CD Projekt Red currently has quite a few irons in the fire. The Witcher IV has been officially announced, and then there's the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077; more than enough for any studio to worry about, we would have thought. But then there's the mysterious Project Hadar, which will mark the Polish studio's first attempt at creating its own original IP. It sounds like it's still a long way out, but the search for an "extraordinary crew" of devs is starting to ramp up.
Marcin Blacha, VP of narration at CD Projekt Red (we haven't encountered that specific role before), posted a call for talented devs on Twitter (thanks, GamesRadar+). There are several roles available, including a writing job that claims this mysterious new IP already has a "universe bursting with potential."
Confirming what we already knew and conforming along with the rest of the industry, CD Projekt has ditched its propriety Red Engine, and a senior gameplay designer role calls for "designing, prototyping, scripting, iterating on features using Unreal Engine 5."
Of the three, which CD Projekt Red, uhhm, projects are you most looking forward to? Prepare for unparalleled, gritty immersion in the comments section below.
Comments 17
I Wonder how far along is the Witcher 1 Remake they were working on.
Excited to see what they come up with! I just hope I’m still alive by the time it releases 😜
To answer your question at the end of the article…which ever one is finished (ACTUALLY finished. Not Cyber Punk initial launch state finished) first.
I hate how every dev is just using Unreal Engine 5 now. Everything ends up looking so corporate with the same artistic direction. Lighting in particular being out a box is soulless.
@nessisonett
A good 50 percent of games that were released in the PS3/360 era was using some form of UE3 and that covered games as varied in art style from Mass Effect to Borderlands to the Batman Arkham games. This is not a new trend.
@PegasusActual93 Unreal Engine 3 didn’t have Nanite or Lumen. It was less of a homogeneous engine and more open to individual implementations of design styles. UE5 is just the new Unity, often poor performance and with a distinctive ‘look’ that instantly makes it stand out and not always in a good way.
@nessisonett yup the unreal engine is the Toyota Camry of game engines. Sure it works for many applications. But a bespoke game engine made for a specific game will always be better. Just as a purpose built sports car platform will be better than a common platform for a mass produced car that starts out normal vehicle.
@nessisonett games are now taking 4-5 years to develop, imagine how long it'd take if you had a custom engine to build as well. On top of that new staff need to be brought up to speed on the new engine before they can actually contribute. Modern games are so technically complicated that a common industry engine is a necessity.
@AgentMantis To be fair, CD Projekt Red already has their own engine which has served them well so far. I'd assume the reason they switched to UE is that maintaining their own engine is expensive. It's a big gamble to change to UE though. Looking forward to what they can do with it, but I'm also a bit worried about it.
It's a shame everyone at cd projekt red left will be interesting to see if the new team with do well with Witcher 4 that said I am looking forward to the rebel wolves game dawnwalker
@nessisonett How does nanite influence "design styles" beyond tempting developers to put more geometry on screen? Lumen is entirely optional, and the engine allows the use of no, baked or custom GI solutions. The NvRTX branch, which includes RESTIR (used in Cyberpunk's path tracing mode), is also freely available. Spoilers, it doesn't have much impact on "design styles". Only the fidelity and cost of modelling light transport.
At a stretch, one could argue that PBR and the stock ACES colour grading have influenced the look of many titles, but you'd still be making excuses for developers prioritizing "realism", and aping cinematic lighting/post techniques, over developing interesting, unique art direction. That, and the overuse of photogrammetry libraries.
@KoopaTheGamer I actually would argue that the Red engine looks better than UE5, also seen a video stating the UE games struggle with open worlds.
@nessisonett I see some people complain about UE5 games looking the same but I look at games like Fortnite, Tekken 8, Avowed, Hellblade 2, Multiversus, Still Wakes the Deep, Synapse, Creatures of Ava and many more. NONE of the above look remotely alike and all use UE5.
Of course if all you do is use the stock engine presets and assets you get things that look more like Immortals of Aveum or The First Descendant that are a bit generic, but do those REALLY look like Black Myth Wukong or Silent Hill 2? The art styles are very different.
Im sure there are other games in other engines that look generic like First Descendanr, and similar to some of these, but its more an artistic problem than an engine problem imho
Isn't Cyberpunk their first original game?
@Rob3008 No, it was based on an existing IP (originally tabletop RPG game if I recall correctly).
@Rob3008 inspired/based on a tabletop game with the name cyberpunk 2020:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_(role-playing_game)
@nessisonett I think what it comes down to is that UE5 has so many built in tools and pipelines, many that would be very hard for smaller teams to even dream about achieving, compared to old UE3. Like Nanite, Lumin, or even just the huge texture and asset libraries. What it allows developers to do is "punch above their weight". A team like Sandfall can make Expedition 33 with only 30 people!
But at the same time, unless you actually have the in house engineers, money and time etc... of a larger or more established studio to really make your UE5 game more unique, and tailored to your experience, then yes it does lead to a 'homogeneous' trap. Where things look better than they should for a team of that size, but also have a somewhat "not quite right look"
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