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Rise of the White Wolf Enhanced Edition — Powrot Bialego Wilka Edycja Rozszerzona at The Witcher Nexus

Modification of the entire interface and characters of The Witcher! Every single element of interface has been changed, every main character has new textures and design.

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Donations

[EN]

With great pleasure and honor we would like to present to you the fruit of over two years of our team’s efforts. «The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf», designed as a simple change of the interface, over time grew to the size of which anyone would not believe — many elements of the original game has been changed, turning it almost unrecognizable — more importantly, we have still keep a specific atmosphere of the game released in 2007 by the CD Projekt RED.

-UPDATE YOUR GAME TO VERSION 1.5-
-RUN SETUP AS ADMINISTRATOR-
-START NEW GAME FOR FULL COMPABILITY-
-DELETE PREVIOUS VERION OF RISE OF THE WHITE WOLF (DATA/Z_ZROTWW_INT)-
-THE OPTIONAL FONTS ARE VERY RANDOM IN TERMS OF RESOLUTION — FOR EXAMPLE, THEY WORK IN 1920X1080 BUT NOT IN 1280X720.
IF THEY ARE NOT VISIBLE IN THE GAME, GO TO DATA/ZZ_ROTWW/FONTS AND DELETE FONTS.2DA FILE-
-YOU CAN INSTALL FCR, SCABBARD AND OTHER MODS EVEN AFTER THE INSTALLATION OF RISE OF THE WHITE WOLF-
-AFTER UNINSTALLATION OF THE MOD, PLACE THE CONTENT FROM BACKUP FOLDER INTO THE MAIN DIRECTORY OF THE GAME-

See the comparison gallery: http://imgur.com/a/QOwz9#1

List of main changes:
-Complete remake of interface — new options screen, inventory, journal and other
— New retextures of many characters, with amazing and spectacular look of Geralt’s jackets
— New Witcher armor
— New cutscenes with Dandelion
— New skyboxes

Creators: P ATROL, Eskadro, Rustine, SMiki55, pawel41lu, Pauvell, rafael01, Scani and UncleArtr.
———————————————————

[PL]

Z wielk&aogon; przyjemno&sacute;ci&aogon; pragniemy zaprezentowa&cacute; Pa&nacute;stwu owoc b&eogon;d&aogon;cy ukoronowaniem ponad dwóch lat stara&nacute; naszego zespo&lstrok;u. «Wied&zacute;min: Powrót Bia&lstrok;ego Wilka», zaplanowany jako prosta zmiana interfejsu, z czasem rozrós&lstrok; si&eogon; do rozmiarów, o których nikomu si&eogon; nie &sacute;ni&lstrok;o — radykalnym zmianom uleg&lstrok;o wiele elementów oryginalnej gry, zmieniaj&aogon;c j&aogon; niemal nie do poznania — co wa&zdot;niejsze, uda&lstrok;o si&eogon; przy tym zachowa&cacute; specyficzny, swojski klimat gry wydanej w roku 2007 przez CD Projekt RED.

-ZAKTUALIZUJ GR&Eogon; DO WERSJI 1.5-
-URUCHOM INSTALATOR JAKO ADMINISTRATOR-
-ZACZNIJ NOW&Aogon; GR&Eogon;, ABY MOD DZIA&Lstrok;A&Lstrok; PRAWID&Lstrok;OWO-
-USU&Nacute; POPRZEDNI&Aogon; WERSJ&Eogon; POWROTU BIA&Lstrok;EGO WILKA (DATA/Z_ZROTWW_INT)-
-OPCJONALNE CZCIONKI DZIA&Lstrok;AJ&Aogon; BARDZO LOSOWO W PRZYPADKU RÓ&Zdot;NYCH ROZDZIELCZO&Sacute;CI -PRZYK&Lstrok;ADOWO, S&Aogon; WIDOCZNE W 1920X1080,
ALE NIE 1280X720. JE&Sacute;LI S&Aogon; NIEWIDOCZNE, UDAJ SI&Eogon; DO DATA/ZZ_ROTWW/FONTS I USU&Nacute; PLIK FONTS.2DA-
-MO&Zdot;ESZ ZAINSTALOWA&Cacute; FCR, SCABBARDA ORAZ WSZYSTKIE INNE MODY NAWET PO INSTALACJI POWROTU BIA&Lstrok;EGO WILKA-
-PO USUNI&Eogon;CIU NASZEGO MODA, UMIE&Sacute;&Cacute; ZAWARTO&Sacute;&Cacute; FOLDERU BACKUP W G&Lstrok;ÓWNYM KATALOGU GRY-

