The sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 began as one director's personal idea of where the series should go next. Gabe Amatangelo now leads a Boston team of more than 180 developers building the game, and he says what they are making together is no longer just his vision.
In a new blog post, CD Projekt Red put the spotlight on Gabe Amatangelo, the studio's VP and game director on Cyberpunk 2, and his evolving vision for the project. Amatangelo joined the Boston hub when it was just eight people who had moved to the US to establish it; more than 180 developers are now working on the game, and every new voice has changed what the sequel is becoming. He explained that while the initial idea was his, the game grows as more people are empowered to contribute — becoming something he has shepherded, but ultimately "a reflection of the team's hearts and souls," and one he looks forward to sharing.
That philosophy runs through everything Amatangelo describes. His self-described superpower is challenging assumptions: when someone says "this is how it is," he asks "But why?" Decision-making is deliberately un-bottlenecked, with directors aligned closely enough that they can make calls in his place, and developers are encouraged to pitch ideas even when they fail, because the failed attempts reveal the next step.
Amatangelo also explained what cyberpunk means to him personally. He calls the genre his childhood — he was even a vocalist in a hardcore punk band — and describes the "cyber" side of it as exaggeration and expression: neon lights, loud noises, and exploring the extremes of dehumanization. The "punk" core, for him, is the ability to pose questions.
The profile traces that instinct back to the Ultima games of his youth, whose moral dilemmas — choices with no clean right answer — shaped the dilemmas he later built into Phantom Liberty, which he also directed. Whenever something in that expansion's quest or narrative design felt too black and white, the team flagged it as not being the game they were making.
Amatangelo's path to the director's chair ran through teaching himself BASIC as a teenager, modding Neverwinter Nights at night even after landing his first industry job, and leading teams at Mythic Entertainment on Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning before joining CD Projekt Red in 2020. He closed by explaining why the medium matters to him: "Video games impacted my life. They opened my mind, and got me motivated and excited. And I want to make sure that doesn't go away for this generation or the next."
Cyberpunk 2 still has no release window. CD Projekt Red is also developing The Witcher 4, and Amatangelo expands on how a game's vision takes shape alongside creative director Igor Sarzyński in Episode 33 of the studio's AnsweRED Podcast.
Source: CD Projekt Red
