Cyberpunk Director Explains Why Studio Trigger Was the Best Choice for Anime

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is not just great anime, but also one of the best video game adaptations of all time. The decision to adapt Mike Pondsmith’s futuristic table-top RPG universe to linear media was a smart one, and developer CD Projekt Red knew that finding the right partner to produce the show was of paramount importance. The Polish developer’s first choice for the project was Japan’s Studio Trigger, leading to a mutually beneficial partnership for both the creators and the fans.

GLHF got to chat about the anime series and its inception with Paweł Sasko, associate game director at CDPR at Gamescom LATAM 2024. Besides telling us about the advantages of Unreal Engine 5 for its future games , Sasko went into detail about the nature of the developer’s partnership with the animation studio.

“ Cyberpunk: Edgerunners actually did an incredible job of introducing people into the world in a gentle way,” Sasko tells us. “Cyberpunk [2077] puts you in that world, and from the very beginning, there are [things] happening. There are Fixers, there’s cyberware, the skill tree, chooms, the lingo, the people – there are just a lot of things that overload your cognitive capabilities. And for Edgerunners, Bartosz [Sztybor], our narrative director for comics and animation, focused on the core.”

“Bartosz was working on the first outline and idea for the story, and with that, we were looking for a partner. Rafał Jaki, who is a showrunner on our side, is a huge fan of Studio Trigger. Studio Trigger was a first choice for us, so we were hoping that it would work out, and it did.”

Of course, the move to a linear medium like anime means a lot of unlearning for game developers. For one, the storytelling needs to be concise, having to introduce the world, its characters, and the concepts of a Cyberpunk society to viewers in the absence of in-game tutorials.

“As game devs, we are used to tutorializing gameplay, how to use certain features, and so on. We rarely do that with lore,” says Sasko. “We need to be a little more strategic and mindful about it.”

The animators at Studio Trigger didn’t just play the game, they lived in it. The collaboration between both parties required constant iterations on the artwork and crafting mise-en-scène. Studio Trigger would develop early versions of the series sans the usual Cyberpunk-themed additions, with CDPR adding suggestions on everything from the design of characters to even the ringtone of phone calls.

“Bartosz Sztybor was working together with writers from Studio Trigger to adapt his story,” added Sasko. “They were asking us, for instance, ‘we would like to have a phone call in the series,’ so we would tell them ‘if you want a holocall, here’s the sound, what it looks like, what the eyes look like,’ and they would use it. Trigger did a tremendous job of analyzing the game, they played the game, took screenshots, and they took shots from the game for scenes.”

“David, for instance, is actually designed by our concept artist, so we collaborated in that way, doing early designs. But not everyone – Rebecca, for instance, who is a beloved character, was designed by Trigger 100%.

It doesn’t matter in which order one experiences the Cyberpunk universe, as the interconnectedness between the disparate elements makes that experience bigger than the sum of its parts. Usually, for adaptations, productions can rope in different artists to craft different elements like the music, so that the final product can stand on its own. Video game adaptations are different, as a musical motif can easily define the identity of a franchise just as much as its visual iconography.

“Originally we were to have an original score for the anime, like how you would score a movie,” revealed Sasko. “Trigger actually suggested that they use some of the music from the base game. At first Rafał Jaki and our business team thought ‘this probably won’t work, but give it a shot.’ Trigger put our music in, whatever they wanted, showed it to us, and everyone was like ‘holy shit.’ I have goosebumps when I think about it.”

The music in CDPR's games, especially Cyberpunk, takes an identity of its own, so much that even CDPR's lawyer, Diego Cichy Don, joined in on the fun, and "put his own piece into the background."

"There is a moment in Edgerunners where you can hear Polish rap in the back playing – that’s him.”

Another reason why Studio Trigger was keen to work on a Cyberpunk project was because of its subject matter. The original game follows V, the player character, as they grapple with their mortality, with multiple endings that don't always treat all characters right. It's a morally grey world, and the same goes for Edgerunners, which indulges in gratuitous violence and body horror.

"They are very seasoned animators who really know their craft, but they also love telling stories that are a bit edgy,” Sasko explains. “I think that edginess really grasped them, you know? They talked about it many times.”

While Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is over, it doesn't mean CDPR is done with the franchise. The developer has announced a Cyberpunk 2077 live-action project and is also working on the sequel that has added former Remedy and BioWare writers . We're not leaving Night City any time soon.

Related: If You Liked Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, You Need To Watch These Studio Trigger Anime Series

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is available to stream on Netflix.