The Witcher 3 Developers Reveal the Hilarious Bug That Made NPCs Drop Their Babies
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
CD Projekt Red developers revealed that an early build of The Witcher 3 featured a bug where panicked female NPCs would throw their babies to the ground and flee whenever Geralt caused trouble.
Developing a deeply immersive open world sometimes leads to unexpected chaos behind the scenes. In a recent interview with Edge Magazine, CD Projekt Red quest designer Philipp Weber shared a bizarre story from the development of The Witcher 3. The team wanted rural villages on The Continent to feel genuinely alive with complex day and night schedules. However, this level of background simulation came with a funny downside regarding how characters reacted to Geralt.
When players barged into homes and started causing trouble, the terrified NPCs prioritized fleeing over everything else. Because the panic system was tied to whatever object characters happened to be holding at the moment, female villagers immediately dropped what was in their hands to run for safety. For a few weeks during development, that meant mothers were literally tossing their babies onto the floor to escape the Witcher.
While the studio quickly patched out the infant tossing before launch, the anecdote highlights the delicate balance of building reactive sandbox environments. CD Projekt Red relied on independent pathfinding and spots of interest rather than rigid scripts to populate areas like Novigrad harbour. As development continues on the next chapter in the franchise, players can probably expect believable crowd behaviors without the accidental slapstick comedy.
Tags: RPG, CD Projekt Red, PC Gaming, Console Gaming
Original article: IGN South Africa