“Every time an expert gives advice that is not in line with the board’s agenda, it is slowly isolated from the project and responsibilities,” a source told The Gamer. ‘It leads to them leaving or eventually being fired. To make a career at Techland, you have to be helpful. ”
Apparently, Marc Albinet, a 30-year veteran in the industry at Ubisoft, was brought in to restructure the studio’s design process, but was ultimately unable to convince management of a new structure. Similarly, Techland’s veteran employee Paweł Zawodny apparently wanted to try to facilitate the workflow by replacing Techland’s procedures by using a more traditional development pipeline using Unreal or Unity. He was denied, which allegedly led to a fallout between Zawodny and Marchewka. Zawodny then left the studio.
“Confidence and the flow of ideas in a large organization is a complicated matter,” Marchewka told The Gamer in response to the allegations. “After all, you can trust someone but not agree with their idea, because for example it is not the right moment to execute it, or it does not suit the specific project.”
Another issue that staff in the studio apparently deal with is Marchewka’s demands that the game features be based on the requirements in the existing games. “One of its extremely strict design rules is that ‘an idea cannot be implemented if it does not have an existing reference from another game,’ ‘a source said. Apparently Marchewka is “in love” with CD Project Red.
Such a claim means that the staff feel creatively suffocated. ‘If you have references to games that Marchewka may not know, you can also have no references, and anything is slightly innovative or expensive [off] the table immediately, ”said a source.
The rejection of ideas can apparently come in offensive form, with reports of board members using homophobia and course language as feedback. A source explained that such treatment makes you feel like you ‘don’t know’.
This studio environment has led to many people leaving the company. Dying Light 2’s story is currently being worked on by the sixth iteration of the narrative team. The continued turnover of writers, one of whom was Chris Avellone, who separated from the company due to allegations of sexual harassment rather than studio issues – meant that the story appeared to be a ‘Frankenstein monster’ of merged ideas from different teams.
A source said they ‘have no idea what the final match will be or what the story will be. It has changed so much. People kept stopping and getting fired. ”
Responding to the issue of high staff turnover, Marchewka told The Gamer: ‘Making games is difficult and it is normal that sometimes there is a need to change the workplace and look for new challenges. I am very sorry that some of our employees left us and decided to get outside the structures of Techland, but I always wish them the best. ‘
As for management’s demands for ideas from other games, he said: ‘It goes without saying that I pay attention to what others in our industry do, so I often refer to CD Project Red when I talk about high-quality solutions. I point out that this is also a Polish company, and our origins and roots should certainly not be an excuse.
Dying Light 2 is currently without a release date after being delayed in January 2020. No major news about the game has come out of Techland since the announcement, meaning our Dying Light 2 developer comment in 2019 was the last comment on the game. .
Matt Purslow is IGN’s British news and entertainment writer.