Since the unveiling of 2018, developer Techland’s highly anticipated Dying Light 2 has been plagued by setbacks, ranging from multiple delays to high staff departures. A new report has now paid more attention to the disturbing project, which showed a picture of chaotic, unorthodox development driven by an arrogant CEO.
TheGamer recently spoke to former and current staff about Techland’s inner workings, with numerous reports blaming Dying Light 2’s problems for an ‘iterative’ design process that is in fact as chaotic as it is directionless. One source, even if we call it “a production pipeline that is changing so fast and fast that it can just as well exist”.
“What’s going on in Techland is just total chaos, not iteration,” another explained. “There are many examples where someone is responsible for a given function … but [creative director Adrian Ciszewski and CEO Paweł Marchewka] just rewrite it for a silly reason, as if they saw something else work in other games. ‘
Dying Light 2 – E3 2018 Gameplay World Premiere.
Another source calls it ‘a well-known joke at Techland that nothing is ever approved, including the name of the game. You may be told to redo a job you approved for a month just because the CEO changed his mind after posting something on the internet. “
In fact, Marchewka’s “autocratic” management style is repeatedly cited as the cause of project setbacks. ‘It can also be something like the shape of nails on the enemy’, one source explained, ‘how [a certain] AI kicks the player, or a visual aspect where Marchewka will give his famous feedback, such as: ‘It just looks bad’ or ‘This character looks gay’.
“It’s 100 percent true that nothing was written in stone in Techland. The story of Dying Light 2 has been rewritten about six times. It could have worked in Dying Light … but that makes the production for Dying Light 2 – ‘ a much bigger project – just impossible to move forward. “
According to TheGamer, at least 20 people, about five percent of Techland’s 400 staff members, have left the studio in the past few months, but attempts to hire more producers to wreak havoc have also failed, with the ‘old guard ‘. blocks any attempts to implement change. “As soon as they start challenging it,” said one source, “they are out the door.”
TheGamer’s extensive report touches on a wide range of other issues within Techland, and in particular contains a number of answers from Marchewka himself, addressing at least some of the demands of current and former employees. It’s worth reading.
As for Dying Light 2, Techland made the decision to delay the game indefinitely in January 2020, and the studio has said little else about the project since. However, it refuted May reports that the game was in a sorry state, and recently at the beginning of this year promised that it would refute ‘exciting news about Dying Light 2 soon’.