CD Projekt Red veteran developer Łukasz Babiel has announced his retirement from the studio after 11 years of service. Babiel was the quality assurance lead of the company's latest project, Cyberpunk 2077.
Łukasz Babiel confirmed his departure from CDPR on Twitter. In his words, he decided to leave the studio last month after a "great 11 years there." The developer also shared some gifts he received as a farewell from CD Projekt Red, including a 3D printed and hand-painted figure and a comic by two talented Polish authors. Those gifts "just melted my heart," Babiel said. "I really worked with the best people."
As indicated on his LinkedIn account, Łukasz Babiel joined CD Projekt Red as a beta tester back in October 2010. He then proceeded with his career as a QA specialist and analyst, with a broad range of responsibilities, such as game balance testing, low-level gameplay bug fixing, and more. The developer was involved in the work on all the studio's major releases from the past decade, including The Witcher 2, Gwent, and The Witcher 3, alongside its hefty expansions.
During his work as Cyberpunk 2077's QA lead from August 2017 to March 2021, Babiel was managing a team of over 60 people while working closely with lead producers and studio directors. Among other duties, he handled test planning and introducing pipelines for the project.
It is unknown what the ex-QA manager will do next after his departure from the Polish company. For now, most likely, the developer will take his time off from work for a while. Babiel isn't the only CDPR veteran leaving the studio of late. Two weeks ago, Cyberpunk 2077 design director and principal designer Mateusz Kanik left the company after 15 years to become a self-employed freelancer.
Fans are still hoping for Cyberpunk 2077 to stay relevant throughout 2022 with its DLC and next-gen upgrades on the way - and the studio has added a new non-public update for the game on Steam, suggesting something is indeed happening soon.