

The Walking Dead was the biggest show on the planet, the urban parkour movement was everywhere, and the original Dying Light was a clever mix that brought the best of those different extremes together. In many ways, Dying Light was a game that hit at the right time. The follow-up, Dying Light, represented a massive turning point: It was the breakout that allowed Techland to pivot to bigger and better things. But Techland would ultimately venture into the zombie subgenre with the hit Dead Island. While the name of Techland took a while to catch on, the developer has had its finger on the pulse of its audience, releasing successful games like the Western-inspired Call of Juarez series. Following early successes, Techland eventually developed its first game, Prawo Krwi (The Law of Blood), in 1995 - inspired by then-popular hits like Mortal Kombat and Streets of Rage. With many games seeing releases throughout Europe, Poland still needed a distributor, and Techland was one of a few companies that filled that void.
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Techland, founded by current CEO Paweł Marchewka, started as a middleman company to serve a growing audience of PC gamers in Poland during the early 1990s.
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Now we're this bigger company that's much more professional and driven, and we're out here to achieve big things."īefore Dying Light and the Call of Juarez series, Techland's first game was a side-scrolling beat-em-up named Prawo Krwi, which was inspired by Mortal Kombat. "It almost became this worldwide phenomenon. "Before the release of Dying Light 1, you could say that Techland was almost like this garage company things really changed after that," Smektała said. And this is all in the middle of a pandemic, no less. He's watched firsthand as Techland evolved from an obscure name to the developer behind one of 2022's biggest games. No one understands this more than lead game designer Tymon Smektała. See also: Dying Light 2 review: A post-apocalyptic Zombie wonderland

From small beginnings as a burgeoning Polish publisher to a force in big-budget action games, Dying Light 2 is Techland's most ambitious game yet. Though commonly associated with hits like Dying Light, Dead Island and the Call of Juarez franchises, Techland has a long and deep history within the Polish games industry, alongside other studios like CD Projekt Red and Blooper Team.
