Cyberpunk 2077 - We're finally Next-Gen!

[tiesto]

I met someone who is friends with Rhys Fulber (Delerium/FLA/Conjure One) the other day. Pretty cool, of course my Rhys Fulber-related song of choice should be really obvious.

[Himu]

No, it would be called Fantasy.

Which honestly, isn't a bad name. Nice and simple. Sure, a little generic, but memorable. Like Final Fantasy, or Dragon Quest.

[chronovore]

Talk about choosing one of the most generic names possible

When the original pen-and-paper RPG came out in 1988, it was a little less mainstream. Gibson's Neuromancer had come out four years previous, and had been quite a splash, but the term itself wasn't inherently generic at the time.

There's an argument to be made that, well, it's 2012 now and that's no longer the case, but this computer game is based on the pen-and-paper system, isn't it?

[Sho Nuff]

All I want is for them to steal as much from William Gibson as possible and not fuck it up. Shadowrun had everything going for it in terms of wholesale IP thievery but then they shitted it all up by adding orcs and crap.

[Himu]

Yes, Chrono. This is based on the pen and paper.

[ToxicAdam]

I've wanted a Neuromancer remake for so long. This will do.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Sandbox has me worried this will be eurojank.

[Himu]

If you've played Witcher 2 even for five minutes you shouldn't be worried about that.

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, CD Projekt has come a long way since the original release of The Witcher. Jank's not going to be an issue here.

[Great Rumbler]

[Great Rumbler]

Some blog posts:

Believe it  not, almost none of my friends in the digital or the tabletop game industry has ever asked me why the heck we committed our Cyberpunk® baby to the tender mercies of a bunch of guys in some far off place like Poland. Some of them have wondered why I’m willing to endure nine hours on a plane and days of crushing jet lag to work personally with the Cyberpunk® dev team, but  in the main, CDPR is pretty well respected in the circles I run in and my colleagues all think we were damned lucky to hook up with them. (And when the jet lag clears, I usually agree.)

As I’ve often said about the quest to get a great Cyberpunk® computer game developed, “This isn’t exactly my first rodeo.” We’ve been down this long and tortuous trail several times before and up to this point we just haven’t been able to find the right team with the right balance to make the RPG game we’d be proud to put out in front of our fans. We’ve tried  working with huge studios and tiny ones. We’ve tried to cram the essence of Cyberpunk® into everything from massive multiplayer games to tiny phone games. Sometimes these projects crashed because the developer’s ego led them down the fatal path of trying to make something that was Cyberpunk® in name only (alien invasions and bi-engineered animal warriors anyone?). Other times, the project crashed because the developer lacked the team resources or money to execute on the project in the end. One of the most promising iterations, an ambitious MMO that actually involved Talsorian staffers working on it, crashed when a critical member of the development team was unexpectedly drafted into military service! So you can see that getting Cyberpunk® to the digital stage has been a long,  painful and in the end particularly frustrating experience.

So while I could just tell you in a few words why the Talsorian crew decided  that CDPR was a good fit for doing a Cyberpunk® CRPG (computer role-playing game), after some thought on the matter, I decided it would tell you a lot more about our choice if I went into the elements we knew would be needed to  to make a truly exceptional Cyberpunk® game and how we eventually found all of them in a distant development studio with the unlikely name of CD Projekt Red (and they still haven’t told us what the CD stands for).

So what do you need to make a great Cyberpunk® video game? Like getting a man on the Moon, you have to have the Right Stuff; in this case, the Right Feel, the Right Tech, the Right Resources and (most important) the Right Team.

To be continued…

The Right Feel

There are people out there who have protested to me at conventions that there have been hundreds of cyberpunk games made over that last two decades. But my counter-response is that, save for a very rare few exceptions,  most “cyberpunk” games are games from other genres with a cyberpunk veneer shellacked over the top; standard action shooters, futuristic racing games, involved explorations on trans-human philosophy—even classic space operas dressed up with a few heroes uncomfortably wearing leather dusters over their vac suits and mirror-shades perched precariously on the the tops of their finned helmets.

