Techland has revealed that the plot of Dying Light 2 was “subconsciously impacted” by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic during the game’s development.
In an interview with The Loadout, Tymon Smektala – lead game designer for Dying Light 2 – shared that the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the direction of the survival game.
Discussing the opening cinematic of the game – which shows people being vaccinated to combat illness – Smektala shared that “I think very subconsciously, it [COVID-19] impacted a lot of our choices”.
Adding that “it all feels a little surreal”, Smektala says that the themes within Dying Light 2 are “maybe more important because of what’s happening” in the real world.
Touching on another way that the pandemic affected development, Smektala also shared that there were pros and cons surrounding Techland’s decision to have developers work from home during the pandemic.
“You cannot have [collaborative creative experiences] when the only living being that can motivate you is your cat. You have Zoom, of course, but it’s not the same.”
While Smektala said the “exchange of ideas” was lost while working from home, he identifies some positives to the shift. Smektala explained that working from home allowed developers to “stop being distracted by everything in the world because all of us were locked inside our home offices” and said “it allows us to focus on what we’re doing in our profession”.
In our own Dying Light 2 preview, NME‘s Jake Tucker had a lot of praise for the apocalyptic zombie game’s parkour system, but said that for the most part it doesn’t make any dramatic changes from the first Dying Light.
In other news, Paradox has said it is “happy with the progress” of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, and shared that the new developer for the title is “doing quite well”.
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