Many fans are hoping that 2019 will not only be the year we learn when to expect Cyberpunk 2077, but also maybe the actual year we get our hands on the futuristic title. CD Projekt RED revealed quite a bit after dropping the gameplay demo last year, and it looks like they intend to keep talking.

That said, Senior Quest Designer Philipp Weber recently spoke with COG Connected about what the dev team drew inspiration from while creating the Night City-based adventure. Naturally, some of the most popular entries in the genre were required viewing. “The core of the inspiration: the entire studio likes Cyberpunk 2020, the pen and paper, and just, generally, cyberpunk as a genre, movies like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, books like Neuromancer,” Weber stated.

“So this is the same reason why we also made The Witcher, because we really, really love it and want to make a good video game with that in mind, that we want to play ourselves,” Weber continued. He then touched on the studio’s transition from fantasy to cyberpunk, and how their mindset changed. “In a way because, if you want to tell really, really good stories, you have to really know this world,” he said.

“So, story teams—the writers, the quest designers, cinematic designers—we had to assemble a list, you know. ‘These are the books you have to read,’ ‘these are the rulebooks of Cyberpunk 2020 you have to read,’ ‘these are the movies.’ We had to get really immersed in it.”

He then went on to say how many of them were already fans of the genre and that they “knew those things already.” Weber continued, saying “It really was, ‘we have to know Cyberpunk just as well as we knew everything around The Witcher.’ On the other hand, we make mature games. We want to tell interesting stories with interesting themes. That hasn’t changed. Telling interesting stories is the same thing we did before, so in that way, it feels like something we know.”

We’ll see exactly just how much inspiration the Cyberpunk 2077 dev team has drawn from outside sources when the game releases at some point in the future. It’s currently in development for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, but we’ll likely be waiting some time before we get our hands on it. Keep it tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers as this story develops, and for other gaming goodness going on right now, check out the following:

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What say you, gamers? Are you not surprised that CDPR took inspiration from the likes of Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell? What other sources in the genre do you think they watched or read to prepare for Cyberpunk 2077? Sound off in the comments section below, and be sure to follow DFTG on Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7!