Most people think of cyberpunk is just a summary of specific tropes; big guns, dark streets and dangerous guys in ubiquitous leather dusters. But the core of cyberpunk is a lot more subtle than that. Cyberpunk is about the seductive qualities of corruption and decay. In a world where rules and morality are non-existent, the temptation to descend to the level of the mean streets is always there. It doesn’t have to be dirty or grimy on the physical level. But on the psycho-social level, even the cleanest and most orderly Corp-zone should be rife with darkness and collapse. Ambiguous moral choices are key to cyberpunk, as are victories that aren’t always clear victories, and  defeats that feel like victories because they are hard won against impossible odds.

True cyberpunk also needs an adult feel (and that means more than just the sex). Unlike other genres, cyberpunk characters should have vices to go with their virtues. How they DEAL with those vices is a big part of their complexity. When we looked at the Witcher series, we saw a world where gambling,drinking, hookers and other vices were a big part of character development, but were also handled as part of the general adult character of the world. But in addition, relationships were treated as actual relationships, with the fights, negotiations, regrets and reconciliations that are part of the way real adults handle real situations.

Last, doomed, Romantic quests are another part of the cyberpunk mythology. You’re not just fighting an evil mega corp because  it will get you money. You’re doing it to save a friend, settle a personal score, win a lover, champion a cause. Most of the time, you’re a solo gunslinger riding a dirty, dangerous path, depending on your wits and skills as your follow your lonely quest to do what you know you must. You don’t stride in like a superhero, triumphantly defeating all enemies; you win by the skin of your teeth, and it means more because it’s PERSONAL.

The Right Tech

Cyberpunk isn’t just about high tech. It has to be the RIGHT LEVEL of high tech. Most “cyberpunk” games miss this important element, larding up the process with superpowers, spaceships, blasters and other overblown technologies. But the devices, vehicles, weapons and gadgets of a truly cyberpunk world have to be things that are only a few seconds ahead of where we are right now. They should be things that will spring from the real world we live in; direct extensions of trends currently in play. You can’t have ray guns in a cyberpunk setting—but you can have advanced sub-machine guns. Perfect example: in a Cyberpunk® project  written several years ago, I created the “agent”; a hand held super cell-phone that used small micro-programs that could tailor the device to the users needs. At the time, it was a logical extension of what cellphones should be able to do in the near future. Ten years later, I’m writing this on my tablet smart-phone. See what I mean?

The Right Resources

Making a great game can’t be done on a shoestring budget. You need the right hardware to execute a great vision. You also need the right combination of tools; specialized software, design tools, solid conceptual designers, modelers and researchers. You also have to have the will to make new tools and draw upon all your resources. Although we’d worked with other teams over the years who had the talent and passion, they didn’t have the level of resources needed to make a spectacular game that would be worthy of Cyberpunk®‘s many rabid fans.

At first glance it may seem that there’s nothing easier than creating a video game based on an existing RPG system like Cyberpunk® 2020. After all, we already have all the mechanics prepared and ready to use in the game. As simple as it sounds, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

The pen & paper game rules are designed to give players as much flexibility as possible. They are more like a set of guidelines which players are at liberty to bend to their liking. Improvisation, dropping rules or adding new ones is a common practice for pen & paper games. This principle applies not only to gameplay rules, like combat or skill tests, but also to character customization. Players are limited only by common sense, the agreement of the group and their imagination.

Video games, on the other hand, do not have that much flexibility. Every element has to be accounted for and carefully designed. Of course, modern AAA RPG games, like The Witcher 2 or the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, can give the Player lots of freedom. But the underlying mechanics are adhering to very strict rules and if an action or option wasn’t implemented in the code, then the player will not be able to do it. The same principle applies to character customization – the player can do only as much as game allows him to. So if game designers decide that it is not possible to play as an ugly midget you will not be able to play one. Sorry Tyrion Lannister fans

