Cyberpunk 2077 Quest Designer Describes How He Designs Side-Quests
Thus far, fans have only seen a small portion of Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay; a section of story which could well be changed before the final release. As such, fans have not seen much of the game’s different quests yet. Recently, the game’s Quest Designer was interviewed by Metro. During the discussion he explained how he and his team designed the Cyberpunk 2077 side-quests.
How Patrick Mills Designs Cyberpunk 2077 Side-Quests
Patrick Mills is the Quest Designer for CD Projekt Red who is working on Cyberpunk 2077. He also worked on side-quests for The Witcher 3, and as a result, the interview turned at one stage to Cyberpunk 2077 side-quests. Asked if side-quests were something CD Projekt Red planned to “double-down” on, he responded; “Oh yeah, absolutely. The way that we develop side quests is very often by looking at the main story; after we’ve written out and sketched out the main story we find the characters that maybe we want to spend more time with, themes, or even bits of old main story that aren’t getting used anymore.”
Mills went on to explain that some side-quest ideas came from content cut from the main story; “sometimes you wind up with something that is part of the main story and then at some point you’re like, ‘No, main story has changed but we’ll make it a side quest’. And because there’s not the pressure of being part of a multi-hour long story you have a little bit more freedom to figure it out”. According to the Quest Designer, CD Projekt Red has a key rule for all side-quests, one which was obviously used in The Witcher 3; “our rule for side quests is that the story has to be something that you’ve never seen before,” he says; “there’s gotta be something in this story that’s different. It’s never gonna feel like, ‘Go here, do that’. It’s you go there and do that and then something happens.”
Hopefully, the game succeeds in delivering a whole assortment of side-quests for players when it launches. The Witcher 3, certainly, had some excellent side-quests. It was rare indeed to find any such quest which lacked a distinct story, even where that story was short.