The Witcher - Enhanced Edition Interview @ RPS

CD Projekt Red's Michal Madej has spoken with Rock, Paper, Shotgun about The Witcher and the upcoming Enhanced Edition. Here's the definitive answer about the translation in the original release, which is improved in the new version:

What caused the significant, let’s say “differences”, between the Polish and English dialogue in the original game?
It was hard lesson to be learned for us – the localization process. At beginning of the development we had to make production estimates for the amount of English text to be recorded, and we based it on our experiences with Polish localizations. The assumption we made was that, as Polish text after translation from English is usually about 20% longer, the reverse translation would be shorter by a similar amount. We just didn’t realize that we were using different measures – number of pages and number of words. Because of how the English language works out, the resulting translation was way too much for recording, which came into play at the very last stage of development. We had a really short time to edit all of the English dialogues, shortening them by 30%. So basically, the original translation was really good; it was just trimmed due to production.

More information.

To much PR bullshit, but still worth reading.

Originally Posted by Michal Madej
I think we were also a little faster in noticing that to compete with the more and more popular MMOs, you must offer a completely different experience. Many single-player RPGs still contain too many gameplay elements that are simply more exciting in a multiplayer game, like money grinding and random drops. Instead we focused on elements that just don’t play an important role in MMOs – a captivating storyline, meaningful choices, character interactions and emotions.

I just hope that more developers get it.

Originally Posted by RPS
Would The Witcher would have been very different if made by a Western developer? Or do the fundamental mechanics of a strong roleplaying game outweigh such cultural differences?

Isn't that question unintentionally insulting for poles? As far as I know they consider themself as part of the western world (being catholic and all), only seperated from the West by the iron curtain for some decades. Madej dodges this part of the question, he only talks about other Polish, European or American devs.

No, it's not insulting. Maybe some of us prefer to be Central Europe than Eastern Europe, but certainly we don't think we're Western Europe, or generally that we're part of the Western World (which in Poland traditionally meant countries west of Eastern Germany).

Well, as far as Poland is concerned "Eastern Europe" is wrong as an gegraphical description (Poland is located in Central Europe) and (since about 1990s) it also wrong as a political description. But nevermind Poland. Hungarians and Bulgars are called "Eastern Europeans" too. Silly? Yes. Insulting? No.

Bulgarians are really Eastern Europeans, because Bulgaria is in the eastern corner of Europe.
Here in Hungary we position ourselfs as Central Europeans.

Interesting discussion--as always the CDprojekt devs have no problem convincing me of their sincerity when they say "We want to make only perfect games."

Here's a UN map that breaks Europe up into subregions--and Poland is right on the eastern line of the division. Don't know if all in the region agree on it, though.

Originally Posted by magerette
Interesting discussion--as always the CDprojekt devs have no problem convincing me of their sincerity when they say "We want to make only perfect games."

Here's a UN map that breaks Europe up into subregions--and Poland is right on the eastern line of the division. Don't know if all in the region agree on it, though.

That UN map hasn't anything to do with the reality and is only a place to start.
The UK and France (and of course the Republic of Ireland) are Western Europe, political and geographical. Germany, Switzerland and Austria are considered western nations in the political sense (as is Poland and Hungary and the Czech Republic) but geographical these nations are Central Europe (= mostly what was formerly part of the Holy Roman Empire). East of them begins the real eastern Europe. And of course there is the northern (Denmark, Norway, etc.) and the southern (Italy, Greece, Spain, etc) part of Europe.

Thanks, Roi Danton. With an area as rich and varied and complex in history as Europe, a map as you say, is mostly just a visual aid.

Originally Posted by Amasius
To much PR bullshit, but still worth reading.

Michal must have been trained well, then -- alas, my PR wand never really waved in the direction of that interview.

Originally Posted by Tom Ohle
Michal must have been trained well, then -- alas, my PR wand never really waved in the direction of that interview.

Woot!~ The man is here … hide the women and children, the PR dude is in the house!

Congrats again Tom, and I really hope you can get the Witcher franchise even more attention! (though hopefully not by turning it into every product including a breakfast cereal and lunchbox like they are doing with Bioshock!)

Originally Posted by txa1265
Congrats again Tom, and I really hope you can get the Witcher franchise even more attention! (though hopefully not by turning it into every product including a breakfast cereal and lunchbox like they are doing with Bioshock!)

Hmm… now I never even thought about lunchboxes. That might actually be cool.

Now look what have you done txa1265! Giving man IDEAS!!!! Witcher lunchbox!? Mind boggles!

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Now look what have you done txa1265! Giving man IDEAS!!!! Witcher lunchbox!? Mind boggles!

But really… of all the "bad" ideas he could have tossed out, I think a lunchbox would be pretty sweet in a retro swag kind of way. Obviously it wouldn't be something I'd try to sell (OR WOULD IT?! MUAHAHA -- see http://blogs.ign.com/Vandalizm for evidence of my capitalist ideals)… but if it's a cool limited-edition sort of thing for some media or fan event… hmmmmm. How about a Witcher codpiece?

Now you're talking. Would it be part of a 'BOXed' set?

Bust out some Witcher wolf medallions, there's an extra that would really rock

Yeah Sam, medallions is good, but wouldn't a Witcher sword look nice hanging on the wall?!

But might be hard to get in the box.

Not if it will be "Swiss Army Sword" magerette

Wasn't medalion part of "Deluxe Edition" of the game? Dice set is not a bad idea but you have to remember that Dice Poker was strictly game dev's idea and does not appear in books. But how about a nice set of Witcher's elixirs in a box? It is described in Last Wish but vaguely enough to leave room for "artist licence" .

If you check out that blog link I posted earlier, you'll see that a dice game is already available for purchase in Poland and is one of the things I'd like to bring to North America and elsewhere. And yeah, the medallion was part of the Developer's Edition of the game, and we gave them out at a number of press events -- they're in keychain form and are oddly not very practical as a keychain: they're heavy and very pokey, so they don't do well with pockets.

Witcher elixirs sounds cool, but may be difficult to really sell… like… what would they be? I could see it as a cool promotional item that has some vodka or something similar in each vial… hmm.

A dice game has a clear advantage over a card game in terms of international 'portability' - the only thing you need to translate is the manual :-)