Zobacz galeri&eogon; porównawcz&aogon;: http://imgur.com/a/QOwz9#1

Lista najwa&zdot;niejszych zmian:
— Kompletna przebudowa interfejsu u&zdot;ytkownika — nowy ekran opcji, ekwipunek, dziennik, ekran medytacji i inne
— Stworzenie od nowa wygl&aogon;du wielu postaci, w tym zachwycaj&aogon;cy wygl&aogon;d kurtek g&lstrok;ównego bohatera
— Nowa kurtka wied&zacute;mi&nacute;ska
— Nowe cut-scenki w karczmach
— Nowe skyboxy

Twórcy: P ATROL, Eskadro, Rustine, SMiki55, pawel41lu, Pauvell, rafael01, Scani oraz UncleArtr.

The Rise of the White Wolf Enhanced Edition mod for The Witcher

CDPR has hired several notable and hard-working modders from their community, proving once again that pursuing your passions is a solid way to break into the industry. To commend the move and congratulate CDPR’s active modding community, here’s five brilliant mods for their Witcher series of games to check out!

By Rustine

Whilst Witcher 2 and 3 were a big step-up in terms of both visuals and gameplay, the original entry by CDPR is unfortunately the one big outlier in both departments. This mod, however, rectifies some of this disparity with vast graphical overhauls of practically every interface in the game, a new set of custom skyboxes to make environments that much more vibrant, and new textures for many, many characters. Witcher 1’s gameplay may still be a bit clumsy, but this graphical overhaul gives you a much more immersive look into the great story that started off the trilogy.

By Rustine

Thus far, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been the last entry in the series, and the Blood and Wine expansion is its most recent in its story. Whilst both do a good job at wrapping up many of the plot threads implied throughout the trilogy, Geralt’s romance options and the ultimate fate of his love life remains up in the air. This mod goes with Geralt’s broadly canonical love interest — Yennefer — and using Witcher 3 assets, creates an epilogue within Witcher 2’s engine. With the return of many iconic characters and new combat setpieces, this mod is a great send-off to Geralt’s character.

By The Bards

A truly huge fan-made story, this mod’s content is rich with multiple story paths, multiple endings, over a hundred interactable NPCs, new music, and more. The new environments and story content are exceptionally creative, and coming from a mod released pre-Witcher 2, the expansion-level additions are remarkable. This mod holds up really well for anyone who wants to revisit the roots of the franchise, though unlike some of the other mods on this list, it doesn’t fit in quite so well with the later developed chronology of the games.

By 1ndig0

The Witcher 3 is a critically acclaimed game, with a deep story, fantastic visuals, and reasonably solid gameplay. That being said, the latter is the sticking point for many people, who feel its gameplay still doesn’t quite match up to the rest on offer. This mod aims to revise the gameplay loop, beginning as a small personal retooling, and expanding into a total revamp. With new inventory systems, the removal of the EXP levelling system in favour of a skill-based level schema, and even new attacks that can be unlocked through practise, the mod brings a fresh take forwards on The Witcher 3’s gameplay.

By eLeR

Another quest expansion for the first Witcher game, Masquerade is also the most recently updated on this list, showing the Witcher’s modding communities are still very much alive and well. Putting you in the midst of a detective adventure, Geralt confronts familiar monsters and new characters in a quest pack that pays deliberate homage to film noir. Another solid addon to Witcher 1, and a good reason to play the roughest of the trilogy’s offerings.

