It's very rare for a largely single-player game to receive closed betas post-launch, but that's possibly on the cards for Dying Light 2. Game Rant recently spoke with franchise director Tymon Smektala about the numerous changes being made this year, including large overhauls to Dying Light 2's combat, parkour, and nighttime experiences. Game development is usually very secretive and hush-hush, aside from any planned marketing reveals, but Smektala and Techland don't want to just say they are listening to community feedback—they want the community to be involved. In the coming weeks, Smektala said the community will see Techland invite some of them "more and more into the conversation about the game."

Specifically, Dying Light 2 developer Techland wants to share with the community some details about its design process, as well as how the development team intends to solve different challenges and implement different features. Specifics were not discussed, but based on the Dying Light 2 roadmap, fans may have some idea. Furthermore, Techland is "also thinking about having closed betas for our inner circle of players who are the most engaged and interested in helping us shape the game. There are a couple of big ideas we have on the table."

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This led to a discussion on why game development is so secretive. There's an old idiom about not seeing how the sausage gets made, and in this case, this could refer to how many fans who love video games may not be as intrigued by the process as they think. There's a certain layer of mystique that may not be as appealing if pulled back.

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At the same time, there is certainly a layer of competition with other game developers and publishers, but for many, that may not excuse the secrecy past a certain stage. Techland's answer to this is to involve the players, who Smektala says are sometimes smarter about what Dying Light 2 should be in the future. When asked why he thinks game development tends to be so secretive, he responded,

To be honest, we actually had this conversation, and that's what we want to change this year. I think no one knows at this point. I think this is something that became a norm in the industry some time ago, and everyone follows it as if this is the only way to do it. I don't think this is actually the only way to do it. Because of everything that happened on the internet over the past few years, basically how the world changed over the last few years, we have seen a lot of studios adopting different approaches to development.

Smektala did acknowledge possible reasons, pointing out that the "the game industry is a quite risky and tough business. You start working on a project, and this projects takes you 3-4 years to complete. It costs a lot of money, and you want to surprise people to make sure no one else creates the same thing as you do, before you for example." He continued, "Maybe that's the reason for the secrecy, but it doesn't need to be that way. We plan to change that this year."

Indeed, the past few years have seen developers and publishers attempt to engage with and involve players in all new ways. The continued Nintendo Direct format is incredibly popular, and the reception to the Xbox Bethesda Developer_Direct was incredibly well-received. But there are still more ways to do it, especially in the development and decision-making process. Of course, Smektala was specifically speaking to these facets, development and decision-making, and not things like marketing. He acknowledged that developers need to retain some surprises, no one enjoys spoilers or going into a game knowing every single detail about it, but that doesn't mean complete and utter secrecy is required either.

Dying Light 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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