CD Projekt Red spent two years perfecting Phantom Liberty's Chimera tank boss fight
The Polish studio calls the spider-tank encounter one of its most expensive art assets ever, balancing gameplay, narrative, and visual spectacle.
What to know
- The Chimera tank boss fight in Phantom Liberty's opening act required two years of development to balance gameplay, narrative, worldbuilding, and art direction.
- The asset was redesigned four times with different weapons and equipment, making it one of CD Projekt Red's most expensive art assets ever created.
- Game director Amatangelo emphasized the challenge of coordinating across three creative disciplines, repeatedly adjusting the encounter beat-by-beat to achieve the right balance.
“I think when we were iterating, it was two years to make this boss fight work. We were iterating over and over.”
Paweł Mielniczuk, Art director, Phantom Liberty · Eurogamer ↗
Gabe Amatangelo Game director, Phantom LibertyPaweł Mielniczuk Art director, Phantom LibertyIgor Sarzyński Creative director, Phantom LibertyCD Projekt Red Developer
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlespostscomments
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Amatangelo details balancing challenge across three creative disciplines
Amatangelo described the difficulty of striking the right balance when the encounter was sometimes too focused on gameplay, sometimes on narrative, and sometimes on art demonstration, requiring beat-by-beat coordination among the three leads.
“Sometimes it was too gameplay, sometimes it was too narrative, sometimes too art demonstration. It was about striking a balance.”
— Gabe Amatangelo -
Art assets are expensive based on how much money they cost to make. Artist time costs money, so more artist time means more money. This asset took more time than any other one because it went through so many iterations and redesigns to try and find the most fun and interesting version they could make.
2 more of the top 3 · 3 posts in this stretch
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I know it's an optional boss (depending on who you side with) but surely you would find Sasquatch to be a much tougher boss than Oda. She has his health regen capabilities + she's a lot tankier and difficult to avoid/parry.
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Why am I seeing so many articles for a boss fight that was cool but nothing crazy amazing?
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background
Art director describes iterative redesign and cost of tank asset — Paweł Mielniczuk explained the team rebuilt the tank multiple times, changing equipment and weapons throughout development. Igor Sarzyński characterized it as one of the most expensive art assets the studio has created.
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background
CD Projekt reveals two-year development cycle for Chimera tank fight — On the official AnsweRED podcast, game director Gabe Amatangelo and creative director Igor Sarzyński disclosed that the Chimera tank boss encounter required approximately two years of iteration to achieve the correct balance across multiple disciplines.