Even BioWare didn’t expect what the young Polish studio had up its sleeve. CD Projekt RED’s first Witcher pitch was so awkward that the team cringes about it to this day—yet it was the start of an RPG legend.

Few things sting as much as walking into a big presentation unprepared, only to realize afterward just how painful the whole thing was. CD Projekt RED knows that feeling all too well. When development on the original The Witcher began, co-CEO and studio boss Adam Badowski and a handful of devs met with BioWare’s Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk to show off an early demo. Back then, the team was just 15 people strong and dreamed of maybe doubling in size.

An Embarrassing Start and Huge Dreams

Everyone was eager and hard-working, but the presentation itself was nothing short of embarrassing for CDPR. The demo went poorly, it became clear only a tiny group was behind the project, and yet—despite all that—the team boldly declared their aim to make the best RPG ever created. A crazy claim, but it didn’t scare BioWare off.

“I showed the demo, and it really wasn’t impressive. Then Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk asked what we wanted to achieve. We told them we wanted to be the biggest, best RPG studio in the business. We wanted to make the best role-playing game ever. They just said they’d call us back. In the end, though, they were incredibly supportive. Our first engine actually came from BioWare. We wrote about 80 percent of the code ourselves. There was no multiplayer, we stripped out a ton of features, and the rendering system was built from scratch. Sometimes, lacking experience and knowledge is exactly what pushes your ambitions,” Badowski recalled.

So in the end, CDPR left a surprisingly good impression. That engine was the Aurora tech, originally built for Neverwinter Nights. Rewriting it was no walk in the park for the Poles, but the challenge taught them a ton—and now they’re hard at work on The Witcher IV and the next Cyberpunk.

Source : PCGamer