Techland says Dying Light 2 development "in good shape" after rumours emerge

After shooting down rumours of a Microsoft acquisition of Polish developer Techland, the independent studio revealed that Dying Light 2 development is actually moving forward in “good shape”.

Taking to Twitter, Senior PR Manager Ola Sondej stated that, “Dying Light 2 is moving forward, the game’s in good shape (and in good hands), so worry not. It IS coming.”

While I have your attention, development of Dying Light 2 is moving forward, the game's in good shape (and in good hands), so worry not. It IS coming.

— Ola Sondej (@olasondej) May 6, 2020

Original Story: Techland’s upcoming zombie-survival game Dying Light 2 is reportedly in trouble as reports service of its shaky development.

Originally reported by Polskigamedev, thanks Nibel, Dying Light 2 development is said to be in “total disarray”.

Despite being indefinitely delayed out of an April release earlier this year, the report states that the game doesn’t even have a “vertical slice” to present let alone a solid release date.

“There is a total mess. The plot direction, gameplay direction, mechanics’ fundamental rules change constantly,” a source told Polskigamdev. “They have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Disorganization at the highest levels is embarrassing, it is still not known what this game should be. Other bands a year before the premiere are worried about fixing bugs. We don’t even have a vertical slice!”

“Depending on who you ask, you will hear that we had five vertical slices, seven or not one … in fact, none of them reflect what we have now,” says another Techland employee. “The game is changing all the time, nobody can say: “it’s good enough”.

The report claims that a bevy of issues with Techland’s development of Dying Light 2 stems creative director Adrian ‘Pyza’ Ciszewski clashing with that of games writer Chris Avellone, most known for his work on Fallout: New Vegas. Despite the writer’s will to be “hard and uncompromising” in his vision of the game, Ciszewski is said to have “interfere[d] with Avellone’s script so much that cooperation ceased to arise before the [E3] conference.”

Pyza’s alleged interference is said to echo “like a chorus” among the report’s sources.

https://youtu.be/uy6ne-fEsAw

“He is a man who did a lot of good for Techland… He got a very responsible position that he can’t handle, because it’s a position that requires a very specific mindset, skillset he doesn’t have,” an employee told the website. “He is not stupid, but he has too much on his shoulders. Because of conflicts with him, people are released or are fired.. Even when there was no crunch, he sometimes called them at 21:00, 22:00 because he was a workaholic and he demanded it from others.”

Despite this alleged development hell on Dying Light 2, Techland is still releasing downloadable content for the original game in the form of Dying Light Hellraid, ironically a conversion of an unreleased Techland game that was also in development hell.