Dying Light 2: Stay Human

Reloaded Edition

February 2024

PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 4, Xbox One

I joined Techland in November 2022, a few months after the release of Dying Light 2: Stay Human.

At first, I worked on simple GaaS events (design and implementation) to learn the engine and systems.

Later, I took responsibility for designing and implementing new gameplay features and quality-of-life changes.

Two years of Live Ops work culminated in the release of DL2: Reloaded Edition.

GRE Aberrations

Replayable Boss Fights

I was assigned the task of taking existing one-time boss fights and making them replayable.

To do so, I studied the original design in depth, looking for ways to enhance and expand it to reach its full potential.

The original core design included:

  • The boss jumping between arena points, giving players short windows to deal melee damage
  • A moveset combining ranged, AoE, and melee attacks to interrupt overexploitation
  • Minion summons at the start of each phase

My contributions were:

  • Adjusting and refining AI pacing to better fit an endgame activity
  • Designing unique boss movesets and minions for each arena (12 in total)
  • Building balance sheets based on average endgame player stats provided by the analytics team

Finally, to distinguish them from the base versions, we introduced a new name:
GRE Anomalies → GRE Aberrations (cool af, omg)

Combat AI variants

Through the Live Ops, I also had the chance to work on several AI archetype variants:

  • Goon Caller: miniboss with increased speed in its moveset, compared to its parent (Goon), which calls supporting minions
  • Minion Banshee: faster and with a shorter window of opportunity
  • Several custom AIs for Quest Design team
  • Several variants and prototypes for all the available archetypes

Firearms

In the early stages of DL: The Beast, I was responsible for creating the very first firearms prototypes.

Due to publishing plans, it was later decided to bring firearms into Dying Light 2, and I was assigned the role of Feature Design Owner.

Since DL2 is a melee-focused game, the trial for us was to balance the perceived power of firearms while still preserving the overall challenge of combat.

To achieve this, firearms were designed to be easy to learn, but hard to master (I know, the usual):

  • Punishing recoil and fire spread when spamming bullets
  • Damage drop-off over distance
  • Noise generation with a high chance of attracting Virals (fast zombies) and breaking player stealth

To complete the feature, I took care of:

  • Game feel and responsiveness
  • Hit reactions matrix and FPP animations iterations (with Anim team)
  • Recoil and Fire Spread patterns
  • Damage calculations, considering 9 tiers, damage drop-offs, bullets per kill, and magazine size

Quality of Life &
Live Ops

Some of my other tasks included:

  • Responsiveness enhancements for sync-actions and gameplay animations
  • Rational analysis of Combat Skill Tree, providing design/tutorial adjustments where needed
  • Periodical GaaS events, consisting of a few twisted mechanics to keep players engaged in different activities

Explore the other projects

Want to talk?

contact@antoniogiorgione.com

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