The man who shaped the story of The Witcher back in 2007 has gone on record with a pointed warning for the team remaking it: making it more like The Witcher 3 may be the worst thing Fool's Theory can do.
Artur Ganszyniec, lead story designer on the original game, gave a candid interview to Mateusz ลysoล for CHIP magazine, translated and published by GameObserver. His remarks arrive at a sensitive moment - the remake was officially announced on October 26, 2022, with Fool's Theory developing it under full creative supervision from CD PROJEKT RED, and the game that started it all is being rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. No release date has been set, and the game is currently in the early stages of development at Fool's Theory.
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"A Modding Effort" With a Beating Heart
Ganszyniec's reflections on the original are honest to the point of bluntness. He described his work on it as: "With all due respect to the work of everyone involved, but in some aspects, it was basically a modding effort." The team, he explained, were enthusiasts wrestling with an unsuitable engine and a limited budget - the Aurora engine, originally built for Neverwinter Nights, was never designed for what CD PROJEKT RED was attempting.
He acknowledged that The Witcher 3 ended up being "spiritually closer to The Witcher we would have made if we had the time, money, technology, and skills." Yet that admission comes with a counterintuitive conclusion: the remake should not simply chase The Witcher 3's template.
Why Open-World Design Threatens the Original's Magic
The Witcher is defined by the circumstances of its creation, and, as a result, is designed in a way that would not mesh with open-world design without significant changes. Ganszyniec's argument is structural. In the original, "if we opened the locations up, there would be more space, and if there's more space, there needs to be more content. Immediately, the tempo and the scale of the project would be shifted. In The Witcher, many things worked because we knew exactly where the player would be at any given time. We could set up a trigger, fire up a scene, and make it so Alvin appears between the fields and the village. In an open world, we'd have to approach that completely differently."
He used the game's fifth act as a concrete example of where open-world logic breaks the original's carefully gated design. In that act, the map revolves around Lake Vizima - and in an open world, "would I not have a boat? What's stopping me from hopping on a boat on the outskirts of Vizima and swimming directly to the old manor?" As a designer, he said, "I can already feel my hair turning gray."
The implication is clear: if Fool's Theory builds an open world, it is no longer making a remake. It would be making a far more ambitious reimagining - a different kind of project entirely, with a proportionally larger content burden.
What Ganszyniec Thinks Should Change
The veteran designer is not arguing for a slavish reproduction of the 2007 game. He has a specific list of things he believes the remake must fix. Combat needs a full overhaul. The notorious romance cards - a system that rewarded Geralt with collectible illustrations of women he slept with - should be removed. Level design should be improved throughout.
What he does defend is the amnesiac storyline. He stands by the amnesiac narrative, which not only helped the original team keep scope to a manageable level, but made the game an easier jumping-on point for newcomers who hadn't read the books. That structural choice also means the characters of Ciri and Yennefer could not be fully explored, which creates a confusing experience for book readers, as characters from Geralt's past never bring up the two most important people in his life.
Far from being a flaw to fix, Ganszyniec suggests that Geralt's lack of knowledge about Yennefer and Ciri could serve a purpose in the remake - acting as a genuine entry point for players new to the series before they move on to The Witcher 3 and eventually The Witcher 4.
A Rare Honest Perspective
Artur Ganszyniec is a Polish RPG and video game designer, best known as the lead story designer on The Witcher. He recently completed a full designer's commentary playthrough of the original game on YouTube, sharing behind-the-scenes context on design choices throughout. The interview with ลysoล is an extension of that reflective mood - and it gives Fool's Theory a direct line to the original's creative intent, even if no one is obliged to follow it.
Whether the remake sticks to the original as closely as the warmly received Gothic 1 Remake or deviates into the style The Witcher 3 players are accustomed to remains to be seen - but Ganszyniec's notes deserve serious consideration. The 2007 game worked because its limitations were features in disguise. Removing them wholesale risks producing something that is neither a faithful remake nor a worthy successor.
The Witcher (2007) is available now on PC. Pick it up for AU$4.29 and experience the original before the remake arrives.
