Continued updates and post-launch support is a big reason why the Dying Light franchise stayed relevant during a seven-year gap in releases, its former franchise director Tymon Smektala says.
While it might seem like an obvious concept, it's one that developer Techland didn't properly consider in the early days of the franchise. The Dying Light veteran said as much at a Digital Dragons panel attended by GamesRadar+, explaining that the team's original post-launch plan was "actually quite limited, because we wanted to release the game, respond maybe to some potential bugs [...], and then focus on the release of the two DLCs for that quarter."
Those updates sort of had a snowball effect, though. "Players are there, they are excited, they are supporting us, they want more of the game, so we did more. The appetite grew, they wanted even more, so we kept going," he says. "And, in the process, we had created a business model that was very unique at that time, and it's a triple-A game with long tail post-launch support."
Smektala sheds light on an internal initiate Techland called 10 in 12, the team's plan to put out 10 free DLCs in one calendar year. "Then it continued, and then it continued, and in the end, the support lasted for 10 years. Last year, we released a graphics update for Dying Light called Retouched."
Developing free updates with no new source of revenue won't work for every team, the ex-boss acknowledges, but he says it made sense for Techland because "it keeps the game on the hard drive, it builds the community trust, it makes the game sell for longer, and you can keep the price at a higher level." It also has the added effect of building hype for a sequel.
"If you can plan the production around this wisely, the game will give back."
