Support NeoGAF

[FatKingBallman]

Worked on Witcher 3 and CP2077

Cyberpunk 2077 lead gameplay designer leaves CD Projekt Red

Andrzej Zawadzki started on Cyberpunk as a junior designer in 2016.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Ballthyrm]

If it means he goes out on his own with a couple colleague to make new games, that's great.
We need game dev with experience giving us new experiences.

 

[8bitpill]

 

[martino]

If it means he goes out on his own with a couple colleague to make new games, that's great.
We need game dev with experience giving us new experiences.

 

[BlackM1st]

Let's be honest here, gameplay never was a strong part of CDPR games. CDPR is a traditional Eastern European AA PC developer who got famous thanks to W3(strong contender for the Game of the Generation). All European RPGs have same "euro rpg junk" feel to them and it's totally fine. I never play them for their "deep" combat systems. CDPR should hire some high profile western devs, give them a proper budget and some time. And who knows, maybe we will get best of both design schools.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Worked on Witcher 3 and CP2077

Cyberpunk 2077 lead gameplay designer leaves CD Projekt Red

Andrzej Zawadzki started on Cyberpunk as a junior designer in 2016.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Let's be honest here, gameplay never was a strong part of CDPR games. CDPR is a traditional Eastern European AA PC developer who got famous thanks to W3(strong contender for the Game of the Generation). All European RPGs have same "euro rpg junk" feel to them and it's totally fine. I never play them for their "deep" combat systems. CDPR should hire some high profile western devs, give them a proper budget and some time. And who knows, maybe we will get best of both design schools.

Yup.

I remember reading PC Gamer in the 90s. My bro would buy it every month. All those Polish and German RPGs and shooters in the 90s had similar reviews:

- Good graphics
- Dark and gritty (good atmosphere if you like this kind of setting)
- Buggy
- Bad animations (pretty sure jankiness wasn't a term back then). But anything to do with sloppy animations, clipping, and characters moving or warping in weird ways has been a European flavour of game dev for decades

Final Score: 58%. They got the right vibe and the raw visuals are good. But buggy and unpolished as hell

 

[FatKingBallman]

LOL, Skoda

 

[harmny]

He's a nobody. Was QA on the witcher 3 and gameplay designer on blood and wine. Are we seriously going to report on every single employee leaving a company?

 

[harmny]

Let's be honest here, gameplay never was a strong part of CDPR games. CDPR is a traditional Eastern European AA PC developer who got famous thanks to W3(strong contender for the Game of the Generation). All European RPGs have same "euro rpg junk" feel to them and it's totally fine. I never play them for their "deep" combat systems. CDPR should hire some high profile western devs, give them a proper budget and some time. And who knows, maybe we will get best of both design schools.

Lol at this american. In a world where the biggests western open world/rpg developers are Bugthesda and my face is tired bioware this guy still calls cdpr eurojank

 

[iJudged]

He's a nobody. Was QA on the witcher 3 and gameplay designer on blood and wine. Are we seriously going to report on every single employee leaving a company?

WHAT? He was the Lead gameplay designer @Nd look at the shitshow Cyber punk is.

 

[Hugare]

Let's be honest here, gameplay never was a strong part of CDPR games. CDPR is a traditional Eastern European AA PC developer who got famous thanks to W3(strong contender for the Game of the Generation). All European RPGs have same "euro rpg junk" feel to them and it's totally fine. I never play them for their "deep" combat systems. CDPR should hire some high profile western devs, give them a proper budget and some time. And who knows, maybe we will get best of both design schools.

More like hiring japanese devs

For the amount of AAA games that the western devs make, few of them are a reference when it comes to gameplay.

Presentation yes, but not gameplay.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

More like hiring japanese devs

For the amount of AAA games that the western devs make, few of them are a reference when it comes to gameplay.

Presentation yes, but not gameplay.

Depends on gamer's tastes in games. Japanese games definitely seem less buggy, but then again they usually focus on more streamlined gameplay. And some genres like shooters, sports, racing, open world, WRPG they barely even touch. All these kinds of genres involve much bigger scale, stats, and skew to realism. And when any games skew to realism it's easier to nitpick it looks bad or the character or car are moving with odd physics vs. grounded real life comparisons. Japanese games skew to crazy settings and colours where things can float, run at 500 mph or do SF fireballs. So it's easier to accept weirdness as that's part of the setting.

