NGN: You've worked exclusively on The Witcher 3, correct?
Monnier: I arrived shortly after The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. Actually, that was one of the reasons I joined the company. I was very impressed with the way The Enhanced Edition was free for the people who had already purchased The Witcher 2 on the PC.
NGN: It feels like there is a very consumer-friendly culture at CD Projekt RED. Do you feel like there's a particular reason for that?
Monnier: I mean, I know that we're all gamers. I know that for me it was a combination of working for companies before that really screwed gamers a bit. I didn't join the industry to do that. I could see myself being jaded by that. So I found CD Projekt and I thought, "Alright, let's give it a shot." And it's worked. I think there's a lot of people in my position, quite a few boys and girls who have been in the industry for quite a while now who can't see themselves working for anyone else.
NGN: Are you exhausted or excited?
Monnier: I am totally exhausted. Especially with all of the trade shows because I still have to go back and I have to work. But I'm super pumped. I can't wait because I want to see what people think.
When you're so deep into a game, you see what it could be instead of what it is and you're never, ever happy. I would quite happily take an extra year and a half to work on [The Witcher 3] and add more things. Things like- - well, we don't have squirrels in the game because I needed more time to come up with the systems so the little squirrels could climb up the trees. There are monsters which are attracted to dead bodies. Animals are attracted to things, like goats are attracted to the bushes where they can go and eat. I thought maybe squirrels could be attracted to nuts. You loot some nuts, drop them on the ground and the squirrels would come. There's always more stuff you could put in to make the world more believable. As silly as it sounds to have squirrels, it's probably the next step when you think about all the animals we have. But we don't have squirrels yet...I think we might add them at some point.
