In 2018, game development studio Techland announced that it would develop a sequel to its survival horror hit Dying light. The game was scheduled to be released in the spring of last year, but would be postponed indefinitely, without a clear release date or launch window announced in January 2020. With the silence around Dying Light 2 more than a year ago, an urgent question is what could be making the game support such a troubled development.
A recent report from The playerKirk McKeand’s editor-in-chief gives us some long-awaited answers, detailing the difficult state of the studio’s working environment and illuminating many questions that are likely to impact the development of the Dying light sequel. The report includes excerpts from 10 interviews with former and current Techland employees, all of whom wished to remain anonymous.
The testimonies shared in the report state that Techland is masked by “autocratic management, poor planning and a toxic work culture that drips from the top”. The report also states that the company’s management has negatively impacted its employees’ morale and workflow, which in turn is causing problems in Dying Light 2continuous development of.
Many of the problems allegedly stem from high-ranking officials, including CEO Pawel Marchewka. Sources said The player that Marchewka and Techland managers rejected the ideas of the studio’s experts, which causes obstacles in the game’s development:
“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,” says another source. “This leads them to leave or, eventually, to be fired. To make a career at Techland, you need to be sneaky. “
At one point, the studio hired industry veteran Marc Albinet, who was previously games director at Ubisoft, to help restructure the studio’s design process. Still, the 30-year-old industry veteran was unsuccessful in trying to get the new workflow proposal approved by senior management, the report says.
In the past two months alone, at least 20 employees have left Techland, according to the report. With the studio’s high turnover rate, one source says Dying Light 2 ‘The narrative was rewritten “more or less six times”. Due to the numerous rewrites, a source told the channel that he has no idea what the final product will look like.
In response to staff retention, Marchewka said The player that “making games is difficult and it is normal that sometimes there is a need to change the work environment and seek new challenges. I am very sorry that some of our employees left us and decided to find their way out of the Techland structures, but I always wish them the best. ”
The report investigates other failures at Techland and how their work culture is negatively impacting Dying Light 2. I encourage you to take time out of your day to read the full report to get an inside view that it offers on the difficulties of game development.