This is why adapting pen & paper rules to video game is not as easy as it can appear at first glance. The flexibility of an in-person RPG has to be replaced with a strict set of rules. Every skill, attribute and game mechanic has to have a clear definition and place in the game. For example, the Cyberpunk® 2020 “Wardrobe & Style” skill governs the knowledge about the right clothes to wear, when to wear them and how to look cool even in a spacesuit. As you can see, this skill covers quite a big area of lore and can be interpreted differently, depending on the situation and the players. In Cyberpunk 2077 this skill has to be tied to a specific gameplay mechanic. And all of these  mechanics have to be clearly defined so they can work well with other elements of the game and, at the same time, be easy to understand for the player. After all, we don’t have a referee or game master to explain or interpret the rules as you go. And, to accommodate your curiosity, yes, we have some really cool ideas on how to present aforementioned skill in the game. Regrettably, we’re not quite yet ready to spill the beans

For hardcore Cyberpunk 2020 fans out there, twiddling with rules in such a way may seem like blasphemy. But rest assured that we are working very closely with Mike Pondsmith to ensure that the unique feel of the original, paper game is preserved intact. Of course we may need to change some things, add new elements or even drop the ones that simply do not work in  a video game (“Geology” skill anyone?).

Of course, the topic raised today is only the tip of an iceberg and you probably have tons of questions. Unfortunately, we are not ready to reveal more details at the moment. Nevertheless, we’ll be more than happy to read your comments so feel free to drop them below and stay tuned. When we’re ready, we will surely share more information with you. Be patient and remember: Attitude is Everything!

[chronovore]

Do I correctly recall that Fallout was originally going to be a GURPS-based RPG, but was abandoned because SJ Games were unwilling to let the sanctity of the GURPS system be sullied by changes needed to adapt to videogame format?

[Great Rumbler]

Do I correctly recall that Fallout was originally going to be a GURPS-based RPG, but was abandoned because SJ Games were unwilling to let the sanctity of the GURPS system be sullied by changes needed to adapt to videogame format?

There's some information on that here:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_13:_A_GURPS_Post-Nuclear_Adventure

[chronovore]

Do I correctly recall that Fallout was originally going to be a GURPS-based RPG, but was abandoned because SJ Games were unwilling to let the sanctity of the GURPS system be sullied by changes needed to adapt to videogame format?

There's some information on that here:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_13:_A_GURPS_Post-Nuclear_Adventure

Neato!

Gotta admit, I still get a small chub just thinking about playing a GURPS game on a computer. Don't know if it ever could have worked out.

Hearing that SJ Games/Steve Jackson were unresponsive and possibly dismissive of the medium makes me never want to pursue my ironic/postmodern XBLA adaptation of FRAG.

[Great Rumbler]

Some teaser images ahead of the teaser trailer being released this Thursday:

[maxy]

[Himu]

This is why I am buying a new computer.

[Rahxephon91]

Hopefully this makes it to some console. Witcher 2 port was pretty great.

[Don Flamenco]

this game. this game.

[Sho Nuff]

Gibson all over my face

[Momo]

Now I want a new Ghost in the Shell game

[Great Rumbler]

An open-world Ghost in the Shell game where you hunt down cybercriminals and do hacking stuff. Yeah, now I want something like that, too. 

[Great Rumbler]

@ all the peeps who think this is *NOT* CGI

smh

[maxy]

Where is the trailer?
 

[Cerveza mas fina]

Its a teaser. But nobody is posting it here lazy bitches.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I havent seen it cause Im lazy

[close]

[Great Rumbler]

The teaser won't be released for a few more hours.

[cool breeze]

[maxy]

nice

[Himu]

sweet dear lord have mercy

[Great Rumbler]

zooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomg

Reminds of the first episode of the AD Police anime:

#t=5m13s

[Cerveza mas fina]

Horrible music choice

I dont think they could have put music in that was further from what people wanted

[headwalk]

eh, not quite neo 80s noir enough for my tastes, but i'll take it.

really would've liked to hear some perturbator-like in the soundtrack.

[maxy]

[Himu]

zooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomg

Reminds of the first episode of the AD Police anime:

#t=5m13s

I KNOW!!!!!!

[Great Rumbler]

PSYCHO SQUAD

[Cerveza mas fina]

eh, not quite neo 80s noir enough for my tastes, but i'll take it.

really would've liked to hear some perturbator-like in the soundtrack.

