Cyberpunk 2077 - Some Devs left

According to Gamepressure some Cyberpunk 2077 devs left CD Project RED:

Cyberpunk 2077 loses key developers

Is Cyberpunk 2077 in trouble? Although that conclusion may be a bit too hasty, it is noteworthy that several key developers left CD Projekt RED last month.
If you are eagerly waiting for Cyberpunk 2077, then you may be interested in today’s news from Poland. There have been some high-rank personnel changes in CD Projekt RED, which we’ve learned about via LinkedIn accounts of some of the studio’s employees. There are two names that are especially noteworthy. Until recently, Mateusz Piaskiewicz had been the Lead Level Designer in CD Projekt RED, but he has changed colors and is now working for the Warsaw-based studio Flying Wild Hog (creators of Shadow Warrior 2) since the beginning of this month. Before CD Projekt RED he used to work for Treyarch on Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

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I sure hope not, but a highly successful product release can make you a target for recruiters. If there's enough talent in the pipeline, they should be able to continue.

I remember a similar conversation when the same thing happened during production of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Turns out the concern was well founded. However in this case, there's no EA demon to blame.

Hmmm… the two in which they mention what companies they left for seem like career downgrades to me. Why would you want to leave a company like CD Projekt to go to Flying Wild Hog or Techland? I've a feeling they weren't seeing eye to eye with some of their co-workers.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Hmmm… the two in which they mention what companies they left for seem like career downgrades to me. Why would you want to leave a company like CD Projekt to go to Flying Wild Hog or Techland? I've a feeling they weren't seeing eye to eye with some of their co-workers.

Money. Better wages.

Originally Posted by Gwendo
Money. Better wages.

Seems unlikely that a much smaller company would be paying them more, but I suppose it's possible.

It could be that the work of these developers is largely done or it could be that they were not producing work of the required standard.

The positions themselves
Lead Level Designer
Project Manager
Senior Gameplay Producer
Senior Art Producer

I believe things like art direction and game design are linked. You can't design a level for Mario without working out how high Mario can jump. Thats a core project requirement to get right. Things like this I would expect to be largely settled by now or you couldn't even begin to design levels for the game.

Oh no

Why don't you just message them and ask instead of wildly speculating

The writer of this article falls into the "filthy clickbait trash journalism" category for me.

I hope not. Cyberpunk 2077 and BladeRunner kind of occupy the same narrative subject. I wonder if CD Projekt Red is watching with interest. It will certainly address issues of contemporary life, as most narrative does. Mass Effect Andromeda isn't that bad, aside some jarring neck turning that reduces immersion, its actually quite good. The character missions are well done and probably represent a standard.

Is this game going to be a shooter?

Originally Posted by posfan12
Is this game going to be a shooter?

We don't really know yet. We know next to nothing about the actual game.

Considering how bad the gameplay and level design was in TW3 this is probably a good thing.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Considering how bad the gameplay and level design was in TW3 this is probably a good thing.

You've been living in a parallel world where level design was not among the best in a game in decades?

I mean, gameplay criticism I get, it's really not more than a clicky action game with some light RPG elements - but, well, at least it works and carries you enough to see all the glorious story content.

But level design? I haven't seen better designed cities in a game since, well, ever.

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
You've been living in a parallel world where level design was not among the best in a game in decades?

I mean, gameplay criticism I get, it's really not more than a clicky action game with some light RPG elements - but, well, at least it works and carries you enough to see all the glorious story content.

But level design? I haven't seen better designed cities in a game since, well, ever.

Perhaps I should clarify what I mean, the cities are beautiful from an aesthetic point of view, and they are also full of people which is nice. But to me level design includes interesting dungeons, gameplay which integrates with the environment, interesting secret places to find and so on. Just like everything else in TW3 it is designed around the visual and story experience which is exceptional. There were very few place where I found the level design good from a gameplay point of view, one or two dungeons a hidden bandit camp in a tower, and a few other places. I guess a part of the reason for that is that they decided that almost all environmental related puzzle and such is solved by holding the right mouse button.

So the environment is very nice from a story and aesthetic perspective, I really like the swamp island with an abandoned tower from that perspective for example. But the level design is uninteresting from a gameplay and exploring perspective, and it has been done so much better in a lot of other games.

Is it at all understandable what I mean ?

It cant be a bad product, useless to care about who leaves, who comes.

Meh, uninteresting news. They wanted to do something new or just go to a better position with better pay/more responsibility. Just a clickbait article, ignore it.

Actually it would be nice if we don't have more articles like this on rpgwatch. Just an opinion.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Is it at all understandable what I mean ?

Sorry, it's not.
The game is exactly what it wanted to be. It was never supposed to be Dark Souls clone, it was supposed to be everything Dark Souls isn't.

If Cyberpunk will betray base concepts from TW3 and move onto grinding direction just to suck up to Dark Souls audience, there is no way I'll ever buy it.

Originally Posted by borovnica
Just a clickbait article, ignore it.

My thoughts exactly. CDpr lost nothing when some "key" person left to make yet another Dark Souls clone. IIRC that game was called Lords of the Fallen or something, sorry, never could remember the title of that trash. But should in fact as such garbage has no place on my PC and I don't want to buy it accidentally.

Originally Posted by joxer
Sorry, it's not.
The game is exactly what it wanted to be. It was never supposed to be Dark Souls clone.

If Cyberpunk will betray TW3 concept and move onto grinding direction just to suck up to Dark Souls audience, there is no way I'll ever buy it.


My thoughts exactly. We know what happened with yet another Dark Souls game after exCDpr "key" person left to make IIRC Lords of the Fallen or whatever it's title was, sorry, never could have remember the title of that trash.

You mean you want an interactive movie instead of a game, right ?

Apparently, working conditions at CD Red aren't good. They pay low salaries, and work their employees overtime around the clock.

Not sure if this had something to do with these particular devs leaving, but Youtube gamer YongYea did a sort of "expose" of this in a recent video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBuoexbVEFE&t=21s