CD Projekt RED's appearance at GDC 2025 shed light on the remarkable technical journey behind implementing official modding support for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Publishing producer Oleg Shatulo detailed how the studio transformed their internal systems into the publicly available REDkit tools.

The Witcher 3 Developers Overhauled Game Engine to Enable Robust Modding SupportImage: nexusmods.com

The process required substantial reengineering of CDPR's development environment. Professional-grade tools used by the studio's engineers needed complete overhauls to become user-friendly for mod creators. The team added intuitive interfaces, project organization features, and comprehensive documentation to bridge the gap between professional and community development.

"This wasn't just about releasing mod tools. As we moved our internal teams to new projects, we saw REDkit as the perfect way to honor The Witcher 3's legacy while empowering our incredible community to keep the game alive through their creations."
Oleg Shatulo 

A particularly time-consuming task involved scrubbing the game's codebase of internal artifacts - from debugging comments to developer jokes, including the amusing discovery of Geralt wearing clothing inspired by Cyberpunk 2077's aesthetic. The final REDkit tools astonished the modding community with their depth of access, supporting custom asset imports and offering functionality comparable to full engine access.

Main image: nexusmods.com 

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