One of the many memes that follow The Witcher 3 around – aside from a particular bathtub – is Geralt's fondness for playing card games rather than saving the world. While the iconic RPG's director has since left CD Projekt Red to form a new studio and start work on a new vampire-themed RPG called Blood of Dawnwalker, he's not forgotten.
His new game still has big stakes – you've only got 30 days to save your family – but this time, every quest moves the clock along.
"This is the most important thing for me," he tells PCGamer in a recent magazine issue. "Because when you put it together, it makes something really unique - this feeling of urgency in the games can be upgraded. For example, when you're playing The Witcher 3, and you know that Ciri needs help, but you decide to go play Gwent [...] you feel that it's a game, and it's a really good game. But it's a game.
"And maybe if you had some resource, and you know that maybe if you don't go, something would happen - then your thinking about this game would be different, and maybe the immersion would be better, and maybe your emotions would be different."
Design director Daniel Sadowski adds that, while the team does want the sense of urgency, that time only moves when you do the content as Rebel Wolves doesn't want to rush or stress players out.
"We want the time system to be part of the narrative experience, and part of the whole 'both action and inaction have consequences' [approach]," he says. "It will work in interesting ways. It will definitely force you to make choices at some points, like what to do, and what to ignore, because you will also have to choose which content you want to do, and which content you want to ignore, in order to maximize your chances of defeating the main enemy.
"But you will be able to choose between different ways to approach the problem, and all that ties into the narrative sandbox again."
