CD Projekt Red Rethinks Game Development After Phantom Liberty's Turnaround

CD Projekt Red associate game director Pawel Sasko has reflected on the team's development process for the excellent spy thriller expansion Phantom Liberty. Which is now three years old.

To mark the anniversary, Sasko looked back on the project with a few new details, including how the team had to "rethink how we were making games" to avoid the launch woes of the base game.

"During Cyberpunk 2077 development we had worked in a structure much closer to a waterfall model, where work moved between departments and many decisions accumulated around leads and directors," Sasko explains. "For Phantom Liberty we moved toward multidisciplinary content teams, our pods, where designers, writers, cinematics, art, audio, QA and many other disciplines could work on the same piece of content together."

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The team also "looked at spy fiction" for inspiration on the Idris Elba-fronted story, which sees protagonist V infiltrate Night City's even more dangerous and lawless Dogtown. "We looked at spy fiction ranging from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to James Bond, The Bourne Identity, Bridge of Spies and Ocean’s Eleven," Sasko says, with genre becoming a "very practical tool for me."

As players approach the game's climactic final act, a key decision awaits: V must choose between saving Songbird or aiding Reed. This moment, deemed vital by CD Projekt Red, served as a catalyst for the development team's creative process. The studio reportedly reworked numerous scenes in response to this key juncture, with the outcome significantly impacting the narrative.

At the heart of the dilemma lies the complex dual nature of Songbird and Reed. Whose likable and untrustworthy traits often converge in a single, confounding package. This paradoxical blend of characteristics leaves the player questioning who to trust, yet feeling an undeniable affinity for the characters.

According to Sasko, CDPR's design philosophy was rooted in the notion that both characters must embody contradictions, vulnerabilities, and relatable motivations.

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Despite glowing reviews and over 15 million copies sold on the expansion, Sasko still doesn't believe "Phantom Liberty erases the launch of Cyberpunk 2077," but he's grateful for it all the same because of what it "taught [him] about directing games."

Good thing, too - Sasko's leading the next mainline Cyberpunk RPG. industry analysts anticipate that, in your eyes, Cyberpunk 2077 has earned its place.