The Blood Of Dawnwalker launch day interview – ‘there’s constant stress’

GameCentral speaks to the director of The Witcher 3 about his new game The Blood Of Dawnwalker and how it feels to be so close to launch after years of development.

If there’s one thing that’s never changed about the games industry it’s publishers’ reticent about creating new IP. It’s even harder nowadays, when video games cost so much to make, but even decades ago a sequel or licensed game was always viewed as a much safer bet. This autumn has additional dangers, for anyone brave enough to release something that isn’t a sequel or licensed game, with a stacked release schedule caused by every other game running in fear from GTA 6’s release date in November.

Nevertheless, The Blood Of Dawnwalker is out this week and it’s not only a brand new IP but it’s the first game by new Polish developer Rebel Wolves, which was founded by a number of ex-CD Projekt Red developers, including The Witcher 3 co-director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz. We spoke to Tomaszkiewicz back in July, when we previewed the game, but last week we were given the unusual opportunity to speak to him again, just days before the game was due to launch.

Given how much he has riding on the game’s success we almost felt guilty about intruding on his time, but he seemed fairly settled, in part because the previews had been positive. Although we spoke to him before the review embargo, so he didn’t know that the game has also reviewed well. It’ll be a while till we hear anything definitive about sales but given the risks that have been taken to make something new and interesting, it’s impossible not to root for him and the rest of the Rebel Wolves team.

GC: I can only imagine how stressed you must be at the moment; can you put into words how you’re feeling?

KT: [laughs] There is a lot of opposite feelings because, on the one hand, I’m really excited, because we will show to the world our first game and our creation which is quite unique and quite… different than the games out there, with a lot of cool but also risky ideas. We built this studio and the whole game in quite short time and this adventure has been exciting.

And on the other hand I’m really stressed, at how people will react and how they like what we’re doing. Because this is like you show your baby to the world for the first time and you are really curious what will be the reaction. It’s an amazing feeling, but there’s constant stress until we will know how people like it.

GC: I guess probably you’re working on patches at the moment, so while the game is technically finished the work isn’t. Do you have a holiday planned in the next couple of weeks?

KT: You know, it’s funny because this is the first release I feel this way, that it’s really calm. I mean, we have the database in which we have the stuff we want to fix – the bugs we want to fix or bugs which are already fixed – and a lot of people are on their holidays right now. I’m not, but I’m hoping that after the release of the game I will go for a longer holiday, because I need it for sure. But the team are on their holidays right now and this feeling of peace and calm in the studio worries me because, from my past, when I remember these times, it was always quite intense. Because we worried about what we need to fix still and here it’s like, it’s done and you just need to wait.

And if I have time where I know that I cannot do anything more right now, it feels really weird. Like, you’re waiting for what will explode tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But hopefully everything will be great. We showed the console footage last week and today we updated it for 60fps performance and people like it. And right now we’re waiting for the reaction, for the game itself.

GC: I saw the press release for the 60fps mode today, but I’d already seen fans asking about it a few days ago. So was the annoucement today a reaction to that?

KT: Yes and no, because the truth is that we have this rule, that if we release some materials to the fans we only confirm the stuff we are sure about, right? And recording this kind of material and putting it together takes some time. When we were at the point when we recorded it, we weren’t sure if we will be able to release a 60fps mode on release.

And we prepared the material, we dropped it on Friday and we checked today with the testers and the programmers, and it seems that we are in the good place and it worked. That’s why we confirmed it and we will have it for the launch. And also today, people will receive the updated video on which we’re showing how performance mode on the consoles looks.

GC: If I was a fan I think I’d feel pretty good about you reacting so quickly like that. Obviously, you were working on it anyway, but I imagine you want to engender as much good will as possible at the moment.

KT: Yes, we saw what fans were writing and we were sad that they thought that there will be no 60fps mode, because we worked on it for some time and we knew that we will release it eventually, on the release or after release because we didn’t know if we will fit it in, production-wise. But thankfully, to our great team, we are able to release it.

GC: How did you feel about the reaction of the press to the hands-on preview? It seemed to me to be mostly positive.

KT: I think that it was great, the feedback is really good. First of all, we received a lot of positive energy after the previews. And on the events, in London, in Milan, and the other places, we get also the feedback about the game itself, because it’s important to know that. That was a build from May and in this industry the builds, week after week, are a lot different. And we knew on which sides we should focus to make the game even better. And, actually, we didn’t receive any negative feedback, to be honest. People spoke with us about what they liked, what they would upgrade in the game, but not what they would change totally, because they don’t like some element of the game.

