Cyberpunk 2077 Interview with Senior Level Designer Miles Tost

Last night there was a Cyberpunk 2077 interview with Senior Level Designer Miles Tost on the Madqueen Show to answer some questions about his work and the game.  There are a few bits and pieces of information from the lengthy chat. Here’s what happened…

Miles talks a bit about his background moving from being a student on a game design course and moving straight on to working at CD Projekt on the Witcher 3. He also explains what his job actually entails as Senior Level Designer to give you a better idea of the amount of work that goes into creating an immersive world.

We’ll break down the main points of the conversation as not everyone has 1.5 hours to get all the points of interest from the chat. You can listen to the full interview below too.

Cyberpunk 2077 Interview Key Points Recap

• Work that’s being done currently is all polishing and tweaking.
• There was a full open world team working on Cyberpunk 2077, that’s something they didn’t have when developing the Witcher 3.
• Miles feels that the team has “absolutely nailed” the Cyberpunk atmosphere.
• Exploration in Cyberpunk is more “moment to moment” than the Witcher 3 due to the city density and verticality. Players will stumble into content as they explore.
• The map is three dimensional which helps show height differences in the buildings. When entering buildings, the map switches to an interior mini-map.
• Players can swim so they have the freedom to explore but there is little focus on content within the water.
• Water has no effect on Cyberware. It’s waterproof.
• Players can respec skills although no details on how that will work were given.
• Techie class was too similar to Netrunner by being able to manipulate devices from a distance. There was no incentive to pick one over the other. So the ability to hack from a distance became part of the Netrunning role. This made Flathead redundant so became part of a quest instead. Johnny Silverhand is ever present in the game so there was no need for another sidekick.
• The Techie is still present though with the Technical abilities attribute, doors still have Techie skill checks and Technical knowledge is used in dialogue choices.
• Crafting works for crafting mods on weapons, equipment, and Cyberware. Also consumable items.
• NCPD will react to illegalities but will respond accordingly depending on the severity of your action. They use highly advanced weaponry and they will be tougher to take down than your average enemy.
• V won’t succumb to Cyberpsychosis as it would effectively be “game over”. Cyberpsychosis is however part of the game world and you will be confronted by it. V will encounter tough Cyberpsychos and they will be tough to deal with.
• Side quests can be longer than the main quests.
• Locations have been designed so abilities are not felt “lost and useless”.
• Life Paths have a stronger impact on your story than skills but both can have a ripple effect on the story. Life Paths are a “very important” choice.
• Destructible environments are “still a thing” and has “gotten more”. It makes the combat feel more visceral and the combat more reactive.
• AI will be able to use their abilities as they have access to the same abilities as the player.
• Enemy Netrunners can hack you.
• There will be racing in the game and there will be other mini-games.
• There will be FOV settings.
• After the prologue the whole map will be available to explore but beware some zones will have higher level enemy.
• No details on the Orbital Air. Space travel is a known thing in the world and they want to make it beleivable. Not saying anything about being abel to go to the island or space travel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLsSAMCCrV0&feature=emb_title