Portal PolskiGamedev chatted with anonymous employees Techlandengaged in creating Dying light 2.
From their stories is not the most optimistic picture. It is further aggravated by the fact that not so long ago Techland postponed the release of the game.
According to them, at first everything went fine. To work on Dying Light 2 involved the legendary screenwriter Chris Avellone, who created a coherent and consistent world. However, then this world began to be pulled on the game, and everything changed.
The plot is not interesting, it came out very formal: bring it, talk to that, knock out the zombies from there and from there. The depth and complexity of the faction that Chris painted greatly suffered. He wanted the game to awaken empathy, to be multi-layered and psychologically built.
According to anonymous studio staff, Avellón could not insist on his vision, as he ran into creative director Adrian Chishevsky, nicknamed Pyza (“Kletsk”). He was a producer Dead island, later – director Dying light. Now he has been nicknamed the “Evangelist”: he “reads sermons” about how the project should be. And constantly changing them.
According to the testimonies of the participants, what kind of characters, factions, their motives, development options should look like, how quests should look like, there is a continuous war. Chishevsky and the head of the studio, Pavel Markhevka, constantly intervene in the script of Avellone.
However, another employee recalls that once Avellone painted quests for one of the locations – and not one of them came up. “He seemed to be inventing tasks for Fallout: New Vegas“.
They complain about the creative director for a variety of reasons. For example, the fact that Chishevsky can yell at studio employees, insult them or try to solve work issues by phone at ten in the evening – since he himself is a workaholic, he demands the same from others.
Dumpling “invented” the philosophy of “design through iteration”. Each time he makes an alleged final decision … and then it turns out that nothing has been decided. People invest to the maximum, thinking that they are finishing, but everything starts all over again. This is easy to burn out.
In particular, due to conflicts with management and the toxic atmosphere, about 50 people left the studio last year with a total staff of 400 employees. Leading including leading experts, for example, technical director Pavel Rolheder.
On the other hand, experienced specialists joined the team: Eugene Harton (Dayz) led the project, Mark Albinet (Assassin & # 039; s Creed: Unity) appointed director, and his methods of work cause a lot of praise.
What is the state of Dying Light 2 now?
Everything is much, much better than journalists gossip, in fact, the work is nearing the end. If we talk about assets, then they are also being completed. We have technology, there is a combat system, there is gameplay.
The game is falling apart, its foundations are constantly changing. No one thinks about the consequences: what, let’s demolish everything again, because Kletska came up with something there again and without any consultation with anyone introduces the changes.
We have a year before the release, but so far the game cannot be played from beginning to end, albeit with bugs, but at least so that it just works.
It, <…>complete chaos. The plot, the gameplay, the basic rules of the mechanic – everything is constantly changing. Morality at the bottom because [руководство] he has no idea what he is doing. At the highest levels, complete disorganization, it is still unknown what the game should become. Other teams, a year before the release, are worried if they can fix the bugs. And we don’t even have a vertical cut!
Depending on who you ask, you will hear: we have five vertical sections, no, seven, no, not a single one. And in fact, no opinion reflects the real state of affairs. The game is constantly changing, and no one is able to say: “Enough is already quite good“.
Currently, the team is working on the completion of the alpha version of Dying Light 2. Employees joke that there is a “crunch contest”: prizes ranging from 600 to 2,000 dollars have been awarded for success. However, pessimists are sure that money will not get to the “bottom”.
Most will reach out to put the game in the portfolio. After the premiere, top management will pay such bonuses that some of them will open their own studios like Pavel Zavodny, who founded Strange new things.
However, not everyone appreciates the state of affairs at Techland so pessimistic. Starting from Chris Avellone himself: he denies the existence of a conflict with Chishevsky, is proud of the plot and is sure that “so, in fact, games are made“.
I enjoy working on Dying Light 2 and enjoy working with Techland. Of course, we discussed the individual elements of the project, and of course, that they changed in the course of work … but this is a normal component of any creation process. History is a key element of Dying Light 2. Both for me and the team it is very important that everything is fine with her.
Chris Avellone
At the conference Digital dragons Chris read an excellent report that the storyline should “flow in” at the very end of building the foundations of the “world”, and that it should adapt to mechanics, and not vice versa. We make the game in an open world, and naturally, we need an appropriate plot. Other projects rely on the creation of ever larger, more detailed worlds. We rely on the players ’impressions. This is a good approach, but, unfortunately, damn difficult, it requires a lot of alterations.
While working on Dead Island, we often remembered that it would be nice to make sure that you could escape from zombies … but we continued to make an ordinary slasher. And then I went to Adrian [Чишевскому] and I say: old man, I want to add mountain climbing. And he told me: “Sit down and do it.” And so began the production of Dying Light. This is due to the vision of “Dumplings” we have parkour, different types of activities day and night, chases … Most of the ideas embodied in Dying Light, or his own, or those that he approved.
Bartosh Pendant, Chief Programmer, Dying Light 2
Work on games – ongoing discussions about change. But together we solve most of the problems. The game is stable, the team has done an excellent job in recent years, and you will see it after the release.
Eugene Harton
We do not want to repeat what someone else has already done. We want to do something innovative, while preserving the legacy of Dying Light. But the catch is that innovation means trial and error, and this is felt when the course changes. We came to the formula that we tested, and it works. Now we are implementing it and are engaged in customization.
Mark Albinet
Which side will be right, time will tell. As for the rumors circulating for some time that Techland will soon become one of the studios Microsoftthen the Wroclaw branch assuresthat the studio remains independent.
We recall that similar doubts were expressed regarding CD Projekt RED with their Cyberpunk 2077. Rumors that the game is either being remade from scratch, or completely closed, have dried up after its legendary presentation on E3.
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