Lead Quest Designer plays Cyberpunk 2077! #5



Read more about Cyberpunk 2077➜ https://cyberpunk2077.mgn.tv

Discussing art, level design and game development of Cyberpunk 2077 with my friend Miles Tost, Senior Level Designer from CD Projekt RED! Played The Heist together with Miles and reached the title screen for the first time.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an open world RPG that I have co-created. As I love talking about design, storytelling and psychology in games, I have started streaming on Twitch and discussing it all with my audience.

My goal is to share everything I have learned over a decade in AAA games industry, openly exchange ideas, explain creative decisions and encourage the next generation of game designers and storytellers to create.

My socials:
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TWITCH ►► https://www.twitch.tv/pawesasko​​
TWITTER ►► https://twitter.com/PaweSasko​​
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Socials of my guest:
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TWITCH ►► https://www.twitch.tv/tostspender
TWITTER ►► https://twitter.com/tostspender
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Timestamps for your viewing experience:

0:00​​​ – Music
04:50​​ – Start of the stream
09:25​​ – Introduction of my guest: Miles Tost
10:22​​ – Cyberpunk 2077 DLC
10:45​​ – History of Miles Tost
12:50​​ – Bushido X and Tim Kelly
15:05​​ – Back to the game
16:40​​ – Gig: Welcome to America, comrade
18:00​​ – Miles takes over the game and plays
19:20​​ – Cooperation of Level Design & Encounter Design teams
22:42​​ – “Watson Whore” Diary
29:15​​ – Visiting E3 and Gamescom
31:00​​ – E3 2019 and Keanu Reeves
37:40​​ – Meeting Jackie by Afterlife
38:26​​ – Depicting personality of Jackie
39:50​​ – Core traits of Jackie’s personality
40:25 – Entrance to Afterlife as an homage to Akira
42:00 – Walking into Afterlife
42:44 – Community in Afterlife
44:50​​ – Sitting by the bar at Afterlife
45:48​​ – Stagining scenes
46:30 – History of Johnny’s drink
51:28 – Expanding the world
52:30​​ – Environmental storytelling
53:43​​ – Directing Jackie in the scenes
56:16​​ – Mocaping animations for scenes
59:15​​ – Briefings as a part of the narrative
1:01:20​​ – Pose corrections on Jackie
1:01:45​​ – FPP in the scene with Dex
1:03:10​​ – Origin of No-Tell Motel
1:07:10​​ – Miles’ favorite location
1:08:10​​ – Tarot cards in the Gear shop
1:08:45​​ – Cyberpunk comic book
1:10:35​​ – Drive to Konpeki Plaza
1:14:10​​ – Laying out the path of the ride
1:16:55​​ – Getting to Konpeki Plaza
1:17:45​​ – Environment of Konpeki Plaza
1:19:15 – Designing entrance to Konpeki Plaza
1:20:35 – Environment of Konpeki Plaza interior
1:22:04​​ – Role of obstacles on player’s path
1:23:40​​ – Connecting the open world and main quests
1:24:20 – Designing esthetic combat space
1:26:30 – Experiencing corpo life in Konpeki Plaza
1:27:30​​ – Easter egg with Mr. Hideo Kojima
1:36:00​​ – Meeting characters from open world
1:36:27​​ – Walking into our room in Konpeki Plaza
1:37:03​​ – Designing apartment with the view on the Night City
1:37:40​​ – Discussing cyberpunk Japanese minimalism
1:40:18​​ – Flathead walks into the ventilation shaft
1:43:15​​ – Flathead sequence
1:44:26​​ – Constructing puzzle sequences
1:47:33​​ – Introducing obstacles in puzzle sequence
1:50:18​​ – Flathhead shaft
1:52:25​​ – Rising the difficulty of the puzzle
1:55:22​​ – Importance of obstacles for thrillers
1:57:07​​ – What game (Witcher or Cyberpunk) is better
2:01:20​​ – Iguana in Yorinobu’s suite
2:04:06​​ – Staging in the safe scene
2:04:50​​ – Building tension in Yorinobu’s suite
2:05:35​​ – Clash of Yorinobu and Saburo
2:10:34​​ – Takemura arrives to the scene
2:16:15​​ – Stepping over the ledge
2:19:20​​ – Staging of the wounded Jackie scene
2:21:25​​ – Combat in Konpeki Plaza
2:23:48​​ – Environmental storytelling in Konpeki Plaza
2:26:00​​ – Japanese minimalism
2:29:57​​ – Level Design work in Konpeki Plaza
2:34:05 – Encounter Design in Konpeki Plaza
2:35:10​​ – Creating believable human-like AI
2:31:46​​ – Structuring final encounter in Konpeki Plaza
2:44:32​​ – Designing covers for encounter in Konpeki Plaza garage
2:46:30​​ – Escape from Konpeki Plaza
2:55:05 – Meaning of Jackie’s death
2:57:50 – Designing CGIs for the game
3:00:00​​ – Meeting Dex in No-Tell Motel
3:01:34​​ – Creating emotional reaction to characters
3:04:30​​ – Final scene in No-Tell Motel
3:05:50 – Post-stream questions
3:44:38​​​ – Stream is ending
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Thank you for watching!
#Cyberpunk2077

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22 thoughts on “Lead Quest Designer plays Cyberpunk 2077! #5”

  1. Just went through The Heist as part of my 2nd playthrough. Man, the whole ending of Act 1 is so incredibly intense & gut punching-even on the 2nd go around. Probably no surprise given that Vesemir's death hit me even harder on my 2nd play-through.

    Reply
  2. Thank you so much for streaming and hosting the stream. Hearing the thought process behind one of the best game I've ever played is quite insightful. I hope you don't get too burned out with the streaming. As said in Hideyoshi Oshima's famous brain dance, Life Stranding, keep on keeping on!

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  3. I have previously considered the witcher3, red dead redemption 2, the last of us to be among the best stories for a video game, and now I consider cyberpunk2077 artistically (from the stories to the characters to the world designs, sound designs etc. ) really is by a long mile the best video game that I have ever played. I consider it to be top tier among any kind of fictional media. As a student of philosophy I especially appreciate how well this game reflects many ideas of Heideggerian philosophy (such as through death being a challenge/test to the value of one's life, problems regarding a person's identity and existence, the alienation that comes with technological advancement, the problems with the kind of life style that night city represents etc. ) in such a natural way without being at all infodumpy or preachy. To me this is the best way to depict these ideas.

    If there's any kind of criticism, though I consider it more as an observation as I don't really have the expertise to know how to make it better, is that I feel some aspects of the game, especially gigs are excellent content that are presented in kind of an awkward way. I'm sure many people have said that they don't like the idea of fixers tracking you wherever you go and call you to give you gigs, and instead prefer going to them and ask for jobs, but I don't really think it's more realistic as I cannot imagine fixers just politely waiting for mercs to give them a call and request work, so I don't know what's the best way to do it. Another thing is that I think most gigs don't really show the stories and the excellent level designs unless players kind of hunt for them. When I first started the game I thought gigs are just quests where you go shoot the place and leave so was a bit disappointed, thinking that witcher3's monster contracts are much more interesting. Then I started reading the shards and find out that there are so many stories in these gigs, and so many quests and gigs are related, characters are not one-off appearances, but instead all are having their agendas and doing different kinds of businesses. And after I tried to look around, observe the location to find what is the best way that my character would approach the place, I found out that depending on the player's build, cyberware, and even role play choices, so many gigs can be approached in so many different ways. I think these are the aspects of the game take effort on player's part to realize, and many player probably do what is the easiest or most familiar to them, which is just to shoot everything. Especially since even in very hard difficulty, after level 30 or so players can easily have a mature build with strong cyberwares and strong weapons, the path of least resistance really is just use the shigen mark v to scan the area and shoot the sky and let the bullets find their ways to the enemies. On the other hand, since in witcher 3 there always is a quest stage where Geralt looks around and see what is the monster, the sense of observing and preparing for the job is baked organically into the gameplay without player's effort.

    With that being said, you guys really have made an incredible game. The level of your passion in this project is evident, despite the bugs and flaws. I've never been more excited about the future content of a game and a franchise.

    Reply
  4. Hey Pawel, a question here: Who designed smaller quests/encounters like "Gun Music" ( the one with Aldecaldos and Scav meeting in Santa Domingo) and "Only Pain" ( encounter in Heywood, with cops beating a corpo)? Quest design or open world team?

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  5. Two very talented guys sharing with the gaming community … could you ask for more? Wonderful and generous moments that help create the future of the industry and future developers. Thank you always Pawel and Miles Tost I can see that you are generous, enthusiastic people who love their work. It is a pleasure to be able to dedicate our time to see how you explain and discuss Cyberpunk.

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  6. Really hope this game didn’t launch with so many technical issues ( mostly fixed now) The characters , the city , the story arc is genuinely breathtaking 🔥❤️ night city is hands down the best playground for any gamer also the gameplay is so free flowing it literally can be a looter shooter , an rpg or an all out stealth game depending on the way you play ! eagerly waiting for the dlc’s ❤️ thank you so much CDPR for creating such a masterpiece ❤️😃❤️🙋‍♂️

    Reply
  7. Hello there hope you're doing well Pawel. I finished a second playthrough of this game a while past and while this is most definitely my least favorite project from the studio I'm still looking forward to the DLC. Hope it features more "Side quests" more than gigs.

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  8. All streams have been great but this one was the best stream so far! I really liked the commentary and knowledge from both you and Miles. Please have Miles be on more streams or other CDPR Staff if Miles is not available.

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  9. I had such a good time with cyberpunk, I was totally in the world and my mouth was open so many times while I played and was blown away by what I saw there – the story and the world really hit me hard! Maybe this week you can share a bit more about what your process is like at cdpr writing the story? Do you start with the main story and settle on that line and then split off the side stories you want to tell in the setting from that, or does it all grow organically and side stories inspire the main story to change and everything goes hand in hand?

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  10. Finally made it to the stream on Sunday and it was great! Watching you playing the Heist with commentary made the mission even better (and a bit less depressing :)). Thank you for hosting the streams and uploading here as well!

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