And for us it was also the moment when we proved to ourselves that the decisions we made with the time, with the combat, and with those risky systems are correct and people like it, because we got a lot of positive feedback about the combat. We got a lot of positive feedback about the time mechanics that that influence the emotions the way we wanted to, that it boosts the story. And actually, it was a really great experience for us and it gave us a lot of energy and motivation for this last push to the release.

GC: Are these events useful at all, as a developer? Because I imagine the last thing you want to be doing three months before launch is touring the world and answering the same three questions from everyone you meet. Or can the events actually influence the game, even at that late point in development?

KT: I mean, you cannot change the foundations of the game, but this is the first time when a bigger group of people who are from the industry played the game and were telling us if we are on the good track or not. And also, when you will get the feedback you can iterate smaller things and adjust the game to the needs of people. And we got a lot of small feedback, some of this feedback was already fixed because we found it by ourselves, also. But some of this feedback was new stuff for us, and we analysed what we can do with it and we searched for the simplest solution to cover this stuff.

And to be honest, from my opinion, it’s really useful to get this kind of feedback, especially from the media and from people who play a lot of games. And for us it was the first big test, which I believe we passed. And, as I said, it gave us, the whole team, huge motivation, because we share with the team the reaction of the media and the YouTubers and the influencers. And after that, we have this channel on our Slack for gathering these articles and materials from around the world, and speaking about what we can do better, and those reactions giving all of us this feeling of purpose and the feeling that we are doing cool stuff.

GC: Did you happen to go to the press event for The Witcher 3 at Stirling Castle, in Scotland?

KT: Uh, no, I wasn’t there. And, to be honest…

GC: But you remember it?

KT: Yes, I remember it. I worked on The Witcher games from 2004 but, to be honest, my story was always that I didn’t have time to visit events like this because I was usually implementing the stuff.

GC: You were busy working. [laughs]

KT: Yeah! No, I didn’t have time to prepare answering the questions and so on. But I’m quite sure that I was at the event, the hands-on of The Witcher 3 which was in Poland. But it was a different feel. Here, I felt that everybody was really excited and when you have the situation, like it was in London, that you’re finished, the pressure is off. But we’re talking about the game, we’re talking about the industry, and people were coming and sharing how they feel about the game; it’s something totally new for me and it was really cool.

I also said that it would be cool next time to have a camera, that if someone from the media wanted to be able to record a message, to the team… because the team were really stressed and they didn’t get to feel how it was with this hands-on event. Of course, we shared with them how it was, but it’s totally different thing when you’re there, compared to when we’re passing this information to them.

GC: I ask about Stirling because I think of that event relatively often, because I think it’s the most nervous I’ve ever seen developers be at a game’s hands-on. I remember these crowds of devs looking very wary and they gave out these sheets filled with quite specific questions, which doesn’t usually happen at that sort of event. It’s strange to think now, given what a success the game was, but they really weren’t sure how people were going to take to it. Are you in that same position?

KT: You know, David, I always rely on my intuition when I’m working on the games, because I’m also a gamer and I’m playing everything that’s on the market. And the most important to me when I’m directing the game is that I need to have fun when I’m playing my own game. If I have fun, then it means that the game is good, you know?

If I’m playing it 20 times, 30 times, because I’m iterating it, playing it all the time, and I still have fun, it means that the game is really good. And I really believe in my intuition, but to be honest, I can show it to the team and you have a lot of different mindsets in the team.

You have, for example, the programmers who are the most analytic in their way of thinking. And when you’re telling them, ‘I feel that it’s good’ it’s not enough for them, because they need to have the proof. And if you read the preview where people are saying, ‘I love it, I want to play this game, if the rest will be this cool,’ this is the proof for them that we’re doing something really good. And it gives them the boost to do even more, to finish and make this game great.

And this different mindset in the team, there is a lot of them. And, for me it’s also the stress, because I believe in what we are doing but even after all these years, you cannot be so confident that you cannot make mistakes. Because there is so many choices you’re doing all the time.

Right now, the last two or three months, every week, I make hundreds of decisions, starting from the quality of the special effect in the abilities and ending on some performance choices in the code or if we should fix some kind of bug. You do a lot of decisions and you cannot be sure that all of them are correct. And on the other hand you need to choose, because if you don’t then people will wait and you will slow down the production. It’s a huge process of iteration to finish the game, and it’s really hard.

