Maciej Kwiatkowski, the founder of Alpha7, is a stunt and motion capture performer who’s also, famously, the man behind Geralt of Rivia’s sword-fighting techniques in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Soon, he’ll be picking up his sword once again in The Blood of Dawnwalker, a new dark fantasy adventure that promises to have even more impressive sword battles – this time involving vampires.
We spoke to Maciej about his career, his time as Geralt, and his involvement in The Blood of Dawnwalker before the game arrives later this year. We asked Maciej:
You’re the man behind every move we made in game as Geralt of Rivia. Tell us about this fascinating role.
Maciej Kwiatkowski: “The Witcher is my most beloved character because I was always into sword fighting, and he combines everything. I just felt it right. His character, his whole approach to reality and life, really appealed to me as a teenager. I read The Hobbit first and felt I was maybe already too old for it pop culture at the time was getting more adult, more brutal. Then I read The Witcher and thought, this is the truth about reality, people, and human nature. And first of all, this guy is just the perfect swordsman.
I loved it so much, and it was such a strong hook for my personality at that time. Then the game happened, I went into motion capture, and I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years now, plus those five years before, where I was already doing the Witcher fighting style.
Basically, this has been around three-quarters of my life. I barely remember my life before I started doing the Witcher style. It is me. I am Witcher, and Witcher is me. We shaped it all together. I shaped the character, and the character shaped me throughout all those years and hours of motion capture.
There are all interpretations. Even Andrzej Sapkowski (the author of The Witcher books) said he likes to see how other people imagine what he created. He gave the concept, and the books leave so much space for imagination and your own interpretation. It’s the same with Geralt. I’m always super interested in how other people reimagine it. I really respect and admire people who put their mind and heart into it. That’s what I love about working with CDPR, it’s been a passion project from day one. Whatever we do, we do it from the bottom of our hearts. We do the research, we do everything the best we can.”
When you come to The Blood of Dawnwalker, how has the motion capture industry and the concept evolved?
Maciej Kwiatkowski: “We are data deliverers. It’s not about the performance in the classical sense. In front of a camera or on stage, you are performing 100% of yourself. In motion capture, it’s not you it’s only those dots, the markers you’re wearing. You’re just giving them a ride and making them move in a certain way.
Then the data is processed, cleaned, and worked on by animators. Some part of it is you, but you delivered the base. That makes you a little more humble. At the beginning the technology was much simpler: fewer markers, fewer cameras. A lot of detail was lost during capture and cleaning, so it required much more animator input.
Your own performance was quite far from the final animation in The Witcher 1. There was a huge gap. Throughout the years, the technology has evolved with more cameras, more markers, better resolution, and better software. The big jump came with head-mounted cameras that allowed us to capture facial expressions.
We went from only body motion capture to full performance capture. For gameplay, it’s still quite gamey, animations are sped up, heavily edited, and responsive. But for cinematics, it’s almost like a movie set now. The final effect is so close to live action. You can have close-ups with detailed facial expressions, almost photorealistic. We’re still fighting the uncanny valley, but you can really see the real actor in the character. That connection is there. That’s the biggest change.”
For The Blood of Dawnwalker, it’s a new IP, new characters, new world, though with some connecting tissue in that gothic, medieval dark fantasy vibe. It’s inspired by so many Eastern European myths. How has it been for you as a performer and athlete to come into this new role?
Maciej Kwiatkowski: “When I was a teenager, aside from The Witcher, my friends and I were deep into vampire RPGs, Vampire: The Masquerade, werewolves, Vampire: The Dark Ages, all those dark worlds. This project really resembles that. Connecting vampire themes with the Middle Ages, making it all dark, it was perfect for me. Vampire stuff was huge in pop culture at the beginning of the 2000s with movies like Blade and others, then it disappeared for about 20 years. I missed it. Blood of the Dawnwalker brings it back in a classical way, with great swordplay.
Throughout my years working in motion capture, we’ve repeatedly run into what felt like a wall. Moments when it seemed we had reached the limits of what was possible. We faced problems that appeared impossible to solve and situations where it felt as though we had exhausted every creative option available to us. Yet, time and time again, we found a way to break through that wall and move forward.
The same was true during the development of Dawnwalker. While working on the combat system, we faced numerous challenges related to creating a directional combat system that would be highly responsive for the player while remaining cinematic, fluid, and visually engaging.
There were many obstacles along the way, but thanks to the collaboration of an incredibly experienced, talented, and dedicated team, we managed to overcome them. Projects like this remind me that human creativity has no real limits. No matter how insurmountable a challenge may seem, there is always a way forward when the right people come together to solve it.”
The Blood of Dawnwalker is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on September 3, 2026. Keep an eye on The GameSlayer for our review and further coverage.
