Announced at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event,Dying Light: The Beastis a new standalone open-world zombie adventure from Techland. ThoughDying Light: The Beastis set in a brand new region for the franchise and will feature a wealth of new gameplay features, it’s hearkening back to the series' roots in one major way: Kyle Crane is back.
After a somewhat ambiguous ending inDying Light’s The Following expansion, fans have spent the last decade asking Techland about Kyle Crane’s fate, and those questions are finally being answered.Dying Light: The Beastwill see players take control of Kyle Crane once more, though he’s not quite the same protagonist fans remember him to be.Dying Light’s franchise director Tymon Smektala, art Director Katarzyna Tarnacka, and the voice of Kyle Crane himself, Roger Craig Smith, all sat down with Game Rant to discuss the return of Kyle Crane and the decisions that went into makingDying Light: The Beast.The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Dying Light: The Beast and the Return of Kyle Crane
Q. What’s it like to finally have Kyle Crane back, and what would you say to fans who have waited this long for Kyle Crane?
Smektala:For us, it’s super energizing. The decision to makeKyle Crane the protagonist ofDying Light:The Beastreally gave us a boost of energy and inspiration for the whole project. We feel like we’re 10 years younger because of it. The creative juices and the energy are definitely there. Fans have been waiting for this. The excitement is there, and we share the excitement.
Smith:I cannot believe it’ll be 10 years in January [sinceDying Lightreleased]. I was shocked, to be honest, when this came around. I’ve had – for 10 years – fans coming up to me at conventions and things like that asking, “Do you think Crane will ever come back?” and I’m like, “I don’t know… did you see the way it ended?”
I am thrilled and honored to get to step back into something like this, and I think Kyle as a character is just so much fun to voice because he’s sort of reactionary and snarky. He doesn’t seem like a superhero, he seems like a very normal guy in a very abnormal set of circumstances. Now he’s on more of a hellbent, revenge, rage mode. The fact that he’s back is surreal for me too. From an acting perspective, it’s always an honor. From a game perspective, it just goes to show how strong of a gameDying Light 1was, and how much of a connection it created with fans of the game.
Q. In terms of Kyle Crane’s story, what kind of role is the game supposed to serve as part of the franchise?
Smith:I don’t want to hear the answer!
Smektala:What can I say? I think it answers the most important questions for players regarding the first game, definitely. I think that’s the most I can say. You will learn how this is connected to the first game, but you’ll also discover how it’s connected to the second one. For me, it’s something that if you ever playedDying Light, you need to play this because you’ll learn a lot. Talking about the future,howDying Light: The Beastends, and what happens later, of course, we cannot say.
Techland’s Approach to Designing Dying Light: The Beast’s New Location
Q. Techland is very community-driven. How have the fans impacted any decision-making going intoDying Light: The Beast?
Smektala:First of all, the feedback we received fromDying Light 1and2changed the balance of gameplay elements that make upDying Light:the parkour, the combat, and the day and night cycle. All of this has evolved based on player comments. Fans have also impactedThe Beastin that itstarted as a DLC forDying Light 2, but they were so eager to learn about the DLC that they managed to leak the story for DLC 2.
This made us start thinking about bringing Kyle Crane back as a protagonist. There are various ways the community impactedDying Light: The Beast, but I think what fans will get withThe Beastis something that will really deliver on expectations and give them what they want.
Q. How does the setting of Castor Woods differ from Harran and Villedor?
Tarnacka:Villedor is a special place because it has walls, and it has its own rules. Now we are going outside of those walls.
Smektala:With Villedor, we were working on a big scale: ahuge city with big skyscrapers, mostly urban versus more rural. Because of that scale, in Villedor, we couldn’t pay that much attention to detail.
Tarnacka:All the buildings in Castor Woods are handcrafted and hand-placed. Every tiny bit of the map has had the focus of the developers. I am so fortunate to be working with them. They’re people who worked onDying Light 1and evenDead Island. This is a very different approach fromDying Light 2, andit’s so much fun to be working on different environments and have them be divided into different vibes, like the industrial area, the farmlands, the mountains, the woods, and the river area.
Smektala:Katarzyna has a very keen eye for details. I know most players just run through the environment, right? They fight zombies and don’t care that much, but if you stop and look around, everything has a meaning, everything has some sense. Like if there’s an object that should be on the table, it will be on the table. It’s all super believable, super immersive, and thoroughly thought of. I think players are in for a treat.
Q. While watching theDying Light: The Beasttrailer, I noticed someThe Followingvibes. Was that intentional?
Smektala:Yes. A huge part of the team is people who have worked onDying LightandThe Following. For us,Dying Light: The Followingwas the best project. When you work on something big likeDying Light 1orDying Light 2,there’s a lot of pressure. Everyone expects you to do something big.The Followingwas kind of smaller. The pressure was off because we knew already thatDying Light 1was successful. We could breathe more easily and have more fun working on the game.
Tarnacka:It felt like fun and less like work.
Smektala:Exactly. I think that spirit is here as well. We don’t feel as much pressure. Of course, it’s still something you have to pay respect to and pay homage to because of the expectations of players, but it feels different. It feels really liberating, less restrictive, and like there’s more freedom and more fun. Hopefully, that feeling will be conveyed to players when the game’s released.
Q.Dying Light 2has gotten a lot of support. We’ve seen changes to parkour, nighttime, and more. You mentioned thatDying Light: The Beastevolves all of these elements. What’s the underlying idea behind each iteration of these systems?