You know whats up.

This emo shit music barffff

[headwalk]

eh, not quite neo 80s noir enough for my tastes, but i'll take it.

really would've liked to hear some perturbator-like in the soundtrack.

You know whats up.

This emo shit music barffff

weirdly enough, it's the only EDM i can stomach. but i can stomach more than sasha grey.

that said, i stake myself on the atmospheric end of the spectrum. as soon as it veers in too far in to house i get my jacket.

(and that's not emo you troglodyte, don't make me sneer.)

[Rahxephon91]

Meh.

It was just a boring CG trailer.

Eh. Will probably be worth the wait though.

[Great Rumbler]

Turn off the volume on the trailer and listen to this instead:

[cool breeze]

Considering how early the game is and the resources of CDPR, it was a cool trailer.  Managed to do a lot with a little.  I don't think it's indicative of the game's music or anything.  Can't imagine there's any original music for it yet.

If you wanted to compare it with recent cyberpunk inspired games/trailers:

Deus Ex HR:
Syndicate:
Prey 2: 
Samaritan tech demo:
Hard Reset:


also, I think CDPR mentioned recently that Witcher 3 is coming before this.

[tiesto]

eh, not quite neo 80s noir enough for my tastes, but i'll take it.

really would've liked to hear some perturbator-like in the soundtrack.

You know whats up.

This emo shit music barffff

weirdly enough, it's the only EDM i can stomach. but i can stomach more than sasha grey.

that said, i stake myself on the atmospheric end of the spectrum. as soon as it veers in too far in to house i get my jacket.

(and that's not emo you troglodyte, don't make me sneer.)

You can have very atmospheric stuff that still falls under the realm of house. Deep tech house or late 90's progressive house being 2 examples.

Haven't seen the trailer yet but kinda disappointed to hear the music isn't what people wanted. Then again, I thought Witcher 2's soundtrack was horrible.

[Great Rumbler]

There's really no indication that the song picked for the trailer will be anything like the soundtrack for the game, but there's not much else to talk about right now so people are gonna talk about that.

[BlueTsunami]

Liked everything about it aside from the music. 'Personal Responsibility' isn't really a catchy set of words and to hear it over and over is rough. The music will make or break the ambiance of the game proper so I hope the trailer music isn't indicative of the route they're taking in that regard.

[Great Rumbler]

Liked everything about it aside from the music. 'Personal Responsibility' isn't really a catchy set of words and to hear it over and over is rough. The music will make or break the ambiance of the game proper so I hope the trailer music isn't indicative of the route they're taking in that regard.

That song doesn't even make sense as ambient music anyway, like that's not going to be looping over and over while you're walking around town.

[BlueTsunami]

Liked everything about it aside from the music. 'Personal Responsibility' isn't really a catchy set of words and to hear it over and over is rough. The music will make or break the ambiance of the game proper so I hope the trailer music isn't indicative of the route they're taking in that regard.

That song doesn't even make sense as ambient music anyway, like that's not going to be looping over and over while you're walking around town.

that's true but I'm thinking as.far as booming music you may hear on the streets or in a club. One of my fondest memories in regards to music in games was strolling into Club Asylum in Vampire Masquerade. The music in that club set the mood for me for nearly the whole game.

[cool breeze]

Really curious to see if they'll build in path where you become a member of the psychosquad.  The gist of it is they recruit from cyborgs who go crazy, reprogram them with the braindance, and their sentence is to serve in the psychosquad.  I don't know how that would work without greatly restricting player agency, which would be interesting in its own way.
 
some pr dump about the world focusing on a strange days-like device

The world of Cyberpunk 2077 presents a grim vision of the future. Tech advancement went hand in hand with the decay of society. Body augmentations invented to serve society simply multiplied the problems, and sometimes lead to mayhem on the streets. New inventions led to addictions and poverty became an even larger problem.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the player will be thrown into a dark future. The metropolis of Night City is a stage set to tell the tale of one individual, raised on the streets, who tries to lift himself up from the gutter and find a way to survive amongst boostergangs and megacorporations in a city of filth and sin. Drugs, violence, poverty and exclusion haven’t disappeared by 2077, as people stayed as they were for centuries – greedy, closed-minded and weak. But not only ghosts of the past trouble mankind, but new issues have appeared. Psychos go on rampages and the streets are filled with junkies addicted to a new form of entertainment – the braindance, a cheap way to experience the emotions and stimuli of someone else, someone living a more exciting life.

