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Dev Blog #12: Dying Light: The Beast – behind the scenes of the new zombie adventure
Hey again!
It’s Tymon, Dying Light Franchise Director at it once again... It has already been a few weeks since we announced Dying Light: The Beast at gamescom (the picture below was taken during our official reveal at Opening Night Live), but I’m still shaking with the excitement of everything that happened there. I’d like to use this episode of our Dying Light dev blog to share some behind the scenes memories. Grab a bite of that Harran halva - and let’s go!
So most of you probably know this already but there is a new Dying Light game in production - Dying Light: The Beast. What exactly is Dying Light: The Beast? Well it’s a chunky, stuffy standalone zombie adventure in the world of Dying Light offering 18+ hours of our best gameplay in its most evolved form. The game brings back one of our most beloved characters - the legendary Kyle Crane. In terms of scope and feature set expect a fully fledged narrative that will answer some of the most burning, canonical questions from both Dying Light and Dying Light 2 Stay Human, a new open world environment unlike any we did before - set in the forestry, gloomy, rural valley of Castor Woods full of secrets (and easter eggs) to discover.
On top of that the game brings a set of new gameplay mechanics like a new skill tree of Kyle’s beast-like powers, driveable vehicle and Freaks battles all of which enhance our classic take on survival gameplay. You can also expect new features and improvements, like weather system improvements (and a general increase in fidelity and the tech behind it) and a smaller set of additional gameplay additions (weapons! enemies!). Quite a package, right?
How Dying Light: The Beast came to life
I think you deserve a little origin story - what led us to make Dying Light: The Beast. This game can be traced back to the second DLC for Dying Light 2 Stay Human, which we worked on for part of 2022 and the most of 2023. In the second half of that year we experienced some story leaks and had to decide whether we wanted to push further, ignoring the leaks, or react somehow. And ignoring could mean the narrative would be ruined for our most dedicated players. We spent some time discussing different scenarios, including one really leftfield idea of redesigning the game with Kyle Crane as a protagonist. Well, we love the guy as much as you so he always pops up in our creative discussions.
It sounded interesting enough to explore, but we instantly realized this would work only if we got Roger Craig Smith on board, because you can’t really have Kyle Crane without him. We reached out to Roger, and he was quite surprised - “Hey, didn’t you do a nasty thing to me at the end of the Following?” - but the challenge of returning to a character he worked on before (and our high-school level of excitement) got to him. He said “yes”, we said “YES!” and… got back to work. The next week was spent trying to define what it means for this new project. And it was something special, like jumping inside a hadron collider. Every department - art, narrative, programming, audio, etc. - got into it, bringing new ideas each day, paying homage to Kyle’s return. At the end of the second week we created a production overview for this new approach and realized we’re looking at something much bigger than we initially anticipated - a new game, maybe more compact than a numbered Dying Light game, but no less powerful!
Announcing Dying Light: The Beast at this year’s gamescom made our presence there a memory that will stay with us for long. Aside from a reveal trailer aired during Opening Night Live we were presenting a 30 minute demo of the Dying Light: The Beast to journalists in a booth that was trying to capture the feel and gameplay of the game - full of forest foliage, stylized to look like a safe zone (with a crafting table and Kyle’s signature bag as a stash).Take a look at the pictures below - looks dope, right?
Dying Light: The Beast demo was presented by the game’s director Nathan Lemaire and its producer Michał Broda, and played live by Jakub Paleń and Damian Golik from our QA team (the unsung heroes of game development). We did numerous interviews, exchanged hundreds of high fives and talked about the game to everyone within reach for 3 days straight. And it all was made even more special because we were also joined by Roger Craig Smith himself and for many of us - including me - it was a great opportunity to meet the man in person. (just take a look at the photo below—Paulina (PR Manager), Katarzyna (Art Director), and I are all smiles! :)
Behind the scenes of recording the trailer
We spent a lot of time with Roger discussing how it feels to become Kyle again and what I can reveal to you right now is that you can expect quite a voice performance in Dying Light: The Beast. It is a great actor’s challenge fitting for a great voice actor Roger is - returning to a more mature version of a character you played before, having an opportunity to present the growth in your own acting skills, do it all “just” through voice and satisfy millions of Dying Light fans. When playing please pay attention to it, it surely deserves it.
This is how Roger Craig Smith sees it himself: “Stepping back into Kyle Crane's shoes feels like meeting up with an old friend again. I was surprised but really excited when the Techland team contacted me. I have great memories from recording the first Dying Light, and seeing how many fans love Kyle over the years made me sure I really need to be part of it again. And even though he’s gone through a terrible time, there’s still plenty of legendary hero left in him. I'm really eager to explore it. "
To give you a little look behind the scenes I can reveal that our initial recording sounded very like the Dying Light 1 Kyle but we quickly realized that they didn’t really work - neither for us nor for Roger. We did numerous takes trying to capture a new voice print of the character - representing the years that have passed, the brutal experiments he has been through, adding an element of discovery to his voice, as everything that he sees in Dying Light: The Beast is new to him, even the world and the evolved zombies.
“I jumped into the recording studio, ready to bring Kyle back. But I quickly understood it was going to be more challenging than I had imagined.”- says Roger Craig Smith - “At first, I recorded a few lines in the style of the old Kyle - young, sarcastic, and more talkative - but something felt not right here. It's been many years, and Kyle has gone through terrible times; he's no longer the funny guy he used to be. He's become more serious, darker, and more mature. So together with the Techland team, we worked to connect the Kyle from the first Dying Light with the Kyle in Dying Light: The Beast. Finding this new side of Kyle is an exciting journey, and I can't wait for you to meet him. And don't worry, I haven't let the younger Kyle disappear completely—I'm finding ways to mix his sarcasm and irony into The Beast's dialogue.”
During these sessions we were helped by Oliviere Deriviere, our favorite French composer, who returns to the Dying Light series creating a soundtrack to Dying Light: The Beast, who used his amazing ear to come up with small nuances that really add to Roger’s performance.
Where Dying Light: The Beast fits on the franchise timeline
Oh, I didn’t explain the story yet, right? Dying Light: The Beast takes place right after the events of Dying Light 2 Stay Human, and begins with Kyle Crane's escape from captivity. He had been held for 13 years by a villain known as the Baron, who subjected him to brutal experiments. When Kyle manages to break free (with the help of a new character, Olivia) he’s focused only on revenge (and getting some answers), but soon he realizes there’s more at stake as Baron’s planning something really sinister. This obviously makes Kyle even more determined to stop him.
Now if you’re a hardcore Dying Light fan you probably realized that there’s a longer, 20-year gap between the events of Dying Light: The Following and Dying Light: The Beast, but so far we’re sharing the knowledge of those 13 years, during which Kyle was held in captivity - the rest of his fate remains unknown, but rest assured, this mystery will surely be revealed in time. To give you a better understanding how Dying Light: The Beast fits Dying Light’s timeline please check the graph below:
As you can see Dying Light: The Beast has its place in the series… but we’re definitely not forgetting about other entries in the franchise. But trust that if you’re playing Dying Light 2 Stay Human we’re sticking to our 5 years support plan, so expect more updates to the game coming soon, some of which will still be released this year.
So stay tuned and watch this space for more behind the scenes looks at the Dying Light franchise, including Dying Light 2 Stay Human and Dying Light: The Beast. See ya!