With Cyberpunk 2077 finally wrapping up with its series of redemptions, developer CD Projekt Red appears to be moving on to the sequel. A recent job listing for multiple game developer roles has revealed CDPR’s intentions on how to fix some of Cyberpunk 2077‘s shortcomings with the sequel– at least compared to the original’s initial release.
The job listing was even posted to Twitter/X on the official CDPR page. In the post, CDPR is hiring designers, programmers, and even an animator for its North America team, with a link for applications. All in all, there are seven new job openings for CDPR’s North America team.
Now, there was no explicit mention that the positions are for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, however, in the CDPR job application link, these posted positions fall under Project Orion, which is the codename for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. In the link, you can even find several positions that fall under Project Orion.
Project Orion just so happens to have one of the highest number of openings available among the studio’s projects, meaning CDPR is now looking to scale up its production for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.
Furthermore, under the “Lead Encounter Designer” position, the job description is rather exciting for the gaming industry since CDPR is aiming for what it considers to be the most groundbreaking crowd in any video game. Here’s one of the tasks for the Lead Encounter Designer position:
“Work in close collaboration with the systems design team to create the most realistic and reactive crowd system in any game to date.”
It’s not exactly a task just for the Lead Encounter Designer but for the Project Orion team as a whole. It just so happens that creating the most realistic and dynamic crowd in a video game is quite a tall order, especially with how competitive open-world video games are these days.
Lessons Learned from Cyberpunk 2077?
Coincidentally, one of the major issues that plagued Cyberpunk 2077 during its disastrous launch was the unrealistic and rather lethargic crowd. Most of the bystanders even react poorly to disruptive activities or are simply too robotic. If you follow them, you also begin to realize that all they do is walk and turn around to walk again.
Cyberpunk 2077‘s crowd simulation on release was a far cry from what CDPR advertised back in the E3 footage and promotion. The game has improved for the most part over four years, but it’s understandable if some fans prefer to be skeptical.
Now, however, CDPR appears to be rectifying such a shortcoming from Cyberpunk 2077‘s initial release by hiring more talent to create the best video game crowd simulation to date. It remains to be seen how that will turn out once Project Orion or Cyberpunk 2077 gets released, hopefully, earlier than the year 2077.
