Dying Light dev recalls being told no one wanted to “play zombie games” anymore, but …

Techland’s Dying Light released at the perfect time: heralding a new generation of consoles, the game was a perfect storm of open-world design, zombie action, co-op gameplay and survival-crafting mechanics. To this day, thousands of people are still playing the original game every day,

In an interview with VideoGamer, Dying Light lead programmer Andrezej Blumenfeld explained that there were times when the success of the game was heavily doubted. Releasing as the zombie game cliché was getting old, there was some worry that the game wouldn’t be received well.

“I can tell you that from the perspective at the time when we were working we were hearing very often that, maybe not from management, but from the people who were walking through the company, ‘there are people still wanting to play zombie games?’” Blumenfeld said in an upcoming episode of the VideoGamer Podcast.

Blumenfeld, who left Techland to start Forever Skies developer Far From Home, explained that it was a surprise to see just how long the team could support the first game. However, they’re not shocked to see the game’s continued support over the past decade. With massive expansions alongside continued DLCs, the team was only able to keep supporting the title because of the game’s constant fanbase, one that still plays to this day.

“It was really huge fun to play,” the game developer said. “It was like a lot of mechanics designed in a way to make sure that they are working as [the] community wanted to… and this was like a perfect synergy. So I’m not really shocked that the game is still supported, if it is, because [of] the community. I would be shocked if there was no one playing and someone who decided to still, you know, support the game.”

For Blumenfeld, this method of keeping a game alive has been an important lesson. While the just-released Forever Skies may not have the decade-long lifespan of Dying Light, it will survive as long as fans support it.

“This is something we learned at Techland,” he said. “You know, with Dying Light 1 or Dying Light 2, support for the game… it was made for a very long time. We’re trying to make sure that people always have something to do. I think Dying Light 1 was seven years [old] when the game was supported.”

“In our case, we’re going to support it as long as possible,” the developer continued. “It’s not only from the financial aspect. It’s also about making sure that the trusted community that give us so much effort try to give them back as much as possible to make sure that Forever Skies is based for them.”

While Far From Home isn’t selling the millions of copies that Dying Light has, the team is going very strong for its debut release. In the last two weeks, the survival game has sold over 100,000 copies with a previous 400,000 copies sold on PlayStation and PC in the past. It just goes to show that the Techland work ethic never truly dies, even once you depart the company, and supporting the community always leads to a better, longer future.

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