CD Projekt Red is a developer known for many things, but the Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher developer has a long history of side quests. From the monster hunts in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to the deep stories hidden in Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City, there’s always plenty to explore outside of the main narrative.
PC Gamer recently asked mission designer Pawel Sasko at CD Projekt Red how the developer approaches its side missions, and Sasko replied that “a good designer has an acceptance rate of between 5 and 10% for his ideas.”
“If someone has 10%, this is probably one of the best people we have on the team”, he continued. This means that only the best are selected when it comes to mission ideas, and that many more concepts than we thought are left on the floor.
“So what I do with our designers is say, OK, here’s the list of genres. Here’s a list of the themes I want you to work on—a list of topics. Write me pitches. And then they write the five , ten, twenty a day. A good pitch consists of four sentences, or something like that: That’s the pitch. No artist has only good ideas. We all have bad ideas and lots of them, but we only pick the best five percent. “
What do you think of this approach to design?
