Recently, CDPR writer Tomasz Marchewka spoke with GamesRadar+ and discussed Cyberpunk 2077.
He recalled how the developers chose the antagonist — from the very beginning, they knew it would be Night City itself:
Quite quickly, even during the pre-production stage of Cyberpunk 2077, we realized that Night City would become the main antagonist. Some players picked up on this quite quickly and then asked us questions about it. Of course, we have the Arasaka megacorporation, we have Adam Smasher, and many others, but in reality, it's Night City against everyone else, even against the biggest players in the events. It's a cool idea to make the city the main antagonist.
Tomasz Marchewka also said that he enjoys working on creating imperfect characters — with flaws, making mistakes, and doubting:
I like to explore the hero's flaws. I love the inevitable mistakes and where they ultimately lead the character. As you can probably tell, my stories rarely have happy endings because of this. But, in my opinion, exploring the dark side of human nature is fascinating because that's how we can learn something about ourselves.