Braindances are digital recordings of a person’s experience. The viewer can stream a braindance directly into his neural system via special brain augmentations, called a BD player. Braindances allow the viewer to experience all brain processes registered, including emotions, muscle movements and all stimuli perceived by the recording person.

The range of themes of these recordings varies from simple braindances made by megacorporations, which e.g. allow the viewer to feel the full experience of an explorer with all its thrills, sweats, smells, views, sounds and the real feeling of curiosity that pushes men to go beyond the horizon against fear and physical weakness. But there are also more controversial sides of braindance, because some recordings are created illegally in the underground. Entering the mind of a serial killer means not only seeing the monstrosity he performs, but also living his lust to kill and fulfillment.

You haven’t experienced the latest New Hollywood recording? You’re nobody! The streets live with braindances, everyone just got crazy and wants to be a part of this new entertainment fad. Some people push it even too far and they cannot stop living other people’s lives. If you’re not linked to a braindance right now, you are probably discussing what happened to you during your last session. Of course, just like every great new cultural movement, BDs have people who criticize them. Just watch these two guys arguing about this phenomena [pdf | doc].

This is the world of 2077. The gap between high and low is bigger than ever. Drugs, violence, braindance, psychos on the loose… Will you be able to function in this defunct society or end up a BD-junky with nothing left, set aside like garbage - still living someone’s else life – not aware of what’s going on around you? Whether you like it or not - this is the age of braindance decadence; this is Cyberpunk 2077.

[Damian79]

I like that fact that we have 2 upcoming cyperpunk rpgs.  One is Shadowrun 2 with all of its glorious campiness and this one for the hardcore people.

[Great Rumbler]

Really curious to see if they'll build in path where you become a member of the psychosquad.

Seems like a pretty logical setup, I'd say that something like that will either be how the game gets started or at least one of the ways it can get started [depending on how much freedom they want to give players in setting up their character].

[chronovore]

An open-world Ghost in the Shell game where you hunt down cybercriminals and do hacking stuff. Yeah, now I want something like that, too. 

Some o' 'dat comin', too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Dogs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remember_Me_(video_game)

[Damian79]

http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2013/01/cd-projekt-red-trailer-yet-another.html

 

[Don Flamenco]

is there anything sadder than a group totally knocking off Radiohead

[Great Rumbler]

http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2013/01/cd-projekt-red-trailer-yet-another.html

 

Kotaku must be outraged that they got beat out to this article by some other site.

[tiesto]

There's really no indication that the song picked for the trailer will be anything like the soundtrack for the game, but there's not much else to talk about right now so people are gonna talk about that.

They should have gotten Catz and Dogz to contribute some music. They're probably Poland's biggest electronic music export ATM.

[Great Rumbler]

Here's the official video for the song used in the trailer, for those interested:

[Don Flamenco]

man, i'm really bummed about the music choice, really hope the music in the game matches the style.

[Great Rumbler]

man, i'm really bummed about the music choice, really hope the music in the game matches the style.

That particular song was likely picked because of the lyrics, the "personal responsibility" part in particular to emphasize the main idea behind the game [i.e. player-driven narrative, player choice, ect.].

[Don Flamenco]

yawn fart

[Great Rumbler]

You know, in an industry with companies toppling left and right, where companies with long histories are forced to sell out or merge to survive, CD Projekt really is one of the few bright spots. For years, all they did was release other people's games in Poland. Then The Witcher came along and pushed them into the spotlight. That was just a little over five years ago. Now, they've got two major, big-budget RPGs in the works and they're basically one of the most beloved developers in the world. Whatever it is that's required for success in this industry, they certainly seem to have figured it out.

[Cerveza mas fina]

That would be great for them financially.

But I dunno if they could adapt to the us way of working.

[Great Rumbler]