Techland: Shorter standalones like Dying Light: The Beast are "the future of games"
gamesindustry.bizTechland's Tymon Smektała, franchise director for the hit Dying Light series, expects more developers to focus on shorter, standalone games instead — or at least in between — hundred-hour AAA blockbusters in future.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom in Cologne, Smektała discussed the decision process behind Techland developing Dying Light: The Beast — which was announced during this week's Opening Night Live showcase — as a separate game.
As the studio explained around the announcement, The Beast originated as a second DLC for Dying Light 2, but Smektała tells us plans changed after a substantial leak last year, including the majority of the story details.
"We knew our most dedicated players, the ones who would have been most interested [in the DLC], would probably have seen the leak, so they would have the game spoiled for them," Smektała says.
"We did like a week long meeting at our studio trying to discuss what we can do with this. And one idea was, what if we could get a new project based on some of the ideas from the DLC, but then treat it as a new one. We were excited about it. We really feel like we are ten years younger."
The idea centred around bringing back Kyle Crane, the protagonist from the original Dying Light, and continuing his story after a decade of torture and experiments that have given him beast-like powers.
But since The Beast is now a separate project from the leaked DLC, albeit with some elements carried over, and it's a new story that the franchise director tells us will follow up on some answered questions from both previous games, why not just call this Dying Light 3?
"Because we have different plans for Dying Light 3," Smektała smiles. "We already see the future of the series. [Dying Light: The Beast] wasn't part of that bigger plan really, but because we got so into it, so passionate about it, that's that."
He added that The Beast is "definitely more compact" than AAA big budget game, likening it to a double espresso: "It might not be as
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