Get ready for an in-depth look into the story development and writing for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, as Jonathan interviews Story Director at CD PROJEKT RED, Tomasz Marchewka! They discuss many things such as Dogtown's origins, creating compelling characters, thinking beyond the spy genre, exploring Johnny Silverhand's past, and writing for a 1st person perspective. For good measure they also delve deep into the psychology of fan favorite, Jackie Welles!
00:00 - Intro
01:09 - Role of Story Directors and Lead Writers
04:06 - Conception of Phantom Liberty
13:32 - Favorite characters
14:57 - Character introductions and Writing for 1st person (SPOILERS)
18:03 - Planning visuals and collaborating with other teams (SPOILERS)
22:04 - Writing dialogue for Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba
23:41 - Exploring more of Johnny Silverhand's past and relationship with V (SPOILERS)
25:44 - Ideas and influences behind Dogtown
32:04 - Incorporating player feedback and lessons learned from Cyberpunk 2077
34:10 - What video game scripts look like when accounting for player choice
35:35 - Is there a golden path in Phantom Liberty?
37:37 - Making tough decisions
41:03 - Writing the backstory and psychology of Jackie Welles (SPOILERS)
45:32 - How Tomasz got into writing for video games
47:51 - Advice for aspiring video game writers
52:33 - Influential authors and writing the Cyberpunk genre
55:51 - Looking ahead and how new technology affects story development
CYBERPUNK BOOKS and AUTHORS MENTIONED
NEUROMANCER by William Gibson: https://bit.ly/4abqTtg
CYBERPUNK 2077: Big City Dreams by Bartosz Sztybor
Illustrated by Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello, Roman Titov and Krzysztof Ostrowski: https://bit.ly/47O82CE
THE BLACK DAHLIA by James Ellroy: https://bit.ly/41ihaxj
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? by Philip K. Dick: https://bit.ly/3R1hqvQ
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TAGS
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