Celebrating Passion

The creators of two essential modding tools for Cyberpunk 2077 — Wolvenkit and Redscript — and who have history in the Witcher modding scene, have just been hired by CD Projekt Red to work more closely on fixes for Cyberpunk 2077, as well as more in-depth content creation powered by their community. This comes not long after CDPR’s statement that they felt the game was at an acceptable level of stability in regards to bug fixes and glitches, though players are still awaiting further changes after some new cosmetics and a new car were added to the game.

The Witcher 3 is a game whose visuals were practically unmatched
for the time, and hold up remarkably well today.

Future Ambitions

Yigsoft — the name for the team of individuals responsible for both tools — will continue operating independently for the time being, though, it is assumed, with official support from CDPR on development of new tools for the wider community to make use of. In addition, with further patches planned to the game and free DLC content packs making their way into the release build, Yigsoft may play a part in bringing features to the main game, not just facilitating additions to the game by the modding community.

Given Geralt’s profession, monster hunting is abundant, and on harder
difficulties, careful preparation is necessary before any challenging encounter.

The Right Move At The Right Time

Cyberpunk 2077’s modding community was predicated on a difficult launch for the game. Whilst social media initially blew up regarding hilarious bugs and glitches, the novelty wore off, and many players were left disappointed in the released product. Since then, CDPR has been releasing regular and substantial patches to the game, aiming to fix issues regarding stability in the game to as great an extent as possible. This hire reaffirms their promises to the community to fix up Cyberpunk, and is a good move from a company whose modders have greatly improved their products over the years. Showing recognition to community creators is always a great thing, and confirms that a little bit of passion goes a long way.

On the horizon is another big update for Witcher 3 with content focused on the newly-released Netflix show, and meanwhile, CDPR has stated they’re still working on multiplayer support for Cyberpunk. How mods will factor in at this time is unknown, but it’s safe to say some patching will be necessary.

Rise of the White Wolf — Games on DTF

The tale of how Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich quarreled.

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CD Projekt is now one of the recognized leaders in the gaming industry. The talented Poles already have the resoundingly successful Witcher RPG trilogy and several of its offshoots in their portfolios, and soon Cyberpunk 2077 will appear, which, judging by the trailers and presentations, will take a considerable number of Game of the Year awards. nine0003

But CD Projekt employees are people too, and more than once or twice they made mistakes along the way. One such mistake, made by them after the release of the first part of The Witcher and called Rise of the White Wolf , , almost cost the company their lives.

1st Anniversary Video

On Friday, October 31, 2008, the 1st Anniversary Video was released on thewitcher.com. It was mainly dedicated to the anniversary of the release of the first The Witcher and the sale of the millionth copy of the game. For a small Eastern European studio that had just debuted its RPG, it was a huge success and a step towards the «big» industry of AAA projects. nine0003

In the video, the creators listed the awards that The Witcher won, pompously reminded of the status of «Best RPG in many years» and showed excerpts from the recently released The Witcher: Enhanced Edition .

No more Enhanced Edition, no more hours of work, no more sleeping on the floor and (thank God!) no more pizza. We can return to our homes, if, of course, they still exist.

Karol Zayonchovsky, one of the developers of CD Projekt Red

The 1st Anniversary Video also featured some footage from the futuristic shooter They. The rights to it came to CD Projekt in February 2008, when the company became the majority owner of the Polish developer Metropolis Software. Ironically, it was Metropolis that in 1997 was supposed to deal with a game based on the books of Andrzej Sapkowski, but lost the project to its younger and more ambitious brothers from CD Projekt.

To top it off, the 1st Anniversary Video contained footage of a completely different Witcher — gameplay with improved graphics and environment detail, as well as excerpts from a new CGI video. In it, Geralt fenced around a fire, fought wolves in a snowy forest, and attacked a golem in the middle of a burning city. The red glow from the eyes of the witcher medallion, familiar to the players, suddenly changed to blue — just for a moment, but attentive fans could not help but notice this. nine0003

On Monday, November 3, 2008, Karol Zayonchovsky made another note on his blog: he published the cover of the original PC edition of The Witcher marked «2007», the cover of the Enhanced Edition marked «2008», as well as a large question mark with marked «2009». The record obviously hinted that in 2009 CD Projekt had another major release on The Witcher planned.

