CD Projekt Red has been hard at work on their next big title Cyberpunk 2077. The title was officially revealed in 2013, but besides for short cinematic teaser nothing was shown. After a long period of silence. the title received a new breath of life last year after a reveal trailer at E3, as well as a lengthy stream showing off the game’s environment and many of the mechanics within it.
On top of that, the developer has also confirmed that they will indeed be present at E3 this year. There isn’t any doubt that we will get another look at the new futuristic RPG this go around, however we still don’t know exactly where the game is development wise. But, some recent comments from CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński might hint towards the game entering it’s final stint of development.
Iwiński as well as studio head Adam Badowski had some words to say on crunch which is final months of development where studios pack work weeks in order to finish a game. They both stated that crunch isn’t a great practice for every developer, but it also “creates innovation and makes it possible for us to say we’ve worked really hard on something, and we think it’s worth your hard-earned cash.”
So when asked about their crunch period for the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, Iwiński stated that the company will be taking a more “humane” approach to the crunch period by implementing a non-obligatory crunch policy.” This means basically that employees will be able to take off during the period if they wish and not be frowned upon by the company.
Iwiński stated within an interview, “We’ve been communicating clearly to people that of course there are certain moments where we need to work harder like I think the E3 demo is a pretty good example but we want to be more humane and treat people with respect. If they need to take time off, they can take time off. Nobody will be frowned upon if this will be requested.”
It seems that the company is taking this approach since the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s final stages were rough to say the least. Badowski commented that Cyberpunk’s final stages promises that it’ll be “better than The Witcher’s finishing period.”