CD Projekt Red has confirmed that The Witcher 4 is now in full scale production, a significant milestone for what is codenamed Project Polaris, that comes over two years after the project was first confirmed.
Game Director Sebastian Kalemba said on social media:
“I’m thrilled to announce that Project Polaris has entered the full-scale production phase! With new challenges just around the corner, it’s the talented and hard-working people who make me believe we can together make the upcoming Witcher Saga a remarkable experience. No stopping now! Stay tuned for what’s on the other side of the coin!”
Entering full production essentially means that the studio is now putting all its resources into building out the game, with the overarching story, gameplay and vision for the game having been settled on during the pre-production phase. Of course, there’s plenty that will still be defined and changed between now and release – they could find that certain game ideas don’t work or aren’t as fun as expected and have to pivot, for example – but the core framework of ideas is now in place.
It has been over two years since Project Polaris was announced and Kalemba confirmed as game director – he was the Head of Animation and Animation Director on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 – but there has been a significant technical hurdle to overcome, as CDPR make the jump away from their own in-house game engine to using Unreal Engine 5. That, as we’ve even seen from studios coming over from Unreal Engine 4, has a significant impact on the production pipeline, as developers and artists look to integrate features like Nanite textures and Lumen global illumination into the game.
Another way that CDPR has likely been able to gain experience with Unreal Engine 5 is with The Witcher remake, though this project is in the hands of Fool’s Theory – a studio founded by ex-CDPR devs. Fool’s Theory is leading development, but sharing in the technology and tools that CDPR has been building to tie in with Unreal Engine 5, so it’s a great technical testbed for what they want to do.
Source: CDPR Sebastian Kalemba
