Sebastian Zieliński, the former head of CD Projekt Red, has revealed how Geralt's model looked in the original Witcher prototype from 2002.
The rare footage comes from an old disk that Zieliński found. CD Projekt Red’s depiction of the character has varied considerably from game to game, and it’s no surprise that Geralt in the first game looks completely different from his final appearance in Wild Hunt, but this model is a completely different look for the character.
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Sebastian Zieliński shared the short clip of Geralt’s battle animations with Gry Nieznane. As seen in the video, Geralt has some impressive unarmed combat skills, and can even hit you in midair. The model for Geralt here looks completely different to how the character is established now, with none of the trademarks you'd associate with the White Wolf. According to Zieliński, he found the footage on one of the disks when exploring some old archives.
For the first Witcher game in 2002, CDP was trying to use an IC engine, which was developed by Zieliński himself for the first-person shooter Mortyr 2093-1944. However, the team struggled to adapt the old engine for the new genre and fantasy setting, so the company eventually purchased the Aurora Engine from BioWare.
Notably, It’s not the first time the original variant for Geralt is shown to the public. Earlier some Polish printed media published the first images of the character, which is the same one that we see in this early gameplay footage. It's worth noting that this is the first time we've seen the model in motion. The existence of this footage means that more could be released soon if it's discovered.
During the first WitcherCon, we learned that The Witcher franchise could have been very different, as Geralt was nearly cut out of the video games. For the first few years, the creators were experimenting to allow the players to make their own witcher rather than let them play as the White Wolf.
Source: Gry Nieznane
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