Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith says he's still very involved in the development of CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, and a big part of that has been to make sure this new vision of his near-future setting idea maintains a continuity with the original tabletop game.

Speaking with us at Gamescom this week, Pondsmith said it's been a collaborative process between himself and CD Projekt when it comes to generating new ideas for the 2077 setting.

"We have to basically negotiate," he said. "A large part of what we do is to make sure that there is a seamless flow between the times [2020 and 2077]. We really want people to feel like if they went back and pulled out [Cyberpunk] 2020, they would find stuff out about our socket that was germane to stuff for 77."

Pondsmith says there's been a lot of work done to create the kind of connective tissue needed to bridge that gap in time, and some of that has been accomplished through social media. J Gray, who runs PR and community events for Cyberpunk publisher R. Talsorian Games, has been posting a series called 365 Days of Cyberpunk, or #countdowntothedarkfuture, which has helped fill out the lore.

These are factoids about Cyberpunk that range from in-universe character descriptions to the history of the game's development. An example, #49 from February 18, describes the kinds of rental services available in Night City—it turns out these AI-controlled vehicles work a lot like those Lyft and Bird scooters you can find in present-day cities.

"At first, people on a 77 board went, 'whuh?' But then they started going, 'Oh, that's cool,'" Pondsmith said. "They just started riffing on it. Players want to know what's going on in the world, and there's no way we can possibly generate all that in a reasonable amount of time."

The Cyberpunk world is expanding in other ways as well: R. Talsorian has a new "Cyberpunk Red" tabletop game out that's set in 2045, and a Cyberpunk card game is due out next year.

Cyberpunk 2077 is due out April 16, 2020.

Update: The gameplay walkthrough video is now on YouTube, and embedded above. The Q&A panel is embedded below, and features a chat about world design, sidequests, and character creation.

Original article: CD Projekt Red will share a 15-minute edit of Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay during a livestream on Friday. The stream will also include interviews with developers that will dive deeper into the Pacifica district of Night City and the different ways you'll be able to approach your adventures in the gritty cyber-world of the future.

The Cyberpunk 2077 livestream will get underway at 8 pm CEST/2 pm Eastern/11 am Pacific on August 30, and will be available on CD Projekt Red's Twitch and Mixer channels.

The studio also announced last week that its plan to show gameplay in person at PAX West has been changed, and it will instead be streaming from Warsaw. The cosplay contest is still a go, but the developers panel is not. 

"There are many logistical (and some creative) reasons behind this decision, but the most important thing we want to say is that we’re sorry for the change of plans," CDPR said. "We know that many of you waited to meet us face to face in Seattle and it bums us out that we won’t be able to see each other there."

CD Projekt Red has released another handful of Cyberpunk 2077 images, adding to the set they've been drip-feeding fans during Gamescom. This round is mostly focused on environments, but a few also show off some of the game's vehicles.

There are two beefy-looking yellow coupes shown in this set, likely two of the vehicles you can own in-game and use to get around Night City. One has a kind of throwback '80s fastback look, with hard angles and black sun shades on the rear windshield, whilst the other looks more like the modern redesigns of classic American muscle cars like the new Dodge Challenger.

This set of shots also shows off some of the locations in Cyberpunk 2077. There's an abandoned amusement park (why are derelict Ferris wheels always so ominous?), a camp set up inside a warehouse, and a severe-looking concrete building that looks like a civil administrative headquarters of some kind.

Another set of screenshots, released yesterday, highlights combat sequences. These mostly speak for themselves, apart from one that appears to be showing some kind of cybernetic ability. You see your characters right arm slightly extended in front of the camera, attached to a bright orange energy stream that's causing an enemy to erupt in gouts of blood. It's the laser whip from Johnny Mnemonic!

You can view all the new images in the gallery below.

CD Projekt has been showing off some new Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay at Gamescom this week, and next week the company plans to hold a livestream to broadcast a 15-minute edit of that demo to the public at large. You can tune in on Twitch or Mixer to watch when it airs August 30 at 8 p.m. CEST / 11 a.m. PT.

The odds are very good that at some point during your adventures in Cyberpunk 2077, you'll run into trouble with the law. Hey, it happens—everybody runs into a little bit of bad luck that's totally not their fault now and then, right? But producer Richard Borzymowski told USgamer that there are ways you can mitigate your risk factors—beginning with knowing where it's good to be bad.

Night City will be divided into different districts, some of them extremely wealthy and others, not so much. The City Center is "super rich," and Japantown is also very affluent; the area known as Pacifica, on the other hand, is much poorer, which makes it a much better place for your unsavory activities.

"In Pacifica (one of the poorer areas) you could probably shoot someone, and if nobody would see then nobody would care," Borzymowski said. "If you would do that in the City Center you would probably get some law enforcement. Because those areas are way more patrolled. The crowds will act and dress differently. You might hear more languages, for example Japanese might be a prominent language, because the Japanese are considered upper class in the universe."

If you do get into a beef with the local gendarmes, you can fight, but the law will win. "Your options are to run away, fight them and then run away, or fight them, fight them, fight them, and then die," Borzymowski said. Sounds a bit like Cyber GTA, no? The only real crime is being caught.

Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled for release on April 16, 2020. Here's a handful of new screens showcasing burly men in gritty environments for your viewing pleasure.

Cyberpunk 2077 will have boxing, hacking mini-games and racing, but will it have a Gwent equivalent? Well, we don't know yet, but it's possible that it'll get a Mancala variant, if that screenshot above is any sign.

Seven new screenshots were released today by CD Projekt Red, to coincide with Gamescom. None offer any tantalising new insights into the game, but we do learn what a "floor rag" is. (They're "outsiders brought in for special jobs", according to one of the gruff and burly men in the screenshots).

Cyberpunk 2077, which is newly confirmed for Google Stadia, will release on April 17.  We've learned of late that it'll boast a New Game + mode, as well as a tough-as-nails Hardcore mode. For everything else you'd possibly want to know about the game, look no further.

Check out the images below:

Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to Stadia. That's it, that's the post.

That's not actually it, though, because the dev diary in the tweet also shows off some fresh gameplay and talks CD Projekt Red's approach to creating "open-ended gameplay."

"We have non-linearity in storytelling and non-linearity in the way you explore the world, and now we want to introduce non-linearity in gameplay," senior level designer Miles Tost says in the video. "You can play your character any way you would like to play it."

The video also dives a little deeper into Johnny Silverhand, the activist rocker being portrayed by Keanu Reeves. "Johnny Silverhand will be our player's guide to the city. He's with you for most of the game," principal writer Jakub Szamatek says.

Cyberpunk 2077 is set to come out on April 16, 2020. Check out a more to-the-point Stadia teaser right down below.