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After the release of "Fading Light 2: The Battle Between Man and Benevolence" on February 4, it has achieved excellent results in word-of-mouth and sales, and the progress of this game is even more prominent than the original generation. One of Game Informer's highest-scoring games in this year's review, Fading Light 2 received a high score of 9.5 out of 10, and within 24 hours of its release, the number of simultaneous online players on PC exceeded the record for the previous game.
Gone with the Wind 2, a sequel that Techland has been developing for years, has been a huge success in every way. However, such results are not easy to come by, and after the game announced indefinite ticket hopping in 2020, the media The Gamer published a report on the situation of Techland, which revealed the lack of leadership, unclear direction and low morale within the studio. Less than a year ago, Techland released a statement saying the studio had dissolved its employment with Chris Avellone, the plot designer accused of sexual harassment.
Now that the sequel is officially released, players will ideally continue to play with various content updates over the next five years, and the development team that was nervous and expectant before the release is now excited.
The game's lead designer, Tymon Smectara, said, "Everyone is very, very excited that we're going to be able to successfully release the game. The game received a positive response, selling an astonishing 3 million copies in its first week and continuing to grow for a long time to come."
Smectara said the development process was difficult due to the game's sheer size and complexity. In addition, this game is also the sequel to the 2015 hit "Fading Light", Techland has been constantly updating the original for more than 7 years, and the sequel is to show comprehensive progress on this basis.
"It requires us to play at our best, but we're happy to take on the challenge and are happy to see that the player community has given us a lot of positive feedback," smectara said.
Smectara said the development team took a break after the launch and has now begun production of the follow-up content. Techland has set a 5-year DLC plan for Gone With The Light 2, though Smectara said in an interview that the development team has decided to produce more than it has announced. Techland has always had plans to keep the game updated after it goes on sale, but the 5-year deadline was set at the end of last year.
Smectara said, "We have many reasons to believe that it's important to stay updated long after the game's release. One of the reasons for that is that I think we created, or discovered, the theorem that treating the player community well, collaborating with the player community, and serving the player community is very beneficial for game developers. Luckily, we're both the developer and publisher of the game, and we also own the game's intellectual property. So we can run the game in two capacities and benefit from the game's long-term maintenance updates."
Smectara said the decision to make a major update to Gone with the Light 2 after its release was stressful for the production team. But they're also very motivated, because they know that as long as they serve content, players will support them like the original Fading Light. This confidence has also allowed Techland to expand its workforce and prepare for a future affected by the pandemic.
Smectara said, "As a game maker, we've grown a lot along the way. Now that we've gained a deeper understanding of the production of games and have many new colleagues joining Techland, all of whom are professionals from different studios with different project histories, we're better prepared to run such a large-scale project."
In Smectara's opinion, what surprised them most after the game was released was that many players soon had 100, 200 or even 300 hours of play time. They were also surprised that players who had already experienced a lot of the content in Fading Light 2 were quick to ask for new content, with the highest demands for new game modes, camera modes, and additional game difficulty.
"We're currently working on this content, and I don't want to go into too many details about that, but soon you'll be able to see it updated into the game in various forms," Smectara said.
All game studios, including Techland, face the challenge of not only meeting a certain part of the player base in subsequent content updates, but also taking care of the needs of all players as much as possible. Smectara said they had to take into account all the circumstances so that the content that followed would meet the diverse demands of Fading Light 2's "very diverse" player community. That's what they're going to do for the next 5 years, and for now, Techland is very serious about what they plan for the first year.
"We've released a detailed roadmap for the first year of updates, but players are about to find out that there's more on this map, and we cordially invite everyone to come to the game and really experience what will be updated into the game in the first year," smectara said.
When it comes to what kind of content will be available, Smectara said that the first year's update will include content related to online games, single-player games and story. Other updates include parkour content similar to new parkour challenges recently added to the game, as well as melee-related updates. Smectara believes that no matter what the update, the most important goal is to bring a sense of surprise to the player. He likened the production team's vision of DLC to the "chocolate box theory" in the movie Forrest Gump, in which players never know what they'll experience until they actually play it.
Smectara said: "We don't want to go into a routine mode so that players can guess what the new content will look like. Taking the first plot of the planned DLC as an example, I have seen a lot of speculation about the content of the DLC on the Internet, and I can tell you with certainty that none of these claims are close to the actual content."
Players who have completed Lost Light 2 know that the game's plot ending is directly related to some choices. The choice is naturally in the hands of the player, but these choices also bring the protagonist Aiden and his allies and enemies a follow-up plot, especially for the development of these people's plots in the plot DLC. At present, the production team is not ready to touch this direction, and they choose to create plot content that is "not very related to the main plot".
Smectara said: "At some point, we will start to add stories that take place after the main storyline ends. We've got some ideas for that, and the content in these plans is in the implementation phase and we're going to meet the players, but making it's definitely a challenge for us."
Despite the challenges the production team faced, Smectara used the word "excitement" when talking about how the developers felt about it. They're excited about the game's successful release, their players' approval, and their future content.
Smectara said: "We really can't wait to see how players experience this new content, because some of our ideas can be said to be quite unique. Some ideas may feel off the beaten path, and when we update the actual line we'll see feedback from players, and I'm personally very optimistic about that. All of this content will be produced in the coming weeks and will be available in the next one to three months or so."
Translation: Liu Sheng's non-love sword
Edit: Tonkotsu ramen