CDPR Hired So Many Modders That Half Its Quest Team Started in Mods

Ever wonder how modders actually break into the game industry? According to CD Projekt Red, making mods might be your golden ticket. In a recent RedStreams broadcast, the studio revealed that roughly half of Cyberpunk 2077's quest team started out as modders.

Pawel Sasko, associate game director for Cyberpunk 2 and former quest design lead on Cyberpunk 2077, explained how modding serves as a foot-in-the-door technique. "A lot of modders, they were players who actually first played and actually got experience with customizing the game with the mods," he said. "You can see, and you can learn how things are made, how things can be built. We actually hired so many modders. I would say, at this point, half of the quest team is all former modders."

That's a pretty big deal. CDPR has been actively embracing the modding community, partnering with mod.io and consulting major creators on ways to improve the RPG. And it makes sense—who better to build quests than people who've spent countless hours tinkering with the game and understanding its systems inside and out?

The Cyberpunk 2077 mod scene is incredibly deep, offering everything from visual upgrades to entirely new missions. It's the kind of hands-on experience that teaches you how games actually work, and CDPR is clearly taking notice. They're not the first to do this, either—Valve and Krafton have similar stories, with Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, and PUBG all starting as mods before becoming standalone hits.

While CDPR hasn't gone as far as publishing original games from these modders yet, they're definitely making Cyberpunk 2077 and its follow-up better by tapping into that talent pool. And if you've ever dreamed of working on The Witcher 4 or a future Cyberpunk 3, this might just be your way in.

So, what do you think? Does this inspire you to try your hand at modding? Will you be picking up the tools and seeing what you can create? Let us know in the comments!