T w e n t y S i d e d

Heads up: This post is a bit more dashed-off than my usual columns. I actually think this would eventually make a good video for This Dumb Industry, but I need to do a ton of research before I can commit my thoughts to the indelible format of a YouTube video. For right now, this is mostly me thinking out loud.

Anyway…

So the news is that someone hacked into CDPR’s server, downloaded the source code for several games, then locked the files and held them for ransom. When CDPR refused to pay, the hackers “sold it on the Darkweb for 7 million“. The hackers obtained the source for Witcher 3, Gwent, and Cyberpunk 2077. From here on I’m going to talk about the Witcher 3 source, but most of this is applicable to all of the games.

My question is this:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Source Code Theft”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The first act of Cyberpunk 2077 concerns the story of a heist gone wrong. While that’s bad for the characters, it’s good for us in the audience. The setbacks and twists in the heist are what kick off the rest of this excellent story. But what if everything had gone to plan? What would happen to the characters next?

I originally wanted to make this article about how CR Projekt RED bungled the development and release of Cyberpunk 2077. Like, people criticize the company for releasing the game “too early”, which makes it sound like the leadership just made one mistake. But the reality is far worse than that. I could spend a few thousand words cataloging all of the foolish mistakes that management made long before they decided to release the game.

But the truth is that I’m just not feeling it. Maybe in a future article, but I’ve been raging at corporate foolishness for a long time now and I’m in the mood to do something fun. And by “fun” I mean speculative fan-wank story analysis. 

I guess I should mention that we’re going to spoil the entire first half of the game here. I think that’s pretty obvious from the premise of the video but I just wanted to make that extra clear. 

Anyway. The heist… 

What if it Worked?

Now, in terms of story structure this wouldn’t make sense because the heist is the first act of the story so of course it has to go wrong. But let’s forget about that and just see what would happen.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Cyberpunk 2077: What if the Heist Worked?”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.