Dying Light: The Beast is the third mainline entry in the beloved franchise. As a threequel, it’s impossible to ignore the expectations set up for it by the past two games, especially given the return of Kyle Crane from Dying Light and the well-documented learnings of Dying Light 2. All the while, its franchise identity must remain at the fore, and Dying Light‘s core pillars are easy to identify: zombies, parkour, and hardcore nighttime experiences.
For Game Rant Advance, we spoke with Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała and Dying Light: The Beast game director Nathan Lemaire, among others, about the core pillars of the franchise and how they manifest in this upcoming installment. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Iconic Dying Light Parkour Experience
Game Rant: How would you define the parkour experience of the Dying Light franchise as opposed to other games that heavily feature or just include parkour? What makes Dying Light parkour Dying Light parkour?
Lemaire: Dying Light parkour is iconic because it blurs the line between traversal and combat. Players can transition from one to the other seamlessly, and this creates a unique flow that has become one of our pillars since the very first game.
Smektała: There are three important aspects of Dying Light parkour that make it stand out in the market.
First, we use parkour to deliver on the promise of “go anywhere, climb anything” that we gave players in the first game. Our goal back then was to break down any walls in the game world, give players the chance to truly go wherever they want, and give them the chance to peek behind any wall that they see.
Second, we use parkour to squeeze more gameplay into every second spent by players on the game. In most other games, traversal is a simple act of pushing the left stick forward, maybe making some course corrections from time to time. In Dying Light, traversal is gameplay, and our movement system keeps players constantly engaged. It’s actually quite a spectacle to see someone playing Dying Light; they’re so much in the zone that they play the game with their whole body, sitting on the edge of the seat and leaning forward with each jump. No other game really gives you that.
Third, we want players to feel almost like they’re parkouring themselves. That’s why we present parkour in FPP. That’s why we spend so much time on little details that highlight the physical connection between the player character and the geometry around, or underneath, him. Yes, there are more and more games that incorporate parkour in their gameplay loops, but no one focuses on these three areas at the same time.
Game Rant: On the development end, can you talk a little bit about how that parkour identity has evolved from the first game to now?
Lemaire: We are always refining our parkour while finding new ways for players to experience our traversal experience.
Smektała: We definitely got more confident in following our initial vision of delivering a parkour experience that doesn’t do too much handholding for players. That’s actually another learning from Dying Light 2: Stay Human. First-person parkour is actually a relatively difficult mechanic for a number of players to grasp, especially when it’s so unscripted and freeform as it is in our game, so we introduced a number of helpers to make it easier for players. We marked the optimal routes in the environment with yellow paint, we introduced some “assists” that were pulling players towards ledges even if they didn’t really make the jump, and we continued their wall runs even if the wall ended because we didn’t want to kill them too easily. These were all good solutions to the accessibility problem, but they also took away from the freedom and physicality of our parkour. That’s why we took a step back, removed these artificial helpers, and trusted both our instincts and the skills of our players. The Beast offers a proper, real, immersive parkour experience where you choose for yourself where to go, and if you make a mistake, you fall down.
Bringing Parkour into Dying Light: The Beast
Game Rant: What kind of improvements should players expect in Dying Light: The Beast?
Lemaire: One of the main improvements that we’ve made in terms of experience is the introduction of moments in the game, whether it is during Quest or in the open world, where players have a clear goal but no obvious way to reach it. It requires observations, sometimes a little puzzle solving, and for us, it was a nice way to diversify our Parkour experience. It might not really be Uncharted, but we’re definitely going in a similar direction with more focused, tight parkour puzzles sprinkled throughout the experience.
Smektała: Additionally, there are a number of small tweaks under the hood that make the whole parkouring experience a little bit more predictable and a little bit more realistic. We changed the general gravity used by the game, tweaked the trajectories of jumps, and increased the cone of turning when the player hangs on ledges. To be honest, we feel it’s rather hard to come up with something revolutionary and different in a realistic, physical FPP representation of parkour, so we’re just focusing on little details that make the runs more real and immersive.
Game Rant: Are there any parkour changes or abilities that relate to Kyle Crane’s experimentations?
