Recall that in May 2020, an anonymous employee already talked about the situation in Techland: at that stage, Dying Light 2 suffered from an authoritarian leadership, a constant reworking of already approved elements, and staff outflow.

As Mankind found out, nothing has changed significantly since then. Moreover, one of the employees describes the studio’s current situation with the saying, “The fish rots from the head.” The characterization includes the management’s intolerance for criticism.

As soon as an expert undertakes to advise something contrary to the collegium’s opinion, they begin to remove him from the project and responsibilities. As a result, this person leaves on his own, or the case ends with dismissal, ”said one of McKind’s informants.

This, for example, happened with the development director of Techland, Pavel Zawodny. Not agreeing with the head of the studio Pavel Markevka (Pawel Marchewka), he went on vacation on the organization of the workflow, from which he never returned.

The conflict arose because Markevka considers it necessary, like “the eye of Sauron,” to follow every aspect of the development (plot, artistic component, advertising). The exception is programming, in which the manager does not understand anything.

The situation complicates Markevka’s tendency to change his own opinions under the influence of external factors. For example, as a result of a conversation with creative director Adrian Ciszewski.

It is also reported that Markevka is watching too closely the success of competitors in general and CD Projekt RED in particular: the head’s obsession with the achievements of the Polish studio is called “unhealthy. “

“One of his strictest design rules is that an idea cannot be integrated unless it has been successfully applied in another game,” said one Techland employee.

During production, the plot of Dying Light 2 was rewritten “six times or so. ” According to former Techland screenwriter Pawel Selinger, he had to work with the “monster of Frankenstein . “

As a result of constant changes, even those who have been working on Dying Light 2 for several years at this stage do not understand what the final game will look like and what its plot will be.

Besides, during the development of Dying Light 2, Techland employees were forced to put up tight budgetary limits and unrealistic deadlines set by management.

Dying Light 2 was originally planned by Markevka for release in 2019, but most of the staff already then realized that this dream would not come true. The reality turned out to be sadder: it’s 2021, and the game still doesn’t even have an approximate release date.