Cyberpunk 2077 Writer Talks Universe and Multilayered Gangs

Cyberpunk Gangs Are More Than Mustache-Twirling Villains

A shroud of silence and coyness typically surrounds any news regarding Cyberpunk 2077. Luckily, the folks over at CD Projekt RED aren’t afraid to be candid when it comes to game development. Stanisław Święcicki, a writer for the Warsaw-based studio since 2013, recently shared some insight on the game’s writing team and their “multilayered process.”

In an interview with PlayStation Magazine (September 2018, issue 152), Święcicki revealed that the writing team is currently comprised of ten people. Then he touched on the cycles that revolve around scenes in the game’s story.

“At the beginning it’s like all the team sort and on a higher level it’s decided what’s the direction. And then we come up with sort of a story outline so to speak – a very bird’s eye view of how the story progresses. Narrative is key at CD Projekt RED. I like to say narrative is key, rather than story is key. Because it all comes down to all the narrative teams really working closely.

“Every department has a different focus: whether everything is logical, whether it works as levels, how good the cinematics and the mood of the scene is. Then it comes back to us and we organically change the scenes in that way, as the other teams suggest. We write the dialogue, it comes back to us again. So, it’s really a multilayered process.

“We use the mythos as a strong road sign for us in terms of mood and atmosphere because we’re making a similar universe to what you`ve seen in 2020, but we are giving ourselves the creative freedom to do major tweaks to what the universe is, and what rules it has.

“That’s sort of needed because Cyberpunk 2020, which I played as a role-playing game, was pen-and-paper right? So we’re making a very different game over here. But for us it’s really about the mood and what’s important about the world.”

In case you’re interested in dynamic villains, Święcicki also talked about gangs in Cyberpunk 2077 and how they tick. According to him, they won’t just be cannon fodder for the player’s killing sprees. Each gang will have its own characteristics and motives.

“With the gangs, we really want to emphasize that we don’t want them to be our comic book-esque villains – they’re not abominations that decided for almost no reason to put cyberware in themselves,” Święcicki told OPM. “It’s a dark, dangerous world and some people who aren’t able to make it to the megacorps or don’t want it… It’s a human need to seek identity, and some people just gravitate towards the gangs. Although their faces are modified they’re still human underneath, you know. It touches upon a universal feeling we all have: the need to belong to a group.”

Expect more Cyberpunk 2077 news during this year’s Gamescom and beyond. It’s possible that CDPR will showcase the same gameplay they previewed behind closed doors at E3 2018.

Happy gaming.

SOURCE: Wccftech