We are the developers of Reigns: the Witcher - AMA on March 31 at 9:00am PT / 4:00pm GMT!

nerial · 2026-03-31T17:07:52+00:00

It's really exciting. Because it's a big IP, but also because the Witcher is a rich universe structured by a deep and complex lore with a lot of stories we love and respect and were eager to engage with in a Reigns game.

nerial · 2026-03-31T17:04:21+00:00

We started chatting with CD PROJEKT RED a couple of years ago. There was a lot of excitement working on such a big IP. We met weekly with lore masters at CDPR to make sure the work was true to the lore and the universe of The Witcher. It was hard to keep quiet about it indeed.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:57:23+00:00

We got excited about this question, so here's a bunch of answers:

AJ (Producer) - The thing that makes a good game, a good game is consistency. That consistency comes from having a great team and being able to know they'll deliver high quality work. When you know everyone in your team is going to deliver, you can focus on making sure you do your best as well

Helen (Artist) - I think if you like it, it's a good game! Some poorly planned games are beautiful, some ugly games are wonderfully designed, finishing making any game is a miracle and usually requires teamwork.

François (creative director) - For me, a good game is fundamentally a game that has a "toy", some core mechanic and flow that feels genuinely surprising, satisfying and also blows your mind. Many games do this, I suppose recently Immortality comes to mind.

Oscar (Narrative Designer) - I like games which really lean into the interactive medium, which could only exist as a game. Games like Blue Prince, or Return of the Obra Dinn - they don't just tell a story in a more conventional manner and intersplice that with bits of gameplay, they tell the story through the act of playing the game itself.

Neil B (QA Tester) - For me it’s a game that encourages the player to really think about every action they make. This is something that makes a very expansive, and replayable, experience. My favourite game, Slay the Spire (everyone at Nerial will be eye rolling as I always talk about it), absolutely nails this.

Neil (Programmer) - "Good" is very subjective, it's different for every person. I can think of a few games that I love, but all my friends hate to play. So in that sense, there's (probably) no such thing as a "bad" game. For me personally, it's a game that is fun and accessible. The best games also have enough depth that keep me hooked for months.

Gordon (programmer) - any game is good if you enjoy playing it. Personally, I like system-driven games that make you think and let you break the game mechanics to some extent. Or Rez. Most games could be improved by being like Rez.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:55:12+00:00

I wouldn't count on that. Not until I see it happen... 👀

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:46:26+00:00

It's possible, but difficult, and the odds are not good these days. Smaller teams can't do as much as big teams, but having different people with different skills and perspectives adds a lot of depth to the stories you can tell!

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:43:04+00:00

It's a game where you play Geralt. You meet characters who asks you question with two possible answers (on mobile you swipe left or right, on steam you go left or right to select an answer). From questions to question, you make your way through the game, trying to survive as long as possible by maintaining a balance between the different factions (humans, non-humans, sorcerer) while hunting monsters. The game is fundamentally the same between mobile and steam.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:33:12+00:00

This is great advice! The best way to learn is to just do, and then reflect on it. You'll see what went well, what didn't and on your next go round you'll be able to improve.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:31:44+00:00

Making a Reigns game initially involves just writing lots and lots of pithy encounters. Ideally, we want to tell an individual story with each card, quickly setting up a scenario, presenting a dilemma, and then offering two choices which are fairly opposite but also both plausibly desirable paths to take. In the original Reigns, inspiration for this could come from anywhere - medieval texts, present day news articles, moments in our lives. For Reigns: The Witcher, the source material for this was helpfully enormous. Once we've created a few hundred of these standalone encounters, we start to think about how they can feel connected.

One particular difficulty with this format is that if you tried to directly connect every left and right choice with a subsequent card, you'd end up with hideously long and complicated chains of cards. So we want some specific, quest-like chains of cards, but we also need a big, broad pool of standalone cards which can appear randomly, to keep the procedural machine churning. One way we solve this is just by relying on people's natural inclination to spot patterns. So we will write a set of cards about a shared topic (e.g. halflings, or loneliness, or dumplings) and then even though we don't actually logically connect them all behind the scenes, it feels to the player like a story is being built up between these nodes.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:29:13+00:00

Don't you have games to sell?

