DYING LIGHT 2 Lead Designer Talks About The Indifference From The Press Prior To The First Game's Release

Dying Light is an open world first person adventure game developed by Polish studio Techland and published by Warner Bros. Interactive and was initially released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, OSX, and PC in 2015. The game became focuses heavily on parkour in a similar fashion to EA DICE's Mirror's Edge, only with more zombies.

While Dying Light got a very positive reception from players and critics alike, the game was pretty much overlooked by the press prior to its release. Now we got some new information about the press being somewhat indifferent to the game thanks to Polygon who interviewed Dying Light lead designer and producer Tymon Smektala.

According to Smektala, the indifference toward Dying Light prior to its release probably came from people thinking the game was going to be another title by a small independent studio when that really wasn't the case.

"We were outsiders from somewhere in Europe and we had zombies in our game", said Smektala as he added that people probably were thinking that "it was a small game from a small studio with zombies in it". 

"I think people realise that the gameplay that we have put together in the first Dying Light was quite unique and it was something entirely our own. People started talking about it, the people started enjoying this, those people started talking to their friends about it, and that's how the snowball started rolling".

Smektala also said that Dying Light has been played by over 13 million people since the game launched back in 2015, garnering over 500,000 new players each day—which in and of itself is quite impressive.

Dying Light 2 is adding even more mechanics to the game by having players' in-game choices affect the story and the overall look of the game's open world—which can completely change the dynamic between the game and the player.

"We tried to do our homework. We have a very supportive community, one that talks with us directly", said Smektala. "Now we want to give them a narrative that supports playing the game over and over, and over, and over again. So, the guy that played it for 4,500 hours can now play even more and it is more meaningful because he is not just bashing zombies on the head. He gets something more out of it".

It is pretty safe to say that the people over at Techland have nothing to worry about and that the press will not overlook Dying Light 2 the same way its prequel was, especially not after that brilliant announcement trailer the game got at this year's E3.

The fate of a decaying City is in your hands. Every choice matters. Discover the bold sequel to a best-selling open-world phenomenon.