Cyberpunk 2077 News
Congratulations to the perhaps 7 people who were waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 to hit their MacBooks
Can I tell you a dirty secret? My M1 MacBook Air is probably the best gaming laptop I've ever owned. Oh, don't get me wrong, most things don't run on it and the most recent game it can reliably run is probably about half a decade old, but as someone who mostly just wants to play golden oldies—KotOR, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Planescape—this thing is a fanless dream with battery life that goes and goes and goes...
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Blocktober 5 — Sebastian McBride and Mariusz Kubów
This month we’re participating in Blocktober, highlighting the work of our talented Level Designers. For our last post, Sebastian McBride and Mariusz Kubów share a behind-the-scenes look at the main quest “The Killing Moon”.
As with most of the Space Port, the Maglev station went through heavy iteration — I think I made about 5 radically different versions of it. Knowing that this would be one of the last locations in Phantom Liberty that the player would engage in heavy combat, I pushed for a more circular approach when considering movement.
The location had to have a very nice flow to it and interesting, yet simple traversal loops were top priority. All of that is focused around the control booth which I knew would be both a focal point in the space but also integral to the quest flow. — Sebastian McBride
The Viewing Gallery offers a unique gameplay experience of moving through a location while under suppressing fire from a helicopter flying nearby. It serves as an example of how sometimes we keep on iterating on the location's fundamental elements — like its layout — deep into the production cycle and way past the blockout stage. In this case, I wanted to have more player engagement during the beat and a bit of Kishōtenketsu-type structure (initially the chopper pinning us down with gunfire was the only obstacle there), so the level flow had to be adjusted to incorporate that.
There's also the Rule of Cool in play here, as the rocket hanging under the ceiling was added late during the development to add more dynamic elements to the environment, totally-not-just because I've prototyped a big, swinging object and I thought it would be cool for the turrets (or even V) to shoot it down accidentally. — Mariusz Kubów
Sebastian McBride: https://x.com/darthsebious
Mariusz Kubów: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariusz-kubow/
As with most of the Space Port, the Maglev station went through heavy iteration — I think I made about 5 radically different versions of it. Knowing that this would be one of the last locations in Phantom Liberty that the player would engage in heavy combat, I pushed for a more circular approach when considering movement.
The location had to have a very nice flow to it and interesting, yet simple traversal loops were top priority. All of that is focused around the control booth which I knew would be both a focal point in the space but also integral to the quest flow. — Sebastian McBride
The Viewing Gallery offers a unique gameplay experience of moving through a location while under suppressing fire from a helicopter flying nearby. It serves as an example of how sometimes we keep on iterating on the location's fundamental elements — like its layout — deep into the production cycle and way past the blockout stage. In this case, I wanted to have more player engagement during the beat and a bit of Kishōtenketsu-type structure (initially the chopper pinning us down with gunfire was the only obstacle there), so the level flow had to be adjusted to incorporate that.
There's also the Rule of Cool in play here, as the rocket hanging under the ceiling was added late during the development to add more dynamic elements to the environment, totally-not-just because I've prototyped a big, swinging object and I thought it would be cool for the turrets (or even V) to shoot it down accidentally. — Mariusz Kubów
Sebastian McBride: https://x.com/darthsebious
Mariusz Kubów: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariusz-kubow/
Do you want to go to Boston? Because CD Projekt is looking for people to come to its studio to help test some new stuff
CD Projekt is a Polish company but the runaway success of The Witcher and (eventually) Cyberpunk 2077 has seen it expand beyond those borders: Polaris, better known as The Witcher 4, is being developed in Warsaw, but Orion, the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, is being made in CD Projekt's Boston studio. The Witcher spinoff game, currently codenamed Sirius, is also being developed in Boston, at CD Projekt's Molasses Flood studio...
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Blocktober 4 — Sebastian McBride
This month we’re participating in Blocktober, highlighting the work of our talented Level Designers. Now up: Sebastian McBride sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the “Dicky Twister Club” location.
This blockout was done relatively quickly around the middle of the project. I wanted a location where the player could lean into a non-hostile experience that they could walk around in before switching up to more traditional stealth gameplay. The goal was to embrace the tone and vibes of stealth game staples but done the Cyberpunk 2077 way.
The idea of the main office overlooking the whole club was something I leaned into early on. The moment you enter the club, the objective is right in front of you: you see your goal and now you have to figure out how to get there. The club owner overlooking the location with the stage “'extending” out in front of him was absolutely intentional innuendo. I guess he had a bit of a complex.
Sebastian McBride:
https://x.com/darthsebious
This blockout was done relatively quickly around the middle of the project. I wanted a location where the player could lean into a non-hostile experience that they could walk around in before switching up to more traditional stealth gameplay. The goal was to embrace the tone and vibes of stealth game staples but done the Cyberpunk 2077 way.
The idea of the main office overlooking the whole club was something I leaned into early on. The moment you enter the club, the objective is right in front of you: you see your goal and now you have to figure out how to get there. The club owner overlooking the location with the stage “'extending” out in front of him was absolutely intentional innuendo. I guess he had a bit of a complex.
Sebastian McBride:
https://x.com/darthsebious