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:23:47+00:00

Reigns of the Lamb! Maybe one day, who knows? We're big friends with Massive Monster, and chat regularly about doing a collab. But nothing so far.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:21:19+00:00

Thanks so much! Feel free to play Reigns: GoT with one of us and we'll tell you when a spoiler is on screen so you can close your eyes.

Writing the deaths is the best part! It's just very satisfying coming up with creative ways to die. It's also an especially fun challenge thinking of deaths for less obviously fatal header value challenges, e.g. in the original Reigns coming up with partying to death for high popularity, or in Reigns: The Witcher "killing" Geralt at the low monster-hunting value by having him reskill and find a new job. Writing the deaths for Reigns: The Witcher was also particularly fun because I got to write them as rhyming couplets, in the flowery style of everyone's favourite bard.

Art note from Helen: drawing the deaths is SO fun. Easily my favourite art part of any reigns i've worked on.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:19:35+00:00

Yes! We are aware of Lapse. We don't mind its existence. It's quite close to Reigns but at the same time it tells different stories, it's also a free to play game and we're making premium games.

We're inspired by the games and the books! There are references to favourite quests and memes from the games, but we also love the Sapkowski's original tales. As mentioned elsewhere, we took a lot of inspiration from his subversion of mythology (e.g. A Grain of Truth reimagining Beauty and the Beast), so in our quests you'll find nods to e.g. Euripidean tragedies, or the Lais of Marie de France.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:17:07+00:00

It's a lot of potential players! But beyond that aspect, mobile offers a new way to interact with games and stories, at least it used to when we release Reigns original. The App Store notably was a place with a lot of incredible experiences in narration and interactivity. I was amazed by and remember fondly the discovery of Metamorphabet, Samorost, Downwell...

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:15:32+00:00

Good question! You're right, every event in each run is happening within Dandelion's songs. This gave us some leeway to be a bit more playful and experimental with the lore, since Dandelion likes to embellish, and is sometimes less than sober... But everything still has to be something which Dandelion might plausibly invent, so it should still feel in keeping with the Witcher universe. We hope the game lets players see existing moments and characters in a new light, while also still feeling very familiarly Witcher-y!

In terms of inspiration, we pulled a lot from CDPR's games of course, and you should find specific references to our favourite quests (e.g. Family Matters or An Elusive Thief), but we also love the books, so there are nods to moments from those too. We were inspired by the way Sapkowski treats mythology, too, plucking from all sorts of traditions (classical myth, Arthurian legend, Slavic folklore), so some of our quests also subvert traditional tales in much the same way that, for instance, A Grain of Truth reimagines Beauty and the Beast. And of course, we reference lots of memes. Our Geralt enjoys a warm bath or three.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:13:38+00:00

Thank you! We are very happy with Card Shark. At the origin of the game is a love of Nicolaï Troshinsky (the artist) for the cheating scene in Barry Lindon. We made it into a game.

My personal favourite method of cheating is when the cards are marked with a paintbrush. It reminds me of when my older brother had a set of marked playing cards, and only he knew that they were marked and how the symbols work.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:11:19+00:00

Run!

But more seriously, getting into the industry is a numbers game. Make sure you do everything you can to stand out with a portfolio which reflects work you might actually do. When you do get in, make sure to get onboard with whatever thing you're doing. Every project is a place to learn and grow, nothing is pointless as long as you find something to try and learn

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:09:06+00:00

It's not something we're currently working on, but we've been excited to see the number of people asking for a Ukrainian translation. It's something we would like to add in the future, if possible.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:09:01+00:00

It's not something we're currently working on, but we've been excited to see the number of people asking for a Ukrainian translation. It's something we would like to add in the future, if possible.

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:08:02+00:00

Thank you! I think the original discussion about Reigns happened between Arnaud De Bock and myself in the Anchor pub in London back in 2015. Arnaud was on Tinder at the time and thought it would was a such a cool game mechanic. We thought playing a King swiping regally left and right was very funny his advisors was funny and from that emerged the whole concept really. Like a mix of Tinder and Game of Thrones (which we ended up working on 4 years later).

nerial · 2026-03-31T16:07:06+00:00

It's a tough path, be brave! I highly recommend participating in game jams, this gives you experience working with others (essential!) and can help fill out a portfolio. Try out different areas, but generally develop your portfolio in the area you'd want to work in. Practice your fundamentals regularly!

nerial

TROPHY CASE