The makers of The Witcher series, CD Projekt, have looked to Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas for inspiration in their development of The Witcher 3's open world.
Speaking to GameInformer, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz and Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, the game's director and lead quest designer, respectively, said that they developed The Witcher 3's engine after playing Skyrim and deciding what they wanted in their new game. The duo said they "missed the freedom of exploration" with The Witcher 2.
"The player was put into the story and couldn't just run away and do something else but now player scan explore the world and story how they want to," said Konrad.
The team cast its net on a wide variety of open world games, including Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas, and found many things to like about the games. They expressed their enjoyment of Skyrim's open world setting, but found the stories lacking. They believe that if they can combine Skyrim's strengths with their own, they could develop the "perfect RPG."
"The story line is generic and the exploring is but when we combine it with our knowledge from the previous games it will be the perfect RPG," said Konrad of Bethesda's title.
The developers later confirmed that their game will come with mounts and horse riding to allow for players to easily traverse the game's world. They considered implementing horses into The Witcher 2, but the areas simply weren't big enough. That will not be the case with The Witcher 3, they claim.
