Writing Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty — Interview with Story Director Tomasz Marchewka

Get ready for an in-depth look into the story development and writing for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, as Jonathan interviews Story Director at CD PROJEKT RED, Tomasz Marchewka! They discuss many things such as Dogtown's origins, creating compelling characters, thinking beyond the spy genre, exploring Johnny Silverhand's past, and writing for a 1st person perspective. For good measure they also delve deep into the psychology of fan favorite, Jackie Welles! 00:00 - Intro 01:09 - Role of Story Directors and Lead Writers 04:06 - Conception of Phantom Liberty 13:32 - Favorite characters 14:57 - Character introductions and Writing for 1st person (SPOILERS) 18:03 - Planning visuals and collaborating with other teams (SPOILERS) 22:04 - Writing dialogue for Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba 23:41 - Exploring more of Johnny Silverhand's past and relationship with V (SPOILERS) 25:44 - Ideas and influences behind Dogtown 32:04 - Incorporating player feedback and lessons learned from Cyberpunk 2077 34:10 - What video game scripts look like when accounting for player choice 35:35 - Is there a golden path in Phantom Liberty? 37:37 - Making tough decisions 41:03 - Writing the backstory and psychology of Jackie Welles (SPOILERS) 45:32 - How Tomasz got into writing for video games 47:51 - Advice for aspiring video game writers 52:33 - Influential authors and writing the Cyberpunk genre 55:51 - Looking ahead and how new technology affects story development CYBERPUNK BOOKS and AUTHORS MENTIONED NEUROMANCER by William Gibson: https://bit.ly/4abqTtg CYBERPUNK 2077: Big City Dreams by Bartosz Sztybor Illustrated by Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello, Roman Titov and Krzysztof Ostrowski: https://bit.ly/47O82CE THE BLACK DAHLIA by James Ellroy: https://bit.ly/41ihaxj DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? by Philip K. Dick: https://bit.ly/3R1hqvQ 📚🎮📚🎮📚🎮 ABOUT LITS PLAY Lits Play is an official YouTube channel from Penguin Random House that explores the intersection of gaming and literature. Join us for weekly videos featuring let’s plays with your favorite authors, recommendations for gaming book nerds, narrative deep dives on the best story-driven games, and other forms of game-streaming goodness. Send us an email: [email protected] 📚🎮📚🎮📚🎮 Sign up for the Penguin Random House newsletter to get more videos like this and tailored book recommendations: http://bit.ly/2k9u67A 📚🎮📚🎮📚🎮 Subscribe to the PRH YouTube channel (The Mothership):    / @penguinrandomhouse   PRH on TikTok:   / penguinrandomhouse   PRH on Instagram:   / penguinrand.  . PRH on Facebook:   / penguinrando.  . PRH on X:   / penguinrandom   PRH on Pinterest:   / penguinrandom   TAGS #PhantomLiberty #gaming #Cyberpunk2077