Leaks

Fans had to wait almost a month for new information. It wasn’t until Friday, November 28 that the silence was broken, and thewitcher.com website went on a «hunt» for facts about the upcoming game. By the end of the day, the «hunt» led participants to a subpage of the site that featured a stone wall with the familiar red-eyed medallion. One piece fell off the wall for four days, revealing to the players an updated medallion with blue eyes — the same as in the final of the 1st Anniversary Video. nine0003

But the “hunt” lost all meaning just a day after the start: on November 29, Saturday, a video with the announcement of a new game was leaked to the network. It turned out to be The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf — an improved version of The Witcher, developed specifically for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The company began large-scale checks in its ranks, audited computers and external media, but could not find the attacker . The gaming press suggested that the protagonist of the leaked video, game designer Jakub Stilinski, whom GameCyte has already dubbed the “sly fox”, is to blame for everything. Evidence of his involvement, however, could not be found. nine0003

That leaked video of Jakub Stilinski in creepy 240p

In a video with German subtitles sewn in, Jakub said that Rise of the White Wolf is vastly superior to the original game, both in terms of graphics (thanks to the new game engine) and in terms of gameplay.

Controls during battles will become more responsive. Geralt will have more options for combining moves, his enemies will become more aggressive and smarter. Stilinski admitted that he likes the development of a combat system for consoles more because of the convenient controllers. He also noted that the PlayStation 3 version of the game will make full use of the gyroscopes on the Sixaxis gamepads for Geralt’s defensive maneuvers. nine0003

CD Projekt chose not to comment on the leak, and publisher Atari asked journalists not to spread rumors and wait for the official Atari Live event, which was supposed to take place December 2-4, 2008. In the same place, the company planned to announce all its projects for the coming year.

Announcement

On Tuesday, December 2, 2008, the official announcement of Rise of the White Wolf appeared on thewitcher.com website: the developers published a batch of screenshots from the game with updated graphics, as well as a full version of the new CGI trailer. nine0003

It is important that each of our games use the strengths of the platform. That was our philosophy during the development of the original The Witcher, and that’s our philosophy now that we’re working on Rise of the White Wolf. Anyone who was worried about the fact that we will offer the industry «shallow» RPGs or completely abandon the PC, need not worry.

Michael Kichinski, co-founder of CD Projekt

Platige Image 9 The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf CGI Trailer0003

Console players don’t want to be treated like children. They’re ready for rich, story-driven games, and we believe we can deliver one of the richest RPGs on console. The only thing we take directly from the original The Witcher is the plot. Everything else is created from scratch or completely recycled.

Adam Kiczynski, CEO and President of CD Projekt

Wide Screen Games

On the same day it became known that CD Projekt is working on Rise of the White Wolf together with the French studio from Lyon WideScreen Games (hereinafter referred to as WSG): it provided its own console-oriented game engine DaVinci for development. DaVinci was supposed to replace the previous Aurora engine, which ran the «writing» The Witcher, but which was completely unsuitable for the console architecture.

The first Witcher was hard to bear. We tried to convert the game ourselves, but the result was always the same. Atari told us that this was not a problem: we just need to find a third-party developer who will make a port, and they will finance it. They gave us a list of recommended studios and then promised to share some very tasty royalties. Well, how could you resist? nine0003

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

This is what Marcin Iwinski said about the decision to turn to the WSG for help. However, we can safely say that this decision was dictated for the most part by the financial interests of the publisher Atari, since it was at his insistence that CDPR turned to the French studio.

WSG at that time were not the industry leader, but were a «strong middle peasant» with several large-scale projects behind them. It was they who were responsible for the development of the controversial Frank Herbert’s Dune (2001), released the more or less successful 3D shooter Dead to Rights II: Hell to Pay (2005), and at the time of the deal with CD Projekt (January-February 2008) had already been engaged in three-dimensional slasher based on the legendary «Highlander». nine0003

The development of Highlander: The Game started in the summer of 2007, but the release date was postponed several times: the game fell into production hell and completely disappeared from the horizon by the beginning of 2009. CD Projekt didn’t know any of this and calmly went to make a deal with the French: the other companies on the Atari list were either busy or incompetent, or the project didn’t fit their format.

