As we get closer to the September 19 release date for Dying Light: The Beast, developer Techland has now released a new blog post that offers some behind-the-scenes looks at the development of the upcoming title. Accompanying this post is a video, which you can check out below. The video is the first one of a planned series, and revolves around protagonist Kyle Crane, and how the studio designed the character after he spent a decade in imprisonment.
The video isn’t a long one, coming in at just under a minute. However, thanks to the blog post, we do get some insights into how Techland went about with designing Crane, and how the duality of his character helped further define his visual design. While Crane has an all-new model for Dying Light: The Beast, Techland also wanted to acknowledge the character’s history with small touches, like a scar he got from the first Dying Light.
“His model went through multiple refreshes, until we reached a look that felt authentic,” explained the studio. “The goal was to show, in his face and body, what over a decade of imprisonment and torture did to him. His body carries scars and marks left by experiments. We didn’t just design random wounds – we thought carefully about what kinds of experiments he might have been subjected to, and what kind of traces they would leave behind. We also had to make sure his body reflects the events of the past, such as (spoiler alert) the scar from the final fight with Rais in DL1.”
As for defining the duality of Crane, the studio opted to have unique motifs for each side of his body. Crane’s left side represents his human side, while his ride side is meant to be darker and more sinister – the titular beast. This means that while the left side has various things like the watch from Dying Light and Jade’s necklace wrapped around his wrist, the right side of his body has things like a scar across half his face, and his corrupted eye.
“Even his outfit and gear were designed with intention,” Techland wrote. “Nothing about Kyle’s look is random. His radio, his clothing, his accessories – everything was chosen to fit his story. As an example, we added a small immersive detail with his walkie-talkie: at the beginning of the game, its battery is full, but by the end, it’s close to 0%. These tiny touches matter to us, and it’s always rewarding when players notice them.”
Developers from Techland also spoke about how they went about with animating Kyle Crane for Dying Light: The Beast, while still hanging on to threads that helped define the character in the original Dying Light. For example, while the studio doesn’t want identical gameplay animations from Dying Light in the upcoming game, the animators do want to be inspired by the older title’s animations to reflect Crane’s muscle memory, personality, and fighting style.
Dying Light: The Beast is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The PC and current-gen consoles will be getting the title on September 19, while the PS4 and Xbox One versions are set for a later date.
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