The Witcher 3 legends explain their "very experimental" new vampire game, The Blood of Dawnwalker

"It's very experimental," creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz revealed, "because not many games do this."

Before we go any further, please be aware that you can hear the full version of this conversation on the Radio Times Gaming podcast feed or YouTube channel.

Tomaszkiewicz spoke to us at the Gamescom conference about The Blood of Dawnwalker, the upcoming vampire game that he — and many other former Witcher 3 developers — have started their own company to build.

He was explaining the game’s time system, which will force players to make tricky decisions. There are a limited number of hours in every in-game day, and you only have a set number of those days to save your character’s abducted wife.

Tomaszkiewicz told us: "First of all, we wanted it to feel like the time matters. You know, there is this feeling of urgency to objectives. And we wanted you to actually think, ‘Do I want to do this? Or do I want to do that? How do I want to spend this resource?’

"At the same time, we don't want this artificial pressure that will stop you from exploring the world, for example, right? You do get clear communication from the game at every point."

Indeed, we did see this mechanic at play in a hands-off Gamescom demo. We saw that certain actions, like committing to a side quest, will spend a certain amount of your time, which the game flags to you nice and clearly.

Tomaszkiewicz said, "As you could have seen in the build, for example, the quest objectives tell you like how many time segments are you gonna spend if you're gonna finish these objectives. Sometimes, specific dialogue options can lead to spending time segments."

"We call it ‘time as a resource,’" Tomaszkiewicz added. He also clarified that, "Just standing in one place is not gonna cost you any time. So, the time is kind of waiting for you to perform these actions."

If you’re looking for a comparison point to make this system make sense in your mind, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz mentions Persona, and his colleague/brother Konrad Tomaszkiewicz points to the first two Fallout games from the nineties.

Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the game director and CEO of developer Rebel Wolves, chimed in and said, "Spoiler alert, but we're speaking about it in the interviews; your main goal in the game is to help your abducted family.

"And you know that, in some time, something can happen to them. And you cannot build the proper tension, and emotions, if you know that they'll be there forever. You cannot do, story-wise, this thing. That's why we added the system to show you that the clock ticks, and stuff will happen."

"Our game structure is totally different than the games you know," Konrad Tomaszkiewicz added.

But we couldn’t help but wonder, what happens if you don’t save your family in time? Is it a full ‘game over’ situation?

Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz teased, "We don't wanna spoil it for the players. I would say, we treat it more as a choice and consequence thing, than a game over thing. This much I can tell you."

We got to see a lengthy hands-off demo of the game, and the time-spending system did look pretty cool, although we're sure it will take some getting used to.

The game’s day-night cycle also impacts your gameplay options. By day, the player-character (a 14th century chap by the name of Coen) can walk around like an ordinary person and try to talk or punch his way through situations.

By night, he becomes a form of vampire with added stealth, traversal and combat options. But if you wait until nighttime to do everything, you’ll be wasting valuable time and your family will inch closer to peril.

It looks like a fun game, and we very much look forward to getting our hands on it. Watch this space, and we’ll be sure to bring you more coverage as the release nears.

The Blood of Dawnwalker will release in 2026 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. You can wishlist the game now.

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