CD Projekt RED is collaborating with Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the pen-and-paper RPG Cyberpunk 2020® to bring the dystopian metropolis of Night City to life in its upcoming RPG — Cyberpunk 2077. In this video, you can watch Mike Pondsmith talk about the Cyberpunk with his “trailer voice” and learn about his inspirations.

The Cyberpunk genre, inspired by the writing of William Gibson and his contemporaries, was shaped into a roleplaying game by Pondsmith and co. in 1988 and Mike is best known for his work for the publisher R. Talsorian Games, where he developed a majority of the company’s role-playing game lines since the company’s foundation in 1982. Pondsmith is credited as author of several RPG lines, including Mekton (1984), Cyberpunk (1988) and Castle Falkenstein (1994) and contributed to the Forgotten Realms and Oriental Adventures lines of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

The game will be set in the near future in which advanced technologies have become both the salvation and the curse of humanity. A multi-thread, nonlinear story designed for mature players (a CD Projekt RED trademark) will give players a chance to freely roam the open-world and visit places well known from the pen-and-paper RPG “Cyberpunk 2020®”, including the nostalgic Forlorn Hope and the legendary Afterlife joint.

Faceless people passing by in darkness, distant city lights, fog and rain blanketing weirdness and creepiness of humanity… I understand you too well, Mike.

N.