And it’s not like you don’t believe in your skills, but when, in this kind of event, you find the proof that you are on the proper track it gives you a lot more energy and motivation to finish it. Especially when you see how people like it.

GC: Do you happen to know the game Star Wars Zero Company?

KT: Yeah, of course.

GC: Well, I was speaking to them the other day and they’re a new studio as well, but they were talking about how by using the Star Wars licnence that at least meant they didn’t have to worry about creating a new IP as well as a new studio. Because I love XCOM…

KT: Yeah, me too.

GC: But it’s not widely popular, not like The Witcher. You have got that connection, that hook as it were, but otherwise you’re taking two big risks at once.

KT: You know, first of all, I must say that I’m really looking forward to Star Wars Zero Company.

GC: It’s very good, I think you’ll like it.

KT: [laughs] I want to finish it as soon as it will be released!. I love the XCOMs, I remember when I was a young kid and I was playing the first XCOM and it was too hard for me, and I was hacking the stats of my characters, because you could edit some files to finish it and it was a cool experience.

But what can I say [about creating a new IP and a new studio]? It is difficult, but I like challenges and I think that if you have the proper challenge it gives you the proper motivation to do more. And if you’re doing easy stuff, you are just bored. And we are the creators and we are used to having these challenges in front of us, is the first thing.

But what I was basing it on is not really the IP or the history of the studio, because obviously it’s a new studio, but the base for me was the genre. And I started thinking about the RPG games, especially storytelling RPG games, because I love those.

And I thought, with the rest of the team, how we want to evolve it, what we can add and how we can make this genre different and better, you know? And I think that this genre has a lot of people who love it. And, actually, we are doing this game for them.

Obviously, we’re taking some subjects from the legends, from pop culture, like vampires and so on, but we’re creating something totally new with the new gameplay mechanics, with this time mechanic, with different combat, and so on and so on. And we want to bring the new experience for the RPG players. And that was the way how we talked about doing the game.

And we didn’t feel that it’s bad that we are not based on already established IP, because for us, after all of this experience we have from the past, it’s easier to create a new IP. Because we don’t have all these conditions, all these frames you need to fit in. Everything is possible and we just created our own frames and or our own conditions, which will define this world and will make it possible to tell every crazy story we want to tell in this world.

And this freedom gives us a lot of space to create and it was, in my opinion, a really good choice. And also, when you’re creating something totally new, you give this fresh feeling for the players, because it’s something totally new you experienced.

And I like Star Wars, I like a lot of different IPs, but to be honest creating something new is more fun and it gives you satisfaction after you create it, you know? I think that you feel that if you’re successful it’s not because you just used some established IP, or you have the company which made a lot of games, but it’s because you created something fresh and something unique. And this is the way we are thinking here.

GC: I like the way you think. And you’re right, the genre does give you stability – much more than if it were a turn-bases strategy. But okay, I guess the obvious final question is… what happens next? Do you have a specific sales target in mind that lets you greenlight a sequel? Are you working on DLC even now?

KT: What I can say is that we already start to work on the future of the franchise, let’s say. And right now most of the team is focusing on the release and preparing a patch to deliver the best possible experience. And when you ask about the targets, from my perspective, I keep my fingers crossed that sales will be this amount of units to allow us to create the sequel and make this adventure continue, because it’s something really great. But to be honest, when I’m working on the game, I’m not thinking about the money.

I’m thinking about how people will experience it. And right now, there is in front of us, the best moment, when we will see how the press and the influencers like the game and later how people like the game, because we will read the comments, we will watch the streams, we will see how people react to it. And it will tell us a lot of if we went in a good direction. It also gives us the feedback which we will use for the next creations. And we live right now, this moment and we are waiting for it.

GC: OK, that’s great. Well, the best of luck to you. It’s nice to know that developers are still getting the chance to make games like this just for the passion of creating something cool.

KT: Believe me that I’m still awake in the morning time and it’s hard to believe that we are in the place where we are. But we are. And I’m really thankful to everybody, on our adventure, who helped us and who support us, because it’s great to be able to create and deliver these kind of things to the people.

GC: Well, good luck! Thanks very much for your time.

KT: Thank you very much.

Formats: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £59.99
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Developer: Rebel Wolves
Release Date: 3rd September 2026
Age Rating: 18

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