Smektala:We really want to makeDying Lightthe ultimate zombie experience. Like when you ask someone aboutthe military shooter genre, the first thing they probably say isCall of Duty. We kind of want something like this. Everything we do is driven by this overall goal. To get to this goal, we need to offer the most immersive zombie experience.
When we have something likeDying Light: The Beast, we are looking at the elements that fit this particular experience. For example, we have Kyle Crane who – because of some experiments – gets access to those special beast-like powers. Then we focus on that, and we really want those to be polished and to add to the overall feel. Now, when we have a new environment that is less urban, has more open spaces, then we think about how we add traversal to it, like adding a vehicle.Dying Lightstarted as a parkour game, but it’s not only about parkour, it’s about you freely – without any barriers – traversing the environment, so vehicles make sense.
We have our core, which is day/night experience, parkour, natural movement, and combat. In each process, we tried to find something that would fit what the project is about. ForDying Light: The Beastit’s definitely Kyle Crane, Roger Craig Smith voicing him, and the skills and powers he uses.
How Roger Craig Smith’s Kyle Crane Has Changed Over the Last Decade
Q. 10 years later, does it feel any different voicing Kyle Crane?
Smith:Without a doubt. You’d have to understand what Kyle was going through 13 years prior, and without divulging too much, what he’s been through in the last 13 years is a lot. He’s changed. We don’t want to lose Kyle Crane, we don’t want to lose that element we like about him, but he’s been altered by this experience. It definitely has a different vibe for me. Just trying to understand how we sprinkle in little elements of the Kyle we do know. But Kyle has been altered by 13 years of these brutal experiments. Skirting spoilers, this isnot the same Kyle Crane, but it is still Kyle Crane. It’s Kyle Crane altered.
Smektala:It took us some time to discover that. Some of the takes we recorded felt like the Kyle Crane from before. We hear it’s Kyle Crane, but it’s notDying Light 1, it’sDying Light: The Beast, it’s a new game. So it needs to be different. With Roger, you have those discussions, and then he does the next take, and you hear that. Now you understand that this guy went through something, he’s older, he’s matured, he experienced something, and has a new outlook.
Smith:There’s one line in the demo that’s so simple, but it emulates that connectivity. When she says “Be careful,” and Kyle goes “Yeah…right.” There’s a little bit of sarcasm. The old-school Kyle would have been like “Are you kidding me?” He would’ve been a little effusive in his language. That’s the connective tissue. There are a lot of times that you just don’t get the opportunity to visit something, do it again, and have someone be collaborative in that way, and Techland’s been phenomenal with that.
Q. So you’ve played quite a few characters who do parkour. What differences have you seen voicing these different parkour acts?
Smith:It’s always different. Even with this, with Kyle Crane now, there’s a little bit more of “Would he be that tired? Would he be that worn out? Would he be that affected? Would he be that upset?” That, to me, is living in the moment with your creative team and just taking their direction and hoping that I get to execute on something they wanted. But I don’t have a different approach to a parkour character as opposed to any other character I might be voicing.
Q. You mentionedDying Light 2is still going to receive the years of support you promised. Are there any plans to supportDying Light: The Beast?
Smektala:We’re not really revealing much about this. Right now, we really want to focus on the message that Kyle Crane is back, that we have a new game coming, and that it’s anopen-world zombie adventurethat’s standalone with lots of gameplay mechanics. Of course, we’ll have some plans for post-launch, but we’ll have to talk about this later.
How Techland Feels About Kyle Crane Returning After 10 Years
Q. You said earlier that Kyle Crane being back makes you feel 10 years younger. Can you expand on that?
Smektala:Dying Lightwas the first game I worked on. I came from a journalistic background, so I entered the gaming industry withDying Light. It was a game I liked. I like open-world, I like zombies, and the character embodied the whole open-world zombie genre for me.
After 10 years of being a game designer, it’s kind of spoiled games for me. Now, when I see a new game, I instantly analyze it. It’s very hard for me to get excited about games now, unfortunately, which is something I don’t like about being a professional in the video game industry. You cannot really look at a game with fresh eyes or the excitement of a gamer. With this project, I’m actually getting this back. I play the game and I enjoy it. I like every climb, every hit. I really feel like I have transferred to 10 years earlier, and I still get excited about making this game.
Tarnacka:For me, it’s very nostalgic because – very similar to Tymon –Dying Light 1was my first game. Playing hundreds of hours while testing the environments that I build, I hear you [Roger Craig Smith], I hear Kyle. He’s very personal to me, like I know him. He feels like an old friend coming back, and when I first heard Smith’s voice implemented into the game, it was actually quite moving. I relate to what Tymon said about feeling like I’m 10 years younger. It feels like coming home.
What’s amazing is that about half the team was working onDying Light, and it feels the same. It connects us in a very special way. It’s going to be a special project for us. I think we’re going to remember it the same way we rememberThe Following.
Smith:Imagine sitting across and hearing that. I’m an actor. I take a job, and I’m thrilled and honored to be a part of any project. We usually come in late in the game, and it’s such a big collaborative thing. It’s their dream, their execution, and then you get this lucky chance. To be a voice in a video game is so cool, and it’s such an honor.
Then all of a sudden, this comes around, you’ve got a little white in the beard, and you start thinking, “Wow, 10 years already?” But the fact that’s happened for me – to get to revisit a character like this – is surreal. I’m the lucky guy who gets to step in and have fun. They’ve got all the work.
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