Paper & Paper Roleplaying: Witcher 2 Fun
You get given a whole lot of junk at games conferences. By junk I do mean junk - nasty pens, ill-fitting t-shirts, mysterious plastic shapes, lanyards, low-capacity flash drives, ugly posters... Most of it doesn't live past the hotel bin. The CD Projekt RED guys, however, came up absolute trumps, combining splendid form with genuinely useful function. Rather than providing a biro and a CD-R full of screenshots, they decided to create an entire alternate Witcher game, stick it in a box, and give it to everyone who came to see the demo.
This is The Witcher 2: Papercraft Of Kings, and it's the best press kit I've ever been given.
They've mocked up a full-size PC game box, of the generous proportions, excess of information and glorious gatefold covers we sadly no longer see in this age of identi-DVD cases. Inside is a collection of superdeformed DIY papercraft Witcher characters and weapons, from which you're encourage to create your own non-linear roleplaying adventures. Aw. Haven't built 'em yet, but it's only a matter of time, trust me.
The big, lavishly illustrated box even lists system requirements. Where normally there would be a Pentium 4, here it asks arms. Where another game might ask for a GeForce 7 or higher, this wants Fingers x2 (Minimal; recommended 6). Release date: when folded.
I love it. It's very cute, very funny and screams aloud just how much these guys enjoy their job.
(Click that one for a bigger version).
Better yet, they've included a notepad in the box. Journalists like notepads. Better yet, they've filled it in with the details of their presentation for me, to save me the effort. Complete with predicted snark:
And several pages in a similar vein, plus stickers. Honestly, it's brilliant - silly, covetable yet totally relevant to the game, and a breath of unbelievably fresh air in an age where every other buggers talking about "the product" and "monetisation." Good work, Polish developers.
More once I've built my little square Witcher-folk.