 

[BlackM1st]

Depends on gamer's tastes in games.

Yep, except for some really big studios and Kojima's creations, Japanese actiion games also has lots of "junk feel" in gameplay. Not as bad of course and usually underneath there's some neat ideas and systems.

In a world where the biggests western open world/rpg developers are Bugthesda

You sound kinda upset. Seek help or go outside (if you can lol).

More like hiring japanese devs

I dunno man. Dark Souls is nice, but it's a little too hardcore for mainstream, don't you think? Sekiro or modern assassin's creed is good enough for open world wrpg. Plus, if we talk about FPS genre, Japan really tanks. Of course if Cyberpunk went 3rd person and Kojima was a gameplay designer in it with all of his MGS experience... Game of millennia could've happened xD

 

[Hugare]

Depends on gamer's tastes in games. Japanese games definitely seem less buggy, but then again they usually focus on more streamlined gameplay. And some genres like shooters, sports, racing, open world, WRPG they barely even touch. All these kinds of genres involve much bigger scale, stats, and skew to realism. And when any games skew to realism it's easier to nitpick it looks bad or the character or car are moving with odd physics vs. grounded real life comparisons. Japanese games skew to crazy settings and colours where things can float, run at 500 mph or do SF fireballs. So it's easier to accept weirdness as that's part of the setting.

I was agreeing with you ("some genres like shooters, sports, racing, open world they barely touch"), but you lost me at "stramlined gameplay" and "skew to realism", "odd physics" and etc.

There's nothing streamlined about the gameplay of a lot of japanese games that I enjoy, such as those from Platinum, Nintendo (some of them), Capcom and many others. They are usually easy to start playing, but hard to fully dominate the controls. Such is the case with all the japanese fighting games, character action games, brawlers, platformers, even JRPGS and etc. Western games aren't as complex in terms of mechanics usually.

About the "skew to realism" part: in terms of visual design, sure. But japanese companies are awesome in terms of animation. FF XV looks better than any western open world game due to its animations, imo. Nier Automata, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil games ... Even Nintendo games have amazing animations that really sells their vision.

But yeah, I agree that japanese developers arent a reference in many genres. But I think thats the case due to money and local market.

Shooters, sports, racing wouldnt sell in Japan, thats why they dont make them.

Open World games would definately sell, but few japanese companies have the budget to make such games. I risk saying that none of them really have the budget + worforce to make an open world game to go against the western ones.

 

[Skifi28]

He's a nobody. Was QA on the witcher 3 and gameplay designer on blood and wine. Are we seriously going to report on every single employee leaving a company?

YOU TAKE THAT BACK. Blood and Wine was fucking awesome and some of the best content in the entire game.

 

[mhirano]

More like hiring japanese devs

For the amount of AAA games that the western devs make, few of them are a reference when it comes to gameplay.

Presentation yes, but not gameplay.

THIS
Japanese devs are the kings of gameplay design.
Platinum Games
From Software
Capcom DMC guys
Team Ninja
Nintendo studios
Kojima productions

 

[BlackM1st]

Open World games would definately sell, but few japanese companies has the budget to make such games.

Chinese mobile company created Genshin Impact from scratch (shamelessly copied Zelda lol). And Japan is its second biggest market after China. What the fuck Square is doing? I hope GI's numbers will kick some sense in Square.

 

[Hugare]

THIS
Japanese devs are the kings of gameplay design.
Platinum Games
From Software
Capcom DMC guys
Team Ninja
Nintendo studios
Kojima productions

Yup

What makes me a fan is that they always try to bring something new

"Shooters, sports, racing games" that were mentioned as exemples of western genres are simply stagnated nowadays, with no innovation at all

But japanese devs usualy bring something new to the market

Chinese mobile company created Genshin Impact from scratch (shamelessly copied Zelda lol). And Japan is its second biggest market after China. What the fuck Square is doing? I hope GI's numbers will kick some sense in Square.

Ahm ... CHINESE mobile company, not japanese?

I'm sure that China has the manpower and market to invest in AAA games, but they are only starting. Western devs have been making games for waaay longer. With time, China will get there.

China and Japan are in a completely different situation

"What the fuck Square is doing?". They launched a lot of games for the past years, man.

And they have like 1/5 the number of Ubisoft employees. So instead of making one big AAA game using every studio they have, they preffer to launch games that are less ambitious in scope to have a more diverse portfolio.

Nintendo has 6 thousand employees worldwide. Some of them arent even devs. How they would be able to make a game like RDR 2 or AC?

They stick to what they do best, and its giving them great results

 

[BlackM1st]

"What the fuck Square is doing?". They launched a lot of games for the past years, man.

Yeah, I know, including FF 14. That's why I'm asking why it was Chinese mobile company and not Square who created something like Genshin impact.

 

[Hugare]

Yeah, I know, including FF 14. That's why I'm asking why it was Chinese mobile company and not Square who created something like Genshin impact.

Don't know man, why have CDPR developed Witcher 3 and not Bioware? lol

Probably because the only big company in Japan that could have made a mobile game like Genshin was Square

And Square has already mobile projects being developed, such as the FF 7 battle royale game

 

[BlackM1st]

FF 7 battle royale game

 

[Mozzarella]

European RPG or Games in general are very atmospheric and have good writing but many of them get released with some bugs and janky animations, thats because the budget is not as big and the importance of gaming culture in Europe seems lower than in the USA or East Asia.

The NA gaming scene is more towards Online and Competitive gaming, they do that the best, so to claim they cant make good gameplay is just a clown take. Their problem is trying to chase Hollywood with their single player games by stripping away gameplay and focusing on cut-scenes or movie type. The other problem is the microtransaction and constant extra charges.

The Japanese gaming industry is good for the fun easy going family games and also the action combat stylish games and also the Anime type of games. They usually focus on having either a anime style adventure type of game like Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy/Persona. OR they make action stylish games with good level design like Resident Evil/ Devil May Cry/ Nioh/ Nier Automata..etc Usually they have mediocre writing though and they fall for stereotypes in their stories/characters. But their games have few bugs.

So each region makes good games with its pros and cons. What's important is having open mind and giving things a fair chance.
For example European games like Ori, Prey and Divinity Original Sin 2 are very good when it comes to making great indepth gameplay. So you cannot really generalize in the end.

 

[harmny]

YOU TAKE THAT BACK. Blood and Wine was fucking awesome and some of the best content in the entire game.

yep. so? that was his first gameplay design job and the gameplay was already designed because it was a witcher 3 expansion.

i'm not saying his bad at his job. i'm just saying this is not the equivalent of neil druckmann leaving naughty dog. he's just a gameplay designer leaving a company. happens all the time. he was not even one of the two gameplay design directors on cyberpunk 2077

You sound kinda upset. Seek help or go outside (if you can lol).

you might be projecting there. i'm perfectly fine. i think you may be missing the point.

WHAT? He was the Lead gameplay designer @Nd look at the shitshow Cyber punk is.

yes he was one of the 4 lead gameplay designers. and they had 2 gameplay design directors above them. so? is this newsworthy? again, developers leave companies all the time.

European RPG or Games in general are very atmospheric and have good writing but many of them get released with some bugs and janky animations, thats because the budget is not as big and the importance of gaming culture in Europe seems lower than in the USA or East Asia.

cyberpunk definitely doesn't have janky animations.

Spoiler: bugs? sure. janky animations? nope.

eastern europe eurojank rpg

western super polished not jank at all rpg

 

[Bo_Hazem]

LOL, Skoda

We used to get so many Skoda's in a very short period around like 2004-2009 then they suddenly vanished from the streets. Mostly girls/women buying them.

 

[Valedix]

Leaving CDPR be like

 

[dark_knightmare2]

Lol at this american. In a world where the biggests western open world/rpg developers are Bugthesda and my face is tired bioware this guy still calls cdpr eurojank

I love Witcher 3 one of my favorites rpgs ever and enjoyed cyberpunk a little but it was a travesty and their games are def jank.

 

[Fugitive Sex]

What the fuck is jank

 

[Gaelyon]

Yup.

I remember reading PC Gamer in the 90s. My bro would buy it every month. All those Polish and German RPGs and shooters in the 90s had similar reviews:

- Good graphics
- Dark and gritty (good atmosphere if you like this kind of setting)
- Buggy
- Bad animations (pretty sure jankiness wasn't a term back then). But anything to do with sloppy animations, clipping, and characters moving or warping in weird ways has been a European flavour of game dev for decades

Final Score: 58%. They got the right vibe and the raw visuals are good. But buggy and unpolished as hell

So Polish games are unpolished ? Anyway i don't think gameplay was the strong point of CD project games. The Witcher trilogy combat system was mediocre at best.