Lemaire: Yes, some Beast Mode abilities are parkour-related.
Smektała: The majority of the Beast Mode skills are focused on wreaking havoc, but there are some that allow players to run faster, jump higher, etc. To be honest, we initially envisioned them mostly as tools that allow players to get even more mobile during combat encounters, but during playtests, we discovered that players are also using them as shortcuts for some of our environmental puzzles. The first reaction was obviously “we need to stop that!” but then we realized that it actually works well with the feeling of freedom Dying Light games are expected to deliver.
Bringing Parkour Into Castor Woods
Game Rant: Can you talk about the approach behind designing maps and locations for Castor Woods with such a heavy focus on parkour?
Lemaire: It is a very close collaboration between the different people responsible for building the world. We have basic metrics such as the length of jumps, min/max distance between ledges, and we craft a believable world with this information. This requires constant communication, and it is as challenging as it is fun to do!
Smektała: It’s actually a very long process—probably not overtly complex, definitely not as much as when we were working on the first game—but still one that requires cooperation of a number of disciplines. The programmers collaborate with level designers to come up with the correct metrics, and as soon as they settle on them, they become the foundation on which the world is built. The level artists apply their work on the levels created by level designers, but they also have to abide by a number of rules that tell them where and how to put the decorations not to break the parkour flow. The QA team relentlessly tests these environments to make sure all connections work, there are no unexpected obstacles on players’ paths, and sometimes goes back to gameplay programmers with requests for some code changes. This is an iterative process, one that lasts throughout the whole production, but we’re getting better and better at it.
Game Rant: Castor Woods has a few wilderness areas that may not be too inducive for parkour, but also a few denser areas. What does this kind of setting add to the parkour gameplay, the idea that some areas are more open to obvious parkour paths, but others require creativity?
Lemaire: Castor Woods offers parkour opportunities in every one of its biomes in different shapes and sizes. Traversing the old town is different from the industrial zone, but no less enjoyable. In Dying Light: The Beast, the vehicle also plays a significant role in traveling between areas.
Smektała: Actually, these environments add by removing, and even though we were initially very reluctant, we decided to allow ourselves to have areas where parkour is not so natural. The fear was that we’ll turn Dying Light into a “walking simulator,” that without the constant string of parkour moves, the combat will be much less exciting. What we discovered is that such areas add to the experience—mostly the horror, the survival aspect of it—and I think we’ll roll with these discoveries in the future. The Beast gave us the confidence that we can create a meaningful Dying Light experience in an environment that is not all about wall runs, slides, and big jumps.
How Dying Light: The Beast’s World Reacts to Parkour
Game Rant: How challenging would you say the parkour and platforming are in Dying Light: The Beast?
Lemaire: Our focus is to make traversal a very thrilling experience, and for that to happen, we need to keep players in this particular flow. The challenge comes from learning the world and identifying all the opportunities offering an optimal parkour experience.
Smektała: It’s not challenging, as long as you get the basics. I saw players sitting in front of Dying Light and constantly pressing “A” on the controller, not sure why it doesn’t make them jump, but as soon as you get that your “parkour button” is RB, it makes sense to be like it as this allows you to keep your right thumb on a stick, maintaining full control over the camera. As soon as you grasp the general feel of distance, it’s not challenging at all. There are ways to master the mechanic, but it’s not needed to fully enjoy the game.
Game Rant: How will enemies react and respond to parkour tools and tricks that players have in Dying Light: The Beast?
Lemaire: Apart from some special infected that are fast enough to catch you or target you at long range, the player’s parkour abilities are a very effective way to manage crowds of infected. When it comes to humans, specifically firearms users, they will have a harder time catching a player quickly moving. Sometimes, they might even mention it!
Game Rant: Perhaps most importantly, could you specifically talk about the design process in dropkicking zombies?
Lemaire: As one of our most iconic moves, dropkicking always receives special attention in any of our projects. The intention is always the same: to provide players with this awesomely powerful and satisfying move while not making it an optimal strategy for all situations.
Smektała: For Dying Light: The Beast, we looked again at the physicality of the move. Due to some parkour assists used in Dying Light 2: Stay Human, the move felt a little too “slidