When its founders were peddling pirated games on the streets of Warsaw in the early ’90s, no one knew the name CD Projekt. Fast forward three decades, and the developer is the darling of the gaming industry. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s vibrant open world, compelling characters, and short-story quality side quests earned it universal accolades. Game Informer readers recently voted it the best game of all time, and its popularity compelled Netflix to commission a series based on the franchise. Since release, the studio has built a loyal fan base thanks to a steady stream of free downloadable content, several high-quality paid expansions, and a fierce stance against nickel-and-diming microtransactions. All eyes are now on its next game, Cyberpunk 2077, to see how – not if – CD Projekt can raise the bar for open-world RPGs once again.
The world may be focused intensely on CD Projekt, but if you widen the angle slightly to take in the entirety of the Polish development scene, what you find may astound you.
Over the last 20 years, Poland has become a hotbed of game development talent, delivering memorable titles like This War of Mine, Dying Light, and Bulletstorm. To understand how this small country once trapped behind the Iron Curtain has become an epicenter for interactive entertainment, I traveled to Poland to speak with the people who put the country on the map.
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Source: Gameinformer