Witcher 3 modders just upended everything we know about how it was made with a 584-page breakdown of an early prototype that had a 150-hour main quest, all thanks to a database 'containing almost every single line of text' from its development

Witcher 3 modders Moonknight, Ferroxius, Crygreg, and Glassfish (who contributed to the Brothers in Arms lower content material restoration mod) have launched the primary quantity of What Lies Unseen, a deliberate collection chronicling the event historical past and evolution of The Witcher 3. RPG YouTuber xLetalis has put out a three-hour video going over the primary quantity, which covers a prototype model of The Witcher 3’s story that may have been upwards of 3 times so long as the sport we obtained. A number of the largest modifications and surprises on this model of The Witcher 3 embody:

The sport was subtitled “A Time of Sword and Axe” as a substitute of “The Wild Hunt.”
The Witcher 3 had a VATS-like focus system that allow you to goal weak factors on monsters.
There was much more journey forwards and backwards between Velen, Skellige, and Novigrad, and plotlines and characters that had been extra contained within the remaining recreation would prolong throughout a number of acts.
Your alternative between Yennefer or Triss would imply that the opposite sorceress can be absent from the ultimate third of the sport.
The Witcher 2’s Iorveth appeared and had a serious position.
There was a multipart heist quest in Novigrad that required allies just like the Kaer Morhen siege.
The Bloody Baron’s story was very completely different, and continued late into the sport.
The endings had been rather more ambiguous and melancholy.
Geralt and Avallac’h would teleport to Cyberpunk 2077’s Evening Metropolis in a single quest.
The sport did not have Gwent, and as a substitute noticed the return of arm wrestling and cube poker from TW1 and a couple of.

This challenge took place due to the discharge of CD Projekt’s REDkit modding instruments, with the authors writing that prior to those instruments turning into out there, group data of The Witcher 3’s improvement “stemmed from interviews with the corporate in addition to leaked materials that was incomplete.”

“The large breakthrough occurred in 2024 when CD Projekt RED launched REDkit for The Witcher 3,” the modders wrote within the introduction to quantity one. “Included with this improvement package was a string database, containing virtually each single line of textual content that was written between the earliest and newest level in Witcher 3’s improvement. From this database, we collectively labored to translate the info right into a tangible synopsis that makes up the majority of those paperwork.”

And boy is there some bulk to those paperwork: Quantity one, protecting this circa-2012 stage of improvement, weighs in at a doorstopper 584 pages. It incorporates space descriptions, scene instructions, tough drafts of dialogue, idea artwork, and a few prototype fashions and belongings nonetheless accessible in REDkit. The overarching story was nonetheless the identical: Discover Ciri, combat the Wild Hunt, discover Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige, however there simply would have been far more of it. The maps and areas appear to have been selected very early in improvement, and this longer recreation would have had much more backtracking between zones because the story went on. A whole lot of stuff that is aspect content material within the remaining recreation would have been integral to the primary quest right here, and there have been additionally much more new or returning characters to fill issues out.

“Not like the 2013 and 2014 builds of the sport, we can’t be sure as to what the 2012 construct seemed like at this level in improvement,” the group wrote. “Most characters, areas, and different entities would have been utilizing placeholders and the environments had been nonetheless being sculpted. As such a lot of the pictures we included are idea arts or early belongings and areas. Nonetheless, a couple of work-in-progress fashions from this time interval did make it into the sport information.”

As for why the sport was rescoped, that does not take a variety of experience or creativeness: The Witcher 3 is already an enormous recreation with a status for being troublesome to stay with and full, regardless of its high quality. No person would have been in a position to beat this rattling recreation if it was 150 hours (an estimate quoted by the modders a number of instances in quantity one) simply to complete the primary quest. It additionally would have been an extremely taxing recreation to ship in any sort of affordable timeframe.

The Unique Story and Endings of the Witcher 3 from 2012 (A Time of Sword and Axe) – YouTube
The Original Story and Endings of the Witcher 3 from 2012 (A Time of Sword and Axe) - YouTube

Watch On

The Novigrad plotline specifically simply looks like a large number on this iteration of The Witcher 3, with far more characters and complicating components. With that mentioned, there are various eventualities specified by quantity one which made me go “Wow, that may have been rad as hell.”

The serial killer quest in Novigrad would have uncovered a hidden vampire society within the metropolis, like one thing out of Vampire: The Masquerade. The killer would have been a rogue member of this group, with the opposite vampires serving to your investigation whereas the Witcher 1’s Shani would have made an look. Each of those concepts can be revisited in The Witcher 3’s DLC. The Witcher 2’s Iorveth was additionally meant to have a serious position on this model of Novigrad, and I’ve all the time actually missed the character in The Witcher 3.

The sport’s endings had been additionally a lot darker it doesn’t matter what selections you made. Stopping the White Frost would require Ciri and Avallac’h’s deaths, and holding Ciri alive would imply permitting the world-eating pressure to proceed unabated, in addition to an emotional remaining boss combat with an emotional, betrayed Avallac’h who, on this model of the sport, had a extra developed and pleasant relationship with Geralt. The empress of Nilfgaard ending was very completely different however tonally just like the ultimate recreation, however Ciri’s Witcher ending would have seen her rapidly turn out to be disillusioned with the monster searching life-style, whereas she additionally felt responsible about Avallac’h’s dying and the White Frost’s continuation. Ciri would then resolve to journey the planes looking for one other method to cease it.

The downscoping of The Witcher 3 jogs my memory of all of the areas and concepts Larian has talked about having lower from Baldur’s Gate 3: Extra just isn’t all the time higher, and these unbelievable video games required some disciplined, troublesome choice making to make sure that they had been effectively paced and in a position to be delivered on-time and on-budget. Greater than the rest, I respect the historic worth of what Glassfish, Ferroxius, Moonknight, Crygreg, and xLetalis are doing: Shedding gentle on the inventive course of behind probably the greatest video games ever made. I will be wanting to see what’s revealed by the later volumes of What Lies Unseen.

Picture 1 of 4