Maria Mazur: "I try to use creativity to double the budget"

It's getting harder and harder to get funding in the video game industry. Although there is still money waiting to be invested, publishers are more demanding with the minimum requirements to give that money to the studio. We already talked about it with Henrique Olifiers and you can read the piece here. This time we are with Maria Mazur, mission designer at CD Projekt Red, to talk about optimising resources from the studios.

She told us about her experience with Phantom Liberty and about the moment when she wanted to add something more, but ran out of budget. We talked about Idris Elba's custom DJ set, which you can read more about here. Going back to optimising resources, Maria mentions a key phrase: "If I have X amount of budget, I will try to double it with my own creativity".

She also described an aspect that sets mission designers apart. "I think it's part of our DNA as mission designers. We have this idea that if no one helps me, I'll do it myself and that makes it easier to work without a budget and generally effectively." That's why he explains that it's something very easy or very difficult to teach someone else, because it's part of yourself.

If you want to know more about our time with Maria Mazur, you can watch the full interview with English subtitles below.