The Witcher 3 Papercraft Contest Announced and CD Projekt RED Discusses the Game's Delay

Over at GOG.com, the game client operated by RED parent company CD Projekt, a Witcher 3 paper toys contest has been announced. There are six papercraft toy figurines: Geralt of Rivia, Triss Merigold, Yennefer of Vengerberg, Ciri the Lion Cub of Cintra, Eredin of the Wild Hunt, and Leshen the Forest Spirit. GOG.com writes:

"They've been designed exclusively for GOG.com by the top paper toy artist Tougui, and are available with every DRM-Free copy of CD Projekt RED's upcoming RPG epic. If you've pre-ordered The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on GOG.com, you can download the PDF figurine templates right away!"

Pre-orders of The Witcher 3 at other vendors won't net you the figurines. You can also use the paper toys to win the Collector's Edition statue which feature Geralt killing a griffin. A wolf head medallion and artbook is also up for grabs and each of the top entries will also win a Witcher 3 t-shirt.

Here's an example of what they're looking for and the rules of the competition are below.

1. Download and assemble the paper toys (templates are now available with your GOG.com pre-order of the game).

2. Arrange them into a scene that will capture our attention, and snap a photo.

3. Give your photo a title and tweet it with the #PaperWitcher hashtag (just a general tweet, please–don't start it with "@GOGcom). Multiple entries are allowed.

4. Not a Twitter user? No problem. Post your entries below, right here in the GOG.com forum thread.

5. Your photo will be added to a curated gallery that will launch as soon as we get enough photos. The gallery will be updated periodically. By submitting your work, you grant us the right to re-post it in the gallery and CD Projekt RED / GOG.com communications channels.

6. Post-processing is allowed. Adding elements in PhotoShop (or equivalent) is fine, as long as the final effect still looks more like a photo than computer graphics.

Entries to the competition need to be submitted before 10:00 am BST (05:00 Eastern/02:00 Pacific) on Thursday, July 31st.

CD Projekt RED has revealed more details on why The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was delayed until 2015 telling GamesRant the RPG was pushed bace because "the open world was a missing element".

Game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz commented:

“For us the most important thing was to tell our story. everything begins with story. Geralt – our main protagonist – defined a lot of aspects of the game, because he is unchangeable, he’s defined. We’re happy, because it’s the same way that Batman is defined; you can expect how he would behave in most situations. So we started with that, and then we knew we had to tell a very cool story… but the open world was a missing element.

"It’s not like open world is another ‘genre’ of the game. We just want to deliver a great immersive story, and we were missing the open world. Now we have technology, we have knowledge, we have experience, and I think we can make it in the way that we had dreamed.”

However, he added that the delay was not made in order to populate the game's vast map but rather to ensure that the content and quests feel "natural". Tomaszkiewicz said:

"For me, the definition of a role-playing game is freedom; freedom and immersion, and they’re strongly connected. We want you to feel – as The Witcher, the ultimate monster-slayer – involved in a story, that you have a goal. And we wanted players to feel the urge to finish it, to follow the main story arc."

Speaking in May, level designer Miles Tost said that while the game could have been released this year as was originally planned, the development team and fans "wouldn't be satisfied with the results." We'll know whether the wait was worth in February, 2015.

Finally, CD Projekt has released a new video showing the making of Wild Hunt's cinematic trailer. While there's a bit of talking in Polish, it's worth checking out.