Dying Light 2 Dev On Crunch: ‘We Make Sure There’s A Plan In Place At All Times’

Crunch is a terrible practice where developers will work long hours towards the end of development to get a game past the finish line. It’s been seen as a necessary evil for years in the gaming industry, but recent exposure to the practice has seen many developers taking a stance against it.

Techland has had a chequered past with reports from Feburary 2021 on how staff are treated and their high turnover. With multiple reports of management leading with some terrible ethics and practices, it’s great to see that Techland have a fresh approach to the development cycle.

Interview: Dying Light 2’s Tymon Smektała On Evolving Games

Speaking with Dying Light 2s lead game designer Tymon Smektała, we brought up crunch when talking about the recent delay of Dying Light 2s first major story DLC. We also asked about how he and Techland deal with setbacks during development.

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Crunch: Techland’s New Approach

Tymon explains that game development is complicated, and something at some point will go wrong. The good news is that he always makes sure a plan is put into place before pushing forward.

He also points out that whilst he and the management team avoid crunch, many developers want to put a bit of extra time in for their portfolios anyway. Here’s the full quote:

Credit: Techland

“When working on a game, there’s an understanding that things aren’t going to go to plan at some point. Game development is extremely complicated. I don’t know about spaceships, but I’m sure they are far less complicated.

“With intricate digital machinery such as a game, something is bound to happen in production. I think every developer understands that they need to be flexible and find a solution to the issue.

“We will sometimes take a week or more to stop production and develop a plan to solve an issue to eventually complete the game. The important thing for me is that there always needs to be a plan.

“We try not to have any crunch time, and it’s not something we want our teams doing. Often our teams find it hard to not do that extra hour here and there to get their project done. This isn’t just for Techland; this is their portfolio and a piece of art; they want to achieve as much as possible.

“As I said, we tend to stay away from and avoid crunch, which also goes back to making sure there’s a plan in place at all times.”

Haven’t played the game yet? You can buy Dying Light 2: Stay Human from £39.95.

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