Cyberpunk 2077 Devs Break Down First-Person Storytelling

/ December 3, 2021

From “Story Mode”. ( YouTube / Nebula )

In this video we chat with Senior Cinematic Designer Paweł Ochocki and Narrative Director Igor Sarzyński about the unique challenges that come with telling a story entirely from a first-person perspective.

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Special Thanks:
Paweł Ochocki – Senior Cinematic Designer (Twitter: https://twitter.com/vithren)
Igor Sarzyński – Narrative Director

00:00:00 – Start
00:02:06 – What does your job entail?
00:03:36 – The Witcher 3 clip – conventional cinematics
00:08:16 – Why do First Person Perspective?
00:12:38 – Building on other FPP storytelling language
00:15:10 – "We want the player to be an actor in the scene"
00:17:51 – "noise vs. signal" – conveying information to players
00:19:26 – How you direct player attention
00:23:25 – Creating "tiers" of player freedom
00:26:19 – Guiding the player to create interesting visual frames
00:30:54 – The "Half-year montage"
00:32:34 – Starting "The Heist" Mission / Discussing this film-theater-hybrid mode of storytelling
00:35:29 – An example of "forcing" players to naturally stand in a spot
00:37:37 – Tons of invisible choices
00:39:25 – Challenges of making the player feel inside the body of V
00:41:18 – Creating "body presence"
00:43:26 – Giving the FPP camera parallax to simulate head turning
00:46:35 – Creating continuity is the most expensive thing
00:50:13 – The tension that comes with a "long take" style
00:51:31 – "Body presence" example
00:54:59 – "Immersion multiplies everything."
00:59:51- What they’re learning from watching playthroughs
01:01:06 – Tiny choices that let players express themselves
01:06:55 – What are your biggest takeaways?
01:09:48 – The future of FPP

Founder-level Patrons
Sharon Fagen
Arne Meyer
Kunal Nayyar

Story Mode Team
Michael Tucker (https://twitter.com/michaeltuckerla)
Brian Bitner (https://twitter.com/BrianBitner)
Alex Calleros (https://twitter.com/Alex_Calleros)
Vince Major (https://twitter.com/VinceMajor)
Wyatt Strain (https://twitter.com/wyattari)

Featuring the song:
“Detached” by Emil Rottmayer
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7cxBKVNrfK9xoJAL2L3gDr?si=z63tF_7AT_-9XcYEbsFglQ
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/emil-rottmayer/sets/detached-ep

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