“Human Touches Really Make Castor Woods Stand Out” How Techland is Breathing Life Into Dying Light: The Beast’s Setting

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For more than ten years, the Dying Light series has featured two main environments: Harran from the original Dying Light, and Villedor in Dying Light 2. These vast urban landscapes are filled with towering skyscrapers, industrial zones, and residential areas, all ideal for the unique mix of zombie combat and realistic parkour that defines this series. However, the upcoming expansion, Dying Light: The Beast, introduces a fresh setting to the mix.

Switching from the urban jungles of Dying Light 1 and 2, Dying Light: The Beast will take players to Castor Woods, a more rural and natural environment that includes navigating the rooftops of a small town and running through its surrounding forests. In a recent interview with Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektala, he provided insights into this new setting and explained how Techland is working hard to make Castor Woods feel like a vibrant, alive space.

Dying Light: The Beast’s World Is Hand-Crafted and Filled With “Human Touches”

Crafting an engaging open-world video game involves a crucial focus on environmental design. Every detail, from a building’s structure to the placement of specific items and subtle hidden elements, contributes to establishing a consistent, inhabited environment that draws players into the game’s universe. Developers like Techland, who worked on Dying Light: The Beast, recognize this significance and prioritize giving their environmental artists the freedom to excel in their work.

To create a vibrant, lived-in atmosphere in Castor Woods, we encouraged our artists to fully express their creativity and skills. Our instruction to the team was simple: carefully examine every corner of the map and ensure that each area appears distinct, crafted by hand, and inhabited.

In creating Dying Light: The Beast, Katarzyna Tarnacka-Polito’s art team seemed to infuse the world of Castor Woods with a sense of liveliness. To achieve this, they incorporated some personal memories from their real lives into the environmental design. This means that certain items from the real lives of the development team were subtly included in Dying Light: The Beast.

What sets it apart is the inclusion of actual, real-world objects within the game, such as the lion-themed blanket visible in the safe zone during gameplay. This item actually belonged to a grandmother of one of the developers, Katarzyna! The environment is filled with these types of stories, and these personal touches are what truly make Castor Woods distinctive.

subtleties of human nature, such as this one, can significantly enhance the immersion experienced in Castor Woods, surpassing even the intricacies found in Harran from Dying Light and Villedor in Dying Light 2. However, these atmospheric details are merely a single aspect contributing to the overall experience.

How Dying Light: The Beast Is Using New Tech to Make Castor Woods Feel Like a Real Place

About three years have passed since the release of Dying Light 2. Although advancements in modern gaming technology don’t usually occur rapidly within three years, developer Techland has gained valuable insights into their proprietary C-Engine during this period. They are now utilizing this accumulated knowledge to ensure that Castor Woods looks visually impressive.

We significantly revamped sections of our rendering code related to lighting and incorporated several overlooked features, such as the sun’s movement across the horizon. This, along with state-of-the-art material rendering techniques, greatly enhances the realism of the world. Additionally, we’ve given our weather system a major upgrade by introducing support for a broader range of weather conditions than previously.

Throughout the trailers for Dying Light: The Beast that have been released, the stunning visuals and ambiance of Castor Woods have stood out significantly. The lighting, especially, appears exceptionally impressive, as it skillfully captures the soft glow of the setting sun, creating some truly breathtaking scenes. It is hoped that this natural beauty will distinguish Dying Light: The Beast from its predecessors.

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2025-07-04 13:24