The former Witcher 3 director revealed that The Blood of Dawnwalker's protagonist leads dual lives, growing more powerful at night due to his vampiric blood. Read on to explore this unique game mechanic!
The Blood of Dawnwalker Introducing a Unique Game Mechanic
Former Witcher 3 Director Teases Protagonist's Day-and-Night Abilities and Limitations
Former Witcher 3 director and founder of Rebel Wolves, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, revealed that they incorporated a new game mechanic that is popular in pop culture but has not been applied to video games. Rebel Wolves is a newly established game development studio responsible for developing The Blood of Dawnwalker, and some of its members came from the Witcher 3 team.
During an interview with PC Gamer, Tomaszkiewicz expressed the need to create a game without the common tropes of a superhero seen in Marvel movies and similar media. "It’s hard to do those stories because you are just stronger and stronger and stronger," Tomaszkiewicz explained. "So I searched for an idea for the hero, which would be near the ground—or grounded—and needed to solve things in a different way. But, also, I wanted to give some kind of superhero to the players."
Due to this issue, Tomaszkiewicz decided to create a protagonist who actually behaved as any half-human half-vampire would. In this case, Coen will have all the weaknesses of a human being by day but will gain new abilities and supernatural powers by night.
"It’s somehow interesting, this duality of the hero, which we know from Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, for example. It’s something in pop culture that is well known and wasn’t explored yet in games," Tomaszkiewicz shared. "It gives you a different layer to those non-realities, and I think it would be quite interesting because nobody yet has done that. And we will see how people will like it."
That being said, the game will open up new opportunities and restrictions to players with this new mechanic. Perhaps battling an enemy during the night is much better than day, especially non-vampire ones. Moreover, players might rely a bit on their brains when solving quests in broad daylight since they cannot rely on their vampiric powers by day.
Witcher 3’s Ex-Design Director Also Revealed “Time-as-a-Resource” Mechanic
Daniel Sadowski, former design director of The Witcher 3, also revealed that The Blood of Dawnwalker will have "time as a resource mechanic" in an interview with PC Gamer on January 16, 2025.
This new mechanic significantly restricts the players’ opportunities to complete all the quests in the game by making them tied to a time system. "It will definitely force you to make choices at some points, like what to do, and what to ignore, because you will also have to choose which content you want to do, and which content you want to ignore, in order to maximise your chances of defeating the main enemy," Sadowski shared. "But you will be able to choose between different ways to approach the problem, and that all ties into the narrative sandbox again."
Under this mechanic, players have to carefully choose what quest to do next by evaluating how completing it might impact future missions or character relationships. Though restrictive, Kadowski believes "knowing that the time you have is limited could really help crystalise what you're going to do, and why your version of the game's protagonist, Coen, is doing it."
With these two new mechanics in play, each action and inaction can potentially influence the game’s narrative, making every decision more important than ever.
Sources:
PC Gamer’s interview with Konrad Tomaszkiewicz
PC Gamer’s interview with Daniel Sadowski
