A Tired Parent Mode': The Witcher 3 Dev Explains the Point of Remaster's

One of the biggest additions to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is a suite of accessibility options, letting players tweak various aspects of the game in order to tone down its mechanical friction.

When used in conjunction with the game's easier difficulty setting, you can transform Geralt's adventure into a very laid back, story-focused experience.

However, some people view these kinds of accessibility features as little more than cheats under a modern name — but that's far from the intention, according to Remastered's director of player experience Karolina Niewęgłowska.

In a really interesting developer commentary post on CD Projekt Red's official forums, Niewęgłowska provides details on the thinking behind Remastered's accessibility suite — which is dubbed 'Bard's Ballad' as a preset.

"Bard’s Ballad is for those having difficulty concentrating, including those with ADHD, or those experiencing cognitive fatigue, for example due to conditions like depression," she explains.

"But it’s also for folks who simply feel tired or overwhelmed in this busy world. A colleague to whom I described Bard’s Ballad said 'so… a tired parent mode'. Very much so. But it is for anyone who wants to use it, to play in a way that fits their needs best."

In truth, I've never really thought about accessibility options from this kind of perspective. Sometimes players are just knackered, and they just want to enjoy a bit of escapism without having to commit to a challenge.

"If you only have an hour at the end of your busy day, and have little energy left to manage and organise things, it may be the opposite of what you need. And Bard’s Ballad is addressing that," the director continues.

Niewęgłowska also brings up the smaller toggles, and how they can help players who might be struggling with OCD-like impulses — which is fascinating in itself, given how many open world games push you to visit every little map marker and collect every possible resource.

"There are also settings under Bard’s Ballad to turn off showing herbs and corpses on the minimap. Those are normally helpful. But for some people the dots on the minimap are a distraction, calling 'hey, I’m here, do something about me!', or induce uncertainty or fear of missing out: 'do I have to collect them all?'"

"No, you don’t have to, especially if your main motivation is to experience the story and the world. If having fewer signals on the screen can help you enjoy the game in peace and focus, the toggles are there for you."

She concludes: "Another major change that deserves a highlight is the rise of cognitive overload in the modern world. The digital world constantly bombards us with stimuli, and each year there is more. Notifications, ads, feeds, reminders. Never before in history have humans been exposed to as much information daily. And if we consider this context, ways to manage cognitive load become more useful than ever."

I think Niewęgłowska's post ends up being really insightful, so I thought it was worth sharing here. The Witcher 3's over a decade old now, and I reckon anything that can help as many people as possible enjoy such a landmark game deserves praise.