The Polish developers tried to please everyone, but, as we know, that’s impossible. They had to figure that out for themselves.

In his latest presentation at the Digital Dragons event in Krakow, Tymon Smektala, a longtime member of the Dying Light series team, spoke openly about what went wrong with Dying Light 2: Stay Human and what Techland needed to fix in Dying Light: The Beast. Smektala emphasized that the studio lost sight of what really mattered by trying to please everyone. However, with Dying Light: The Beast, they shifted the focus back to quality rather than quantity.

“It’s the details that make your game because your franchise is not only about the great vision and pillars but also the little things that create its unique feel. We learned that right away when we launched Dying Light 2 in 2022. It was a hard lesson. The game was highly anticipated, with millions of players waiting for it. We launched it and quickly realized that, although it’s quite similar on the surface, we had missed many of the details and little things that were important to players. They were very vocal about it.

Some wanted more tension, more RPG elements, and more parkour. Some wanted combat to be less bloody, while others wanted it to be more bloody. They wanted more realism, more power fantasy, to go back to the first game, or maybe try something new. You want to give everyone everything all at once, but that’s a trap. We learned that quality beats quantity. We slowed down, focused more, and adapted this mindset for Dying Light 2. We continued using this mindset for Dying Light: The Beast. We understood that the quality of the core elements was more important than satisfying all the needs and expectations,” said Smektala.

Dying Light: The Beast was well-received on Steam. Over a million copies were sold on Valve’s platform alone in just a few days. Smektala recently left Techland after thirteen years, but he has not yet revealed his plans for the future.

Source: WCCFTech, Gamesradar