Techland: Shorter standalones like Dying Light: The Beast are "the future of games"

Techland's Tymon Smektała, franchise director for the hit Dying Light series, expects more developers to focus on shorter, standalone games instead — or at least in between — hundred-hour AAA blockbusters in future.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom in Cologne, Smektała discussed the decision process behind Techland developing Dying Light: The Beast — which was announced during this week's Opening Night Live showcase — as a separate game.

As the studio explained around the announcement, The Beast originated as a second DLC for Dying Light 2, but Smektała tells us plans changed after a substantial leak last year, including the majority of the story details.

"We knew our most dedicated players, the ones who would have been most interested [in the DLC], would probably have seen the leak, so they would have the game spoiled for them," Smektała says.

"We did like a week long meeting at our studio trying to discuss what we can do with this. And one idea was, what if we could get a new project based on some of the ideas from the DLC, but then treat it as a new one. We were excited about it. We really feel like we are ten years younger."

The idea centred around bringing back Kyle Crane, the protagonist from the original Dying Light, and continuing his story after a decade of torture and experiments that have given him beast-like powers.

But since The Beast is now a separate project from the leaked DLC, albeit with some elements carried over, and it's a new story that the franchise director tells us will follow up on some answered questions from both previous games, why not just call this Dying Light 3?

"Because we have different plans for Dying Light 3," Smektała smiles. "We already see the future of the series. [Dying Light: The Beast] wasn't part of that bigger plan really, but because we got so into it, so passionate about it, that's that."

He added that The Beast is "definitely more compact" than AAA big budget game, likening it to a double espresso: "It might not be as big as an americano, but it also doesn't have as much water, it's just more of what counts, what's important."

It's part of a gradual trend within AAA games. Over the past decade, we've seen a number of blockbuster franchises release shorter, standalone games in between major new entries. Sony has explored this with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, while Ubisoft ventured into this direction with last year's Assassin's Creed: Mirage (which, like Dying Light: The Beast, originally began as DLC).

Smektała tells us the fact more developers are dedicating time to shorter projects between their main blockbusters makes perfect sense when you look at it from two different perspectives.

"The first one is the perspective of the player," he said. "I understand that for many players there is a [fascination] about the number of hours the game offers. But then as players get older, as the world around us gets more and more intense, and as we have lots of things that steal our attention, if you have a game that you have to play for 50 to 100 hours to complete, it's really difficult to find time for that, right?

"For me personally, it started changing around the time of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey. They were so long — I'm a super hardcore, dedicated Assassin's Creed fan, but when I realized I have played Odyssey for 100 hours and I'm not even finished it… With real life happening around you, it's very, very hard to get that commitment."

To this end, he tells us Dying Light: The Beast has been designed to last around 20 hours, which is the "sweet spot between too short and too long" and ensures the game "doesn't overstay its welcome."

"From the developer perspective, some of the problems that the industry faces right now is that games get bigger and bigger," he continues. "They have bigger budgets, they take more time to produce. You have 500 people working on a game for five years, and in the end it might actually not be that successful."

"So for developers I think there's also some kind of an allure in spending less time, less money, less people on creating something that players will like. It gives you those shorter development cycles, and also the ability to try different things."

If shorter games benefit both players and developers, why are aren't we seeing even more of these? Logically, hundred-hour games should become more of an exception, but Smektała argues that this is all the result of a long-running shift in the games market.

"There's some kind of inertia in the industry and that [obsession] about the number of hours a game can offer," he says.

"I think it's actually something that we'll see more of because the industry will see this as another way they can offer meaningful interactive entertainment to players. This might be a part of the future of games in general."

Finally, we discuss the decision to bring Dying Light: The Beast to the previous generation of consoles. It's historically unusual for developers to continue bringing titles to platforms four years after their successors have launched — and The Beast has yet to be given a release date, so the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will be even older when it launches.

"Well, as a developer, you always want to work with the best tech because that allows you to do more with the game," he admits. "It's not just the fidelity of the graphics but also the complexity of AI behaviors. Not many people understand that if you want to make AI that's smart and responsive, not based on some tricks, it actually costs a lot in terms of GPU and CPU. Modern tech allows you to do more of that.

"But you also want to reach as many players as possible."

Player reach is an understandable concern, especially as 50% of active PlayStation users are still on their PS4. It's an issue that even Grand Theft Auto 6 faces as a current-gen exclusive, as we discussed recently.

Smektała concludes: "With Dying Light, the situation was even more different because a lot of the Ultimate Edition owners [who receive The Beast for free in lieu of the cancelled DLC] are on the last gen. We didn't want to abandon them."