I was very proud — WSG accepted all my conditions. I think if I had written in that contract that the entire team would become slaves to us, they would have signed the papers anyway. It wasn’t until later that I found out that the WSG were desperate, they needed a job so they wouldn’t have to lay off employees — obviously it’s very hard to let people go in France. I think when they took on The Witcher, they really didn’t understand what they were getting into. nine0003

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

Considering that approximately 90 employees worked in the studio at that time, the developers from WSG were forced to split up — one half, in spite of everything, pored over the «damned» Highlander: The Game, which — everyone already understood — was unlikely to see the light of day. During this time, the other half helped CD Projekt RED port The Witcher to the DaVinci engine and adapt it for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. — Since 2005, they have not released a single commercially successful game, and most of the profits from Highlander, which is on the verge of non-release, would have been taken by the publisher Eidos Interactive under the terms of a draconian contract. The WSG decided that with the help of 90 people they will be able to sit on two chairs, one of which fell apart before our eyes, and the second looked more like an unfinished stool.

Atari. Round one

In the meantime, the Atari LIVE publisher’s conference was taking place in London, where Marcin Iwinski took the rap for the entire CD Projekt. He stood in front of a crowd of thousands in the bowels of the giant O2 Arena in London and showed an impressive nine-minute video about Rise of the White Wolf with a full trailer in HD quality, shots of updated combat and graphics systems, as well as stitched-in comments from the same «cunning fox» Yakub Stilinski. nine0003

Stilinski was basically repeating what he said in the leaked five-minute preview. He briefly described the features of the world created by Andrzej Sapkowski, spoke about the school of witchers, as well as about Geralt himself — that, despite mutations, he can still feel. The presentation drew a storm of applause, and the gaming press began to scribble laudatory reviews, expecting another masterpiece from a small Polish studio.

“The creative vision and focus on quality gaming experience that CD Projekt Red brings to The Witcher is exceptional, and I am delighted to be working with them to bring this universe to consoles,” said Phil Harrison, president of French Infogrames that day. Entertainment, the parent company of Atari. Harrison was literally bursting with pride and anticipation of easy money, because the contract with CD Projekt was the result of his labors. nine0003

Atari Live presentation of The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf

The relationship between Atari and CD Projekt officially began on August 31, 2006, when the companies signed a publishing agreement. According to the contract, Atari assumed obligations to distribute The Witcher in Europe, the USA and Asia. “We ourselves covered only the Polish market, where CD Project was already a serious publisher, and the Russian market, where we had friends,” Iwinski recalls.

«We are pleased to enter into a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship with Atari, a publishing partner who shares our commitment to bringing a high-end RPG to the market,» Mikhail Kichinski assured the press at the time. However, few people guessed that a real war had been going on between the giant publisher and the small but proud Polish developer for six months now.

Before approaching Atari in February 2006, the CD Projekt team had been looking for a publisher for two years and had already received seven rejections from the likes of Codemasters and Koch. nine0003

The point is that publishers are like banks. When you have money, they line up behind you even on the street. But when you need money, they will never want to help. At that time, we had been financing the production of The Witcher for three years, and no one knew that we were spending our last money. […] It often happened that one of the publishers calls you back and says: “Hello, Marcin, blah blah blah, of course we are very sorry, but …” And then you know.

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

In the end, CD Projekt decided to go to Atari — the North American company has long specialized in RPG publishing (Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights) and has eaten the dog on promoting story-oriented games, but is used to squeezing everything out of the developers with whom it collaborated.

Marcin Iwinski went to conclude a contract in Lyon, where at that time the office of the European division of Atari was located (by a strange coincidence, WSG was also based there). At first glance, everything was in order in the document, but later it turned out that by signing CD Projekt, they would have doomed themselves to ten years of slavery without the right to «redemption». The developers have contacted Atari representatives. They assured that everything was in order with the contract — they say, sign and don’t worry. CD Projekt didn’t think so. nine0003

“It took me two months to sign the contract and four months to agree on it: after the next agreement, they constantly sent us new demands. This method of Atari negotiation I learned very well. […] Our company was tiny, it was our first deal, but even at the very end, Atari wanted to squeeze something else out of us,” says Marcin Iwinski.

We ended up sending a letter to Atari headquarters calling them cheaters. It said in a very polite way that if they wanted to work with us in this way, we would just leave and wish them good luck in their future endeavors. Cool, right? In fact, we said: if this is what you want, then back off and burn in hell! nine0003

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

CD Projekt signed the contract only when they were sure that the rights to The Witcher would remain with them. Iwinski later recalled that they spent $60,000-70,000 on lawyers alone, a gigantic amount of money, especially for a small Polish studio. One way or another, but the first round was for CDP.

The battle continued two years later when development of Rise of the White Wolf began, after all, it was Atari who initiated the creation of the console version of the super-successful RPG. The development budget was about 200 thousand euros — huge money for those times. Marcin Iwinski saw the benefit of having the brand on consoles before the release of the next numbered part, and after some negotiation agreed — how could he know what it would turn out to be? nine0003

Promotion campaign

After the Atari Live conference, CD Projekt began a full-scale PR campaign for their new creation — with encouraging interviews, regular publication of processed screenshots and brief reports: everything is going according to plan.

On Tuesday, December 9, 2008, CD Projekt’s head of marketing, Tom Ole, and «sly fox» Jakub Stilinski gave a long interview to GameCyte.

World domination is, of course, the only reason people will create console games! Okay, this is almost a joke. […] We want as many players as possible to get to know The Witcher, and we need to prove that we are not just porting the game, but actually creating it from scratch. We’re not going to quickly make a port for consoles and throw it on the market. We were originally preparing to create a console role-playing game. nine0003

Tom Ole, Head of Marketing CD Projekt

“We have completely redesigned the combat system. […] Now the player decides how and when to parry enemy blows, reflect arrows, dodge and attack. With the help of motion-capture, we «captured» a huge number of combat animations — parry, counterattack, dodge. We are also working on enemy AI to make them more aggressive, expanding the range of defensive and offensive actions. We want the fight to be much more dynamic, ”Jakub Stilinski echoed his colleague, adding that free DLC and an updated interface are expected for Rise of the White Wolf. nine0003

“WSG handles the entire porting process to the DaVinci engine. […] In general, we are pleased with the cooperation, it allowed our team to focus on the design of Rise of the White Wolf without much damage to other titles we are developing,” Jakub Stilinski told the press, concluding the interview.

I think it was a bad idea from the start. We were probably the only people who could port the game to consoles, but we didn’t have the opportunity to develop Rise of the White Wolf and The Witcher 2 at the same time with the same studio. And the commitments have already been made. nine0003

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

The next day, December 10, CD Projekt co-founder Mikhail Kichinski once again confirmed the thoughts voiced earlier: he again spoke about the development of the game «from scratch», «the dynamics of battles» and «a wide audience», adding only that CD Projekt «does not becomes a console-centric company» and still «committed to the PC. »

With this statement, Kiczynski wanted to once again defend himself against the attacks of old-school PC players who have been throwing stones at thematic forums for a week now: there were accusations that CD Projekt «abandoned PC owners», «provides The Witcher» and «makes the console version better «pisish». nine0003

The accusations, however, only fueled public interest: Rise of the White Wolf appeared on the cover of the Polish gaming magazine Cli! the same day, and two days later on the cover of the German edition of GamePro. In January 2009, the updated The Witcher became the face of the Polish Engrade, and in February — the French RPG Magazine.

From February to March, CD Projekt regularly published small sets of game screenshots, presenting more than two dozen shots to the gaming press in total, and also promising to add several new tracks to Rise of the White Wolf — composers Adam Skorupa and Pavel Blashchak announced that they were ready to return to the world of The Witcher. nine0003

In the absence of music from the original Rise of the White Wolf, I suggest you listen to a modified version of the main theme, which was created by the craftsmen for the fan mod of the same name

On January 22, 2009, Adam Badowski, who had previously been silent and was actually the second person in CD Projekt RED, stepped out of the shadows, developing the plot of the original The Witcher and now supervising the creation of Rise of the White Wolf.

For us, «port» is such a nasty word. We avoid it because we believe that our project is more than just porting the game to a new platform. […] Anyone who is familiar with our company understands that we are not looking for easy ways. nine0003

Adam Badowski, Head of CD Projekt RED

And then there was a lull. The gaming press was in full confidence that Rise of the White Wolf would soon go gold — the development of the console version by that time had been going on for almost a year, and nothing foreshadowed trouble.

Rumors

Rumors began to spread at the end of April 2009. «Patient Zero» was the Polish gaming site Polygamia.pl, which on Monday 27th, citing «reliable sources», announced the cancellation of Rise of the White Wolf. nine0003

After posting, CD Projekt’s corporate mail exploded with a flurry of emails, and the thewitcher.com threaded forum was temporarily down due to an influx of visitors. Representatives of Joystiq and Edge contacted Tom Oul directly, but he only dismissed the standard phrases: “We do not comment on rumors. Any changes will be announced through official channels.» Atari representatives were also unable to comment on the current state of affairs.

On Tuesday, April 28, gaming site GameBanshee released a new insider leak. According to them, the main reason for the cancellation is too many projects that CD Projekt worked on. The company developed four products simultaneously with the help of three studios: Metropolis Software pored over the shooter They, CD Projekt Red worked on the second The Witcher with about 80 people and oversaw the creation of Rise of the White Wolf, regularly making trips to Lyon to WSG, at that time as parent CD Projekt devoted itself entirely to the Good Old Games digital store launched a year earlier. nine0003

GameBashee also reported on massive layoffs and a change in priorities — now CD Projekt will transfer all its forces to the creation of The Witcher 2, which has not yet been announced. This information was partly correct, but did not reflect all the chaos that was happening at that moment within the walls of the company.

Chaos

The problems started in the summer of 2008, almost half a year after the development of Rise of the White Wolf began. WSG representatives suddenly came to CD Projekt and said that the 200 thousand euros allocated for them had ended, the game was not ready at all, and the release dates would have to be shifted. nine0003

In order to prevent a repeat of the situation, the Poles reluctantly decided to increase funding and sent a dozen of their developers to Lyon, among whom was Adam Badowski. They helped WSG complete the vertical cut of the game that Marcin Iwinski showed on December 2-4, 2008 at Atari Live. But then it only got worse.

A few weeks after the conference, WSG came again: the money ran out, the project broke all the deadlines. Marcin Iwinski seriously began to suspect that the studio from Lyon was just «shaking money» and was not interested in developing the console «The Witcher». nine0003

In fact, they blackmailed us. Either the game that was shown to everyone will not be, or we will give them more time and money.

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

CD Projekt sent more employees (at that time there were already 15 people in Lyon), requested another financial portfolio from Atari and audited the work on the port.

I will not talk about the constant arguments and endless phone conversations with mutual accusations. In the end, we realized that they had no idea how to complete the game. More money was spent monthly on WSG than on the maintenance of CD Projekt RED in Poland, where about 80 people were involved in the development of the second The Witcher. It’s time to make tough decisions. nine0003

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

In April 2009, Marcin Iwinski, Adam Badowski, Michael and Adam Kichinski gathered in the evening in a restaurant in Lyon to discuss the current situation. The WSG audit showed that the completion of the project will take not 4-5 months, as agreed, but a year and a half. And it will also require about 30 new employees from Warsaw and, of course, new cash injections. CD Projekt could not afford such a thing and stopped funding WSG, receiving dozens of angry letters in response to corporate mail. nine0003

The situation was complicated by the confusion over the development of The Witcher 2. The first part of CD Projekt ended almost by a miracle, and after its release, 38 out of 65 developers left the company. To continue, it was necessary to urgently recruit new specialists, which, in the context of the growing financial crisis, seemed almost impossible. The existing employees were literally torn between the creation of tech demos for The Witcher 2 and the constant control of the French from WSG. Money slipped through my fingers, but none of the projects moved forward. nine0003

The developers were sitting in a stuffy Lyon restaurant, and the question hung in the air: «So what to do?» As a result, someone suggested postponing the development of Rise of the White Wolf, disbanding Metropolis Software, and seriously focusing only on the second The Witcher, so as not to scatter resources and at least save a little.

Fierce disputes began, but in the depths of their souls everyone understood that this was the only right decision, which for some reason no one dared to voice until that moment. “We told Atari the next day that we were dropping the idea,” recalls Marcin Iwinski. Atari did not like this alignment of forces. nine0003

Phil Harrison, who is responsible for the CD Projekt deal, personally flew to Lyon to hear from both sides of the conflict. Ivinsky remembers the meeting. “We sat on one side of the table, WSG on the other, and Phil was in the middle, and then the “fight” began: they blamed us, and we blamed them, and so on in a circle. ” After a heated discussion, Harrison took Marcin Iwinski and Mikhail Kichiski aside.

He said a very British thing: «I think you guys are in real shit here.» We said, «Yeah, Phil, sorry, we screwed up.» I was ashamed that we then burned a lot of money — and not only our money. When I next contacted Phil, he said that he was sorry, but we violated the contract — we did not release the game, and he was forced to send an official refund notice. nine0003

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

By that time, CD Projekt owed over $1 million. Litigation began.

The unfortunate French from WSG, who poured bitter comments into the press, had already been forgotten by that moment: the company was left without a job and was in agony, frantically trying to find a livelihood. In July 2009, the WSG ceased to exist, the workers dispersed around the world. After the breakup, one of the employees said that when they signed a contract with CD Projekt, they had no idea how they could fulfill its conditions: «We had no plan or strategy for the project» .

Atari. Round two

After ending their relationship with WSG, CD Projekt was to face its publisher, Atari, head-on for the second time in its life. The company demanded money, which the developers, of course, did not have — in fact, everything went to the closure of the studio and the dissolution of the team. “ Our main business was losing money, we had just closed the development of the console version, which we spent a lot of money on, and the publisher wanted to recover several million dollars from us,” recalls Marcin Iwinski. nine0003

CD Projekt flew to Atari headquarters in New York to settle the matter. More than once or twice, the phrase about the transfer of rights to The Witcher surfaced, but the proud studio from Poland stood to its death — they perfectly understood that it was not profitable for the North American giant to bankrupt them, because then Atari would have to report millions in losses.

If someone owes you 20 bucks, he owes you. But if someone owes you a million, he is your partner. nine0003

Marcin Iwinski, CEO and co-founder of CD Projekt

In the end, the issue was resolved. In payment of the debt, the publisher received the rights to distribute the second «The Witcher» on physical media in the United States, and CD Projekt retained the right to digital distribution. Atari managers did not fail — The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings turned out to be many times more successful than the first part — at the beginning of 2013, the total sales of both parts exceeded five million copies, and by September 2014 — already eight million. nine0003

End of the White Wolf

However, it cannot be argued that Rise of the White Wolf was completely thrown into the trash. Judging by the available data, the console version significantly influenced the appearance of The Witcher 2: in particular, one cannot fail to note the striking similarity of combat systems and combat animations, sharpness of both games for the gamepad, the introduction of QTE, similar dialogue systems and interface.

And the demo version of The Witcher 2, presented at IgroMir 2009, was like two drops of water similar to the leaked Rise of the White Wolf gameplay video — the difference was only in the overall quality of graphics and control details. nine0003

Rise of the White Wolf

leaked gameplay video

And here is the presentation of The Witcher 2 for gaming press from IgroMir 2009

Many game journalists even believed that the new Witcher 2 engine (RED Engine) was based on developments from DaVinci, which prudent developers secretly took out of the Lyon studio.

One way or another, Rise of the White Wolf brought the company its fruits: CD Projekt became mature in legal matters, stopped blindly trusting publishers and third-party studios and now create games only on their own, postponing the release date, if necessary, at least a dozen times , is more reliable. nine0003

I write about movies and games in the RJ telegram channel: @rjfilm

The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, HD wallpaper

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