Development of Dying Light 2 hindered by alleged studio turbulence

Development of Dying Light 2 hindered by alleged studio turbulence

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A hard-hitting report on the state of the studio culture at Polish developer Techland revealed a number of problems affecting the creation of Dying Light 2. The situation, which stems from what the relationship claims to be a high and autocratic layer of top management, has resulted in several employees leaving the project and the studio. The report, published by The Gamer, compiles a series of testimonies from anonymous sources currently working or hired by Techland. Among the many claims, it appears that the company’s management is having a negative effect on its employees’ morale and workflow, complicating and delaying the development of Dying Light 2. Apparently, at least 20 employees have left Techland in the last two months.Much of the problem apparently stems from severe demands and feedback provided by senior management, led by the company’s CEO, Pawel Marchewka. He and his managers allegedly refute the advice of the studio’s own experts and insist that the team use ideas found in other games instead of creating their own.

“Whenever an expert starts advising on things that are not in line with the board’s agenda, he slowly isolates himself from the project and responsibilities,” a source told The Gamer. “This leads them to leave or, eventually, to be fired. To make a career at Techland, you need to be sneaky. “

Apparently, Marc Albinet, a 30-year industry veteran previously at Ubisoft, was hired to restructure the studio’s design process, but ultimately was unable to convince management about a new structure. Similarly, veteran Techland employee Paweł Zawodny apparently wanted to try to make the workflow easier by replacing Techland’s procedures with a more traditional development pipeline, using Unreal or Unity. He was denied, which allegedly led to a disagreement between Zawodny and Marchewka. Zawodny then left the studio.

“Trust and the flow of ideas in a large organization is a complex issue,” Marchewka told The Gamer in response to the allegations. “After all, you can trust someone, but you don’t agree with their idea, because it is not, for example, the right time to implement it or it does not fit the determined project.”

Another problem that the studio team apparently deals with is Marchewka’s demands for the game’s resources to be based on existing ones. “One of its super strict design rules is that ‘an idea cannot be implemented unless it has an existing reference from another game,'” said a source. Apparently, Marchewka is “in love” with the CD Projekt Red.

Such demand means that the team feels creatively stifled. “If you have game references that Marchewka may not know about, you may also have no references, and anything slightly innovative or expensive is [off] the table immediately, ”said a source.

Screenshots of the Dying Light 2 E3 Trailer

The rejection of ideas can apparently come offensively, with reports from members of the management team using homophobic language and the feedback course. One source explained that this type of treatment makes you feel like “you don’t fucking know”.

This studio environment caused many employees to leave the company. Notably, the story of Dying Light 2 is currently being worked on by the sixth iteration of the narrative team. The constant change of writers – one of whom was Chris Avellone, who split from the company on charges of sexual harassment instead of studio problems – made the story seemingly a “Frankenstein monster” of ideas sewn from different teams.

A source said that they “have no idea what the final game will be like, or what the story will be. It has changed a lot. People continued to give up, being fired. “

In response to the question of the team’s high 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 leave the Techland structures, but I always wish them the best. “

As for management’s demands for ideas from other games, he said, “It is natural that I pay attention to what others in our industry are doing, so when I talk about examples of high quality solutions, I always refer to the CD Projekt Red. I emphasize that it is also a Polish company, so our origins and roots should not be an excuse.

Currently, Dying Light 2 is without a release date after being postponed in January 2020. No significant news about the game has left Techland since the announcement, which means that our last proper review of the game was the comment from the developer of Dying Light 2 in 2019.

Matt Purslow is the UK’s news and entertainment writer for IGN.

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