The Last Wish Project: A Fan-Made Prequel to The Witcher

If you have been keeping an eye on the world of Sapkowski adaptations lately, your calendar is probably already looking fairly packed. Between Dark Horse rolling out their official graphic novel adaptation of The Last Wish in August 2026 and the third and final expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on the horizon, Geralt of Rivia is having quite a moment. Yet one of the most intriguing developments for fans of the original prose isn’t coming from an official studio at all.

A ambitious fan project titled The Last Wish Project has made its alpha build available to download on Nexus Mods, transforming CD Projekt RED’s 2015 flagship title into a faithful, playable adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s seminal short story collection. Rather than acting as another narrative continuation, this fan-made modification turns back the clock to the very beginning of the Witcher saga, rebuilding the classic tales inside REDengine 3.

Bringing Sapkowski’s Prose to REDengine 3

Before Geralt became a global video game icon, his journey started in 1986 when author Andrzej Sapkowski entered a short story contest. That initial submission grew into a beloved body of work, with The Last Wish releasing in Polish in 1993 before receiving its English translation in 2007. While CD Projekt RED’s trilogy always drew heavy inspiration from those original texts, the games picked up after the events of the books rather than adapting them directly.

That is precisely where The Last Wish Project steps in. Designed as a non-commercial action adventure rather than a massive choice-driven RPG, the project aims to translate Sapkowski’s prose straight into interactive questlines. According to the creators, the endeavour is built with a deep devotion to the source material, taking visual cues from the atmosphere of the original 2007 game while utilising the tech of the third entry.

The developers behind the mod described their motivation in a project statement on the release page:

The Last Wish Project is a fan-made, non-commercial video game recreation of the original Sapkowski book “The Last Wish”, which aims to recreate the original stories into playable quests and interactive worlds to explore in REDengine 3.

What Players Can Expect in the Alpha

If you decide to install the download, the current alpha build offers a functional taste of what the team is building towards. The initial scope focuses on recreating the short stories individual scene by individual scene, starting with “The Lesser Evil”, the iconic narrative that earned Geralt his infamous moniker, the Butcher of Blaviken.

The team has noted that the project takes a strong artistic cue from the original 2007 title, matching its darker aesthetic and focused narrative style. Rather than maintaining the massive open-world dynamic of The Witcher 3, the structure leans heavily into a story-focused action-adventure format. The mod has already surpassed 2,000 downloads on Nexus Mods, proving there is plenty of appetite for a proper look at Geralt’s earlier contract work.

While the project does not have a formal full release date yet, having a playable alpha offers a wonderful bridge for fans waiting on future official releases. If you are currently browsing through the best fantasy books to read in August 2026 or re-reading Sapkowski’s original paperbacks, seeing those early pages rendered directly in modern game technology is a genuine treat.

A Big Year for The Last Wish

It is worth noting that this fan mod isn’t the only way readers are returning to Geralt’s early days this year. Dark Horse Comics recently released their own official hardcover comic adaptation of The Last Wish, written by Marcin Zwierzchowski with an English adaptation by Stefan Kiełbasiewicz, art by Guillermo Fajardo, colours by Neeraj Menon, and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. That $19.99 volume tackles the fateful first encounter between Geralt and Yennefer, with a follow-up complete collection scheduled for release on December 15, 2026.

Much like how standing studios adapt complex lore for modern formats, such as how recent adaptations dive into deep First Age history, as seen in a new Lord of the Rings release that explores Sauron’s werewolf history, seeing community modders take on the heavy lifting of direct prose translation shows just how durable Sapkowski’s early short stories remain.

If you own The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC and want a fresh excuse to return to the Continent, downloading this fan-made prequel project on Nexus Mods is well worth your time.