How Cyberpunk 2077 Influenced CD Projekt Red's Approach to Level Design

Gaining insight into the development of a major game like Cyberpunk 2077 is a rare occurrence. However, Max Pears, a former senior level designer at CD Projekt Red, provided a glimpse into the studio's inner workings and philosophies during his talk at Develop Brighton. Pears' presentation, 'Johnny Silverhand's Porsche: Designing levels for Cyberpunk 2077,' focused on level design but also touched upon the developer's workplace environment and his experience working on Cyberpunk 2077 and its upcoming DLC, Phantom Liberty. According to Pears, level design was a new concept for CD Projekt Red when approaching Cyberpunk 2077, as the developer had previously relied on environment artists and quest designers. The team working on Cyberpunk 2077 was significantly larger than the one that worked on The Witcher 3, comprising experts from various fields. In addition to Pears, the design team included quest director Paweł Sasko, environment artist Timur Ozdoev, gameplay QA analyst Paweł Kucal, and writer and narrative designer Ola Motyka. Pears joined CD Projekt Red in 2017, as the studio was completing The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC. He noted that the developer was initially cautious about working with a dedicated design team, fearing a loss of control. To address this concern, the team focused on establishing a pipeline that centered around their roles and individual priorities. The level designers would block out spaces and consider the elements of available routes for different playstyles, while environment artists would design Night City and build the base layer. Quest designers would work closely with narrative design, scripting dialogues and collaborating with animators to implement cutscenes and communication scenes. The design team collaborated on various levels, including the side mission Chippin' In, which required balancing a substantial workload. The team worked on multiple missions, side quests, and encounters simultaneously, adding to the pressure they faced. Pears worked on several main missions, side missions, and smaller side quests, as well as designing sub-districts. The team's challenge was balancing the workload while working across different locations in Poland. CD Projekt Red had clear guidelines in place to keep the team on track, including three core principles that focused on freedom in the story, world, and gameplay. These principles guided developers when building levels, ensuring that different levels made by different people ran seamlessly. The team sought to cater to five main playstyles, providing decision points throughout the level for players to use and plan their next move or adapt different tactics. To streamline this process, Pears and the team implemented a funnel design, allowing players to 'mix and match their paths but not miss key narrative beats.' The mantra at CD Projekt Red is that 'story and narrative is king,' so the team ensured that players wouldn't miss any crucial narrative moments. The level featured in Pears' talk underwent significant changes in objective during its design, initially featuring a major boss fight that was later scrapped in favor of highlighting important narrative moments. Pears decided to start over and re-design the level from scratch to meet the new design. The drastic change in objective resulted in a lot of time lost and pressure to research, design, block, create, and test the level within a narrow timeframe. This caused the team to struggle to maintain a unified vision across the game's development. Pears noted that having a shared vision makes it easier to break the rules and ensure quality. However, the team often didn't have time to play through each other's levels, which is essential for providing critical impact from each discipline. In retrospect, Pears felt that the team should have found time to listen to each other and play through each other's levels. CD Projekt Red's VP of PR and communication, Michał Platkow-Gilewski, echoed Pears' sentiments, stating that the developer needed to restructure how its teams collaborated. The goal was to avoid a repeat of the troubled history with crunch culture. The upcoming DLC, Phantom Liberty, which Pears worked on before leaving CD Projekt Red, aims to make things right. Platkow-Gilewski said the developer had to rebuild and make decisions about how they work and are structured. The team wanted to create not just a great expansion but also improve the base game. It was a challenging journey, but Platkow-Gilewski is excited to see the response to the DLC.