Dying Light 2 studio Techland is working on an open-world fantasy RPG with former Witcher devs

Dying Light 2 developer Techland is hiring for an open-world fantasy action-RPG positioned as its next big project.

The studio half-announced the unnamed project earlier today as part of a hiring push. Techland CEO Paweł Marchewka reiterated the studio's commitment to supporting Dying Light 2 for at least five years, but says now is also the time to fill out the studio's teams to support other projects. 

"Our ambition is to introduce a brand new IP that is vastly different from what we have been doing for the past several years," Marchewka  says. "We want to create a fully next-gen experience. A new fantasy epic set in a sprawling open world, fueled by the skills and experience we have gained as a team over the years, infused with new ideas, passion, and creativity." 

Techland is looking to fill multiple positions for the team behind this unnamed fantasy game (as well as the team supporting ongoing work for Dying Light 2), but it's already filled a few key positions with some stand

Narrative director Karolina Stachyra and narrative lead Arkadiusz Borowik are standout hires as they've both previously worked on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and DLCs for both games. Open world director Bartosz Ochman, previously on Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, brings yet more CD Projekt Red DNA to the project. 

The team also includes veterans from other big open-world titles, including creative director Mario Maltezos (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at Ubisoft, Mad Max at Warner Bros.); lead game designer David McClure (Deathloop at Arkane Studios, with experience at Deep Silver and Playground Games); and lead animator Kevin Quaid (Horizon Zero Dawn and The Frozen Wilds at Guerilla Games).

The first concept art for Techland's fantasy game features crumbling, violet flower-dotted ruins nestled in a mess of waterfalls, giving it an overall ancient and tropical aesthetic. A few job listings at the studio mention artistic details like effects for "explosions, flames, dust, sprays of water, effects of magic" as well as "developing the weather, times of day, and nature of lighting in different regions of an open-world game in accordance with their climate zones." 

Another listing mentions both first-person perspective and third-person perspective games, which could suggest Techland's fantasy title will be a third-person game thematically and functionally distinct from Dying Light 2's first-person zombie action. That said, the job listings are deliberately nonspecific, so we can't pull too much from them. 

Dying Light 2's first story DLC has been delayed, but free content will arrive in June.