Latest news with #TymonSmektała
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dying Light: The Beast will have guns that feel "on par with melee combat," as Techland struggles to solve the series' "complicated" relationship with firearms
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Dying Light: The Beast is aiming to solve the series' "complicated" relationship with firearms, by making sure that gunplay feels "on par" with melee combat. Speaking to GamesRadar+, Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała acknowledges that "if Dying Light and 'guns' were on Facebook, their relationship status would be 'it's complicated.'" Pointing out that adding guns to Dying Light 1 was easy thanks to Techland's previous experience on Wild West shooter Call of Juarez, Smektała says that that game's focus on melee combat had people asking "why did you even bother to have the guns there?" Taking that feedback on board, Techland moved on to Dying Light 2, in which there were no guns – "and the first thing we heard after release was 'but where are the guns?'" The studio eventually added firearms back into the sequel, but only after getting around the world-building they'd put into Dying Light 2 to explain its lack of guns. Having gone back and forth in its first two Dying Light games, Smektała says that "for Dying Light: The Beast we decided 'OK, let's give the players the guns if they want, but also let's focus on the guns so they really feel on par with melee combat'." In The Beast, guns will need to feel just as physical and "brutal" as melee combat, but they'll also need to be balanced "so they don't feel too overpowered" in this melee-first world. "Dying Light games were always games about finding your own solutions to problems," Smektała explains. "Going where you want to go, but also finding your own solutions to problems. And right now we want the guns to be just another piece in your toolbox." He gives the example of a strongly-defended outpost, where you'll now have the option to go in quietly with melee weapons or go in loud with firearms. The two options "should offer the same kind of risk and reward level, but realized differently." It's a balancing act that Smektała seems to think the team has pulled off. Speaking ahead of the Dying Light: The Beast delay, he said that "I'm really, really proud with what we've managed to achieve with firearms. I'm not saying we're Call of Duty, which is where the focus is just on shooting, but we managed to have a very competent version of shooting and guns." Dying Light franchise director says The Beast's final mission leaves you no choice, and that's a good thing: "You shouldn't be saying what's canon and what's not."
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dying Light: The Beast dev defends $60 price because "in every metric" the DLC-turned-game is "bigger, denser, and more advanced than we initially assumed"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Dying Light: The Beast may have started development as DLC for Dying Light 2: Stay Human, but it's worth the full $60 asking price anyway because it's apparently outgrown its expansion origins, according to franchise director Tymon Smektała. Dying Light: The Beast sees the original game's protag return to the zombie-infested spotlight in what was initially thought to have been a smaller, expansion-sized take on the parkour-focused formula. But at some point along the way, developer Techland thought there was enough (probably rotting) meat on The Beast's bones to take it further. Speaking to TheThumbWars, Smektała says the game's price is justified because "the game grew" from what was first promised, "especially over a period of six months at the end of last year and the beginning of this year." Techland apparently "kept adding, upgrading, tweaking, leveling up the tech behind the game, and one day we came to a realization that Dying Light: The Beast might as well be the best Dying Light game we ever created." "In every metric – mission count, minutes of cut-scene, unique characters, new enemy designs, additional content, collectibles, secrets, Easter eggs, you name it - Dying Light: The Beast started modestly, but right now it is bigger, denser, and more advanced than we initially assumed," he continues, before asking doubters to "wait until they see the final package" before judging its full price point. I'm not one to justify a game's cost by its length, but Smektała is sure to point out that people won't be paying full price for a condensed experience. "Dying Light: The Beast runs well around 20 hours if you follow the main story alone, and side quests and activities easily double that," he says. "My last full playthrough took me about 37 hours, and it wasn't even the completionist one." He previously said there were 20 to 30 hours of extra stuff to do, on top of the game's main 20-hour story. Dying Light: The Beast will have guns that feel "on par with melee combat," as Techland struggles to solve the series' "complicated" relationship with firearms
Geek Culture
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
Zombie Parkour Game 'Dying Light' Celebrates Tenth Anniversary With 'Retouched' Update
Despite being 10 years old, Techland's original 2015 zombie parkour game, Dying Light , is far from being dead, as the game is getting a surprise content drop, dubbed the Retouched update, bringing visual and audio enhancements to the ageing title. The Dying Light: Retouched update is due to launch on 26 June, and according to a post on Steam by franchise director Tymon Smektała, it will focus on 'squeezing out even more' from the game, but will not be a complete overhaul or remaster. The free update will include visual enhancements like upscaled texture quality for its environments, alongside improved lighting and shadows. Screenshots featured in the post give a better picture of what players can expect, with some impressive improvements, especially concerning ground textures, which have seen a massive boost to tessellation, ambient occlusion and depth. The game's audio will also be touched up, with original composer Paweł Blaszczak returning to recreate its soundtrack, with new tracks, ambient sounds and hit reaction audio in combat, with Blaszczak even re-recording the soundtrack on tape to emulate the original's retro vibe. The team also touched on why it took so long to complete the Retouched update, which was teased following the celebration of Dying Light's tenth anniversary in January. 'We were working with 10+ year old technology,' explained Smektała, 'Even with all the new experience we've gained over the years, figuring out how to apply those learnings to the original Dying Light engine while keeping everything stable was a challenge. Smektała further added that the team had to 'walk through the entire map, looking for assets to be improved', which were all changed manually by artists, and that they also made it a priority not to change the game's system requirements, balancing the updates fresh details with the limitations of last-gen console hardware. The Dying Light: Retouched update will release on 26 June 2025, and will be free for owners of the game across the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Dying Light Dying Light: Retouched Update techland
