AnsweRED Podcast Episode 16 — From Worldbuilding to Immersion: Crafting Universes in Games

We pull back the curtain on worldbuilding — from environmental storytelling to the technical magic that makes it all feel real — after many requests from our community. Senior Communication Manager Paweł Burza and VP, Game Director on The Witcher 4 Sebastian Kalemba as hosts sit down with our Environment Art Director Michał Janiszewski and Engineering Production Manager Jan Hermanowicz to explore this topic.

It’s a conversation that jumps from mountains to megalopolises and pipelines to peasant villages — and one that reveals how collaboration between art and engineering is key to making every location feel grounded, coherent, and alive.

Here’s what you’ll discover:

• The foundations of worldbuilding
• The challenges of switching between medieval and dark future cities
• The first steps in designing a world
• The difference between building environments in open world versus linear games
• The importance of little details

Worldbuilding is incredibly complex, of course, and even with all this information and experience, some last-minute complications can still arise. These can take everyone by surprise, as Michał notes.

“There were some funny moments even in The Witcher 3; we were moving the whole mountain to open the vista because they wanted to add something to the vibe.”

But these spontaneous changes are rarely random — they’re usually driven by gameplay and narrative tweaks, or the subtle push and pull between design intent and player experience.

As Michał explains, the believability of created worlds often comes from the opposite end of the spectrum too: from the accumulation of small, deliberate choices — often invisible, but always felt.

“Each one of the regions are like a reference and inspiration for us. And we have a huge team that is taking care of the believability because, like you were saying, even the line of the trees needs to be specifically created.”

That’s the kind of behind-the-scenes attention that makes a world come alive — when even a treeline tells a story.

So don’t miss this episode! Watch or listen now:

YouTube: cdpred.ly/AnsweREDPodcast16

Spotify: cdpred.ly/AnsweREDpodcast16

New episodes of the AnsweRED Podcast are released every fourth Thursday of the month. Tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Enjoy watching and listening!

Michał Janiszewski, Environment Art Director at CD PROJEKT RED

Michał has worked at CD PROJEKT RED since 2013 and helped build the world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, its two expansions, and Cyberpunk 2077. He now leads the Warsaw Hub’s environment art team. Born in Inowrocław, Michał began as a 3D artist in mobile games and through custom car designs before leaping into AAA projects. One of his greatest personal achievements is in creating a significant part of Novigrad in The Witcher 3, but he always looks to push his work further by painting a path that is interesting and beautiful for the player to follow. Every decoration in a frame must have meaning.

Jan Hermanowicz, Engineering Production Manager at CD PROJEKT RED

Jan Hermanowicz began at CD PROJEKT RED as a Transformation Tech Advisor in 2022 and is now Engineering Production Manager as an area producer for worldbuilding. With a passion for creating, he follows news from the game dev, IT, and Telco industries in his spare time, and as a true geek and gamer, Jan is a huge fan of Star Wars and never says no to a good horror or fantasy book — though crime novels are his guilty pleasure. Ex-notorious cinema visitor and Netflix dweller, Jan now has his hands full with fatherhood, and is also an adept cook.