Dying Light: The Beast News

We are thrilled to announce that Dying Light: The Beast has passed 1 million wishlists in less than 10 weeks, making it the fastest-wishlisted game in the Dying Light franchise! We’re overjoyed by this incredible support from our fans and can’t wait to reveal more about Castor Woods.

Thank you for believing in us and for your enthusiasm for Kyle Crane's next adventure. Your excitement fuels our passion, and we are committed to delivering an unforgettable experience.

If you haven’t already, wishlist Dying Light: The Beast now and subscribe to get all news, updates and behind-the-scenes dev blogs right when they are released.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3008130/Dying_Light_The_Beast/

[h3]Hi, can you spare a moment? 👋

We would love to hear your thoughts on the recently announced standalone game from the Dying Light franchise — Dying Light: The Beast.

Simply click the link and leave your feedback: https://go.dyinglight.com/DLTB_Steam_Survey 👈[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3008130/Dying_Light_The_Beast/

Hi! Tymon here, your friendly neighborhood Dying Light Franchise Director. Today I will take you behind the scenes of one of the least talked about, but extremely important, exciting and emotional aspects of game development: MUSIC!

Our soundtracks were always an integral part of the Dying Light franchise, as they created an unforgettable atmosphere in our games. For Dying Light: The Beast, we knew the music had to be something special, and to achieve that we’re once again teaming up with an amazing French composer — Olivier Deriviere.


So for this blog, I sat down with Olivier to discuss the creation of the soundtrack, including the announcement trailer music that gave you a taste of the mood of Dying Light: The Beast. We talked about the creative process, the challenges of expressing Kyle’s inner emotions, and much, much more. Let me share with you what I have learned during this fascinating conversation.

[h2]The secrets of the Dying Light: The Beast announcement trailer track
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With the announcement trailer of Dying Light: The Beast, we got a first glimpse of the new batch of music Olivier composed for the game. It was fascinating to learn that what we heard in the trailer will be part of the game’s soundtrack. Olivier shared that this was a bit uncommon for him.

“It is very rare in my approach because we usually create a separate, special trailer track” Olivier explained - “This time we decided to present an actual mood of the game by using a track taken right out of it. The franchise is moving on to a different realm now, and we wanted to convey this new direction to gamers — a direction that keeps the scary, visceral, brutal elements that the series is known for but also emphasizes the mature and serious more.”

I was curious if this track was created specifically for the trailer, however it turned out it existed much earlier. Of course, we couldn’t have included the whole thing and certain parts had to be adjusted to the video, but it all came together quite easily! “When the team at Techland sent over the trailer, I looked at it and I was like ‘Oh my God!’ [...] This track worked perfectly! It was super exciting for me to have the DNA of The Beast already out in the trailer.” - shared Olivier.

[h2]Kyle's evolution expressed through music
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Elements of the Dying Light: The Beast DNA mentioned by Olivier — realism, the visceral, brutal, scary, mature — are a very important aspect of this new game. So it was also fundamental for Olivier to capture it all in the soundtrack. That’s why this time it is not focused on storytelling, but on reflecting Kyle’s emotions, what he has been through and how it changed him. To achieve that, Olivier needed to get inside the character, so he played the game extensively. I really respect that way of composing the soundtrack for a game.

Olivier is not only a great composer, an artist, the creative soul behind it, but also a developer, a gamer who plays for many hours during the creative process. Olivier’s thoughts about it: “It’s very important for me to learn as much as possible about the main hero. I play the game a lot while composing the soundtrack — I often say that the game controller is my most important tool when I work — and it’s crucial for me to understand all the nuances and complexities of the character’s personality. In Dying Light: The Beast we meet Kyle after he escapes from 13 years of experiments. He’s different than he was in Dying Light 1, but at the same time “the old Kyle” is still around. The music explains the evolution of the character, but at the same time expresses his past.” As you can see on the image below, the controller is always on his desk!


The track used in the trailer is called “A Changed Man” and what you don’t know about and what I learnt from Olivier is that it blends elements from the original Dying Light soundtrack (composed by Polish composer — Paweł Błaszczak), with new sounds. “There are subtle elements in it that reminisce on the first Dying Light’s soundtrack, and I’m happy that players caught that.” - says Olivier - “But on top of that there’s this new sound in it, a new riff, which is all about loneliness, reflecting that Kyle was on his own, tortured, facing the experiments conducted by Baron. This riff shows that Kyle is dangerous, lethal and, especially at the beginning, he doesn’t trust anybody.”

[h2]Unveiling the creative process behind the Dying Light: The Beast soundtrack
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Olivier’s creative process involves a lot of collaboration, he discusses ideas with the team, the Creative Director and gathers as many inspirations from the game as possible.

“And then I start the creative process in my head, trying to translate it into music. Of course, I’m adding a lot from myself, but it’s a very collaborative way of working, as there’s always a vision for the game and we all combine our work to convey it. I need to understand the vision to be able to add to it with my music.”

For this project he worked, among others, with a guitar player Giani Caserotto to craft unique sounds. And what’s most interesting is that they didn’t use notes. Quite outstanding for a composer, right? “I told him” - remembers Olivier - “Listen, I don’t want notes, I don’t want music, I want something that is neither metal nor rock, but is as aggressive as those genres can be. At the same time, I wanted something that was aggressive but warm… and I know it sounded impossible, but we started challenging ourselves like that. So he started playing, searching for the right tones.”

I wondered if this time Olivier was using any unique instruments. I hope you remember (if not, let me remind you) that for the Dying Light 2 Stay Human soundtrack, Olivier, together with his friend, Nicolas Bras, created an instrument called the Electric Psaltery (screenshot below taken from one of Dying2Know More episodes).


This time his approach is more traditional, but with a twist. “Our guitar player, Giani Caserotto, has tons of pedals to create music (screenshot below) and he’s known in the world for creating the kind of sounds that we use in the Dying Light: The Beast soundtrack” - explains Deriviere. “We also have a drummer, Julien Lautelier, and the way we’re using drums is more… acoustic! So even though we’re searching for music that’s intense and aggressive, it is also meant to feel warm and organic. So the player will hear that this is not a machine playing but an actual drummer, using drums in a very subtle and unique way.”


Olivier wants players to experience his music in a way that doesn't make them feel comfortable, especially with "The Beast" sound. It should be scary, aggressive, and rough, yet also empowering and strong, emphasizing that Kyle is a powerful character.

For me, it’s amazing to see how a spontaneous moment of creativity can capture the essence of The Beast so perfectly. I was wondering if Olivier searches for inspiration through other means, like meditation in the woods with no eating and drinking, but what I got from him was: “I don’t know. It just happened. It’s a creative process, you can’t really put logic behind it.”

[h2]A fresh approach to Dying Light: The Beast's soundtrack
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“A Changed Man” wasn’t the first track Olivier has created for Dying Light: The Beast. He spilled the beans on another one, called “Kyle” which presents a previously unexplored level of emotions. Olivier explained that with this piece, we start to understand Kyle. That makes me even more excited to hear the whole soundtrack. It takes a little bit from both Dying Light and Dying Light 2 Stay Human soundtracks to form something unlike anything Olivier has done for the series so far. “Dying Light: The Beast is a different game, so we want to have a different approach. Yet, it will be dynamic but in another way. First of all, there will generally be less music, as we want the game to be more grounded in the sounds of the environment. Second, Kyle is not Aiden, and the story we want to tell with the music is different — it is much more personal, much more individual. It's not about the world but about the inner feelings of Kyle Crane, so the music will leave a lot of space for players to enjoy the immersion of the game. And when it kicks in, it will give you this adrenaline and these exact emotions.”

As you can see, the soundtrack of Dying Light: The Beast is not just a roam-in-the-forest background kind of music. It is an essential part of Kyle Crane’s journey and player’s immersion. Every tone is crafted with the purpose of pulling you even deeper into the gloomy forestry, the mysterious world of this new game.

I asked Olivier if there were any challenges for him in this project and his answer really surprised me: “Oh man, It’s always scary… Each time when I start I have a feeling that I have no idea how to do it, that I’ve never done this before… Then as I move forward with work I get a grip on it, but I’m always challenging myself somehow. With Dying Light: The Beast we don’t want to have too many notes, we want to have sounds, if that makes sense. The fewer notes, the better, at least for a big part of this particular soundtrack. So that’s the challenge there, as everything is very organic, real, coming from the inside.”

I wish you could see Olivier’s passion and the spark in his eyes that appears as soon as he starts talking about composing music. We can’t wait for you to experience this soundtrack yourself. Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes insights, as we’d like to share more of them with you soon. Until then, stay human… or I should say, just this once… unleash the beast!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3008130/Dying_Light_The_Beast/

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?

[h2]How Dying Light: The Beast came to life[/h2]
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! :)



[h2]Behind the scenes of recording the trailer[/h2]
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.

[h2]Where Dying Light: The Beast fits on the franchise timeline[/h2]
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!