Interview: Jakub Szamalek on Writing The Witcher 3 |
Description: Jakub Szamalek wrote some of the most beloved quests in The Witcher 3, as well as the main story of its first expansion, Hearts of Stone (which I loved, and you can watch me gush about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHsmiFJqJc) Here he is talking about the processes behind writing and localizing The Witcher, and what magic goes into making this game's writing so goddamn rad. Note that the Gamescom demo being mentioned was for "Thronebreaker," the single-player campaign to Gwent which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEzkqDhLIxE WARNING: Has mild spoilers for mid-game events in Witcher 3 Timestamps for questions: 0:00 Who are you and what are you working on? 0:13 What specifically are the "iconic" Witcher 3 moments CDPR talks about when marketing Thronebreaker? 1:07 The Witcher 3 (and Thronebreaker) have really good English localization. Does the Witcher team have a background of writing in English? 2:39 Is there an active effort to subvert expectations when writing The Witcher, or does it come naturally? 3:50 More talk on The Witcher's origins in Polish culture 4:02 How does a Polish team come up with terms like "whoreson" that sound genuinely funny in English? 5:04 What is the methodology behind writing the "tough decisions" and "gray morality" of The Witcher universe? 6:58 Is Queen Meeve (protagonist of Thronebreaker) capable of being a way bigger asshole than Geralt? 8:17 What's challenging about writing a campaign for a minor charachter from the books, versus Geralt? 9:11 At what point in the Witcher timeline does Thronebreaker takes place in? 9:52 How do you write humor into The Witcher? 10:44 How do you feel about Alexander Sapkowski's opinion on the Witcher games, or his opinion on game storytelling in general? 12:01 What's the price range you guys are looking at for Thronebreaker? Special thanks to Discord buddy @Helmut Schmidt for filming help 
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