For PC Gamer magazine's upcoming The Blood of Dawnwalker issue I spoke directly to Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the developer who is right now best known for being the game director on the legendary fantasy RPG, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Fast forward to 2025, and Tomaszkiewicz is now founder and leader of Rebel Wolves, his own new game studio, as well as director on its vampire-filled debut game.
After explaining why he left CDPR to bring this new dark fantasy RPG to fruition, Konrad then elaborated on why he cast Coen, a half human half vampire, as the protagonist of the game's story.
“I felt that I wanted to do a game which would not be a game about, like, a normal, let’s say superhero, which we know from Marvel movies," says Tomaszkiewicz. "It’s hard to do those stories because you are [just] stronger and stronger and stronger. [So] I searched for an idea for the hero, which would be near the ground—or grounded—and needed to solve things in a different way. But, also, I wanted to give some kind of superhero to the players.
"That’s why I designed a protagonist who, in the day, is a human, with all the weaknesses of a human being. [However], at night, you are a vampire, which is stronger and faster, and you have better abilities and supernatural skills. It’s somehow interesting, this duality of the hero, which we know from Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, for example. It’s something in pop culture that is well known and wasn’t yet explored in games. It gives you a different layer to those non-realities, and I think it would be quite interesting because nobody yet has done that. And we will see how people will like it.”
These two sides of Coen, human during the day and vampire at night, play directly into The Blood of Dawnwalker's novel 'time as a resource' mechanic, which sees the game's in-game clock advance every time Coen completes a quest or task. This passage of time means that gamers controlling Coen will have to choose what they are going to do in a given period of time and, as a result, what they're not going to do, with Coen unable to be everywhere all at once. Combine this with Rebel Wolves 'narrative sandbox' approach to crafting The Blood of Dawnwalker, where quests, characters and actions/inactions interconnect, and an ability for each gamer to craft their own unique cinematic gaming experience comes to fore.
From my point of view as a huge fan of The Witcher 3, as well as a host of other mature, complex and challenging fantasy RPG games, I love the idea that every decision I make will have an impact on Coen's story, and potentially determine whether he will be successful in fighting The Blood of Dawnwalker's antagonist vampire clique and save his family from their grasp. One of the things that disappoints me most in RPGs is when I'm given choices but then, usually almost immediately, they are shown to be nothing more than an illusion, with me railroaded into a set narrative. I want my actions to matter, damnit, and it feels right now at least like this game is going to deliver on that to a degree not yet seen in gaming.
