kicinski. Here's what he had to say:

7) In the press release announcing The Witcher selling a million copies you implied that The Witcher is going to be ported to consoles. Let's assume that will happen - what's involved in porting The Witcher and what exactly would have to be changed?

The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf is the console equivalent of the PC version of The Witcher. From day one we knew it would be great if the game could be brought to a broad audience, not exclusively PC owners. However, you've got to remember that this was our first project and creating such an extensive RPG just on the PC was already bordering on impossible. Adding other platforms would have been beyond what was possible for us and above all, we wouldn't have been able to concentrate on making The Witcher the best RPG on the platform that is PC. The Witcher was very well received by gamers and the media. That strengthened our conviction to introduce the product we have created in the course of many years to the broadest audience possible. Right after the release of The Witcher we started to create a console adaption. One of our conditions was that RotWW ought not postpone the development of CD Projekt RED's other projects. That's why we decided to cooperate with an outside company, the French White Screen Games team, which provides the modern DaVinci engine specially designed for next-gen consoles. WSG is responsible for technical side, adapting and improving game assets while a small team of our people oversees everything concerning content - working out a new and console-typical combat system, changed GUI, and a lot of other changes needed for The Witcher to be a fullblooded console title use their potential to the fullest. Except the plot which remains the same all other elements of the game are changed or totally new. That's why I believe The Witcher will also be well received by the console crowd, because there aren't any PC remnants that could lessen the console experience. Of course, if we succeed has yet to be varified by the console gamers.
[...]
4) And now that we've discussed the strengths, what are the game's flaws? Where did you fail and, most importantly, why? What would you have made different?

Everybody seems to see different flaws. Painful, from my point of view, was the fact that on release day the game was plagued by bugs and failures which hindered enjoyment. Especially the long loading times. Also painful were the cut and shortened English dialogues - something that was advised by „experts" of the western markets, but which was an absolute mistake and, since it was done in a hurry, resulted in unlogical and inconsistent dialogues, but above else hurt the atmosphere. There was also a great deal of small bugs but taking into account the scope of the Witcher that was to be expected (although I personally disapprove). Compared to games like Gothic 1, The Witcher was quite a polished product ;). Nonetheless, with our next project we'll certainly go much further when it comes to polishing the game. It's quite distressing if what's been created in the course of several years gets crossed out due to some bugs that could be removed with a couple of weeks' work.

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