Cyberpunk 2077 still has no release date, although a recent rumor suggests that it could release as early as 2019. Nevertheless, CD Projekt Red has done numerous interviews since E3, talking about various aspects of the game. Most recently, the game’s Lead Animator, Maciej Pietras, spoke with CG Magazine about the setting of Night City and its inhabitants.
How CD Projekt Red is Designing the Cyberpunk 2077 Characters
During the interview, Pietras spoke about the NPCs which fill Night City. CD Projekt Red has stated that Night City has around 12 million NPC inhabitants. While many of these will be fairly basic, of course, those which matter to the story are certainly not shallow characters; “The NPCs set in that world are fully fleshed out characters, not just templates,” explains Pietras; “because we approach design like that. It means that you somehow got here. You’re here, you’re doing your job, you’re working, and I approach you and we have a discussion. The outcome is mostly dependent on the player choice.”
Some of this decision-making and the possible conversation branches were shown in the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo. The protagonist made certain choices in dialogue with several quest-important NPCs, determining the way in which the story played out; “I could pull out the gun and the conversation will go in a very different direction,” continues Pietras; “This example outlines how we think about cinematics and narrative content. So obviously it’s a huge challenge when compared to The Witcher. It’s an open world, one big city that you can explore. There are no loading screens except for fast travel, and because of that, we have to keep the player as immersed and focus on what’s happening now as possible.”
It’s currently unknown when CD Projekt Red will give fans their next glimpse of gameplay. The game is, of course, still in development. In all likelihood, fans may not see anything really significant until sometime in 2019, though CD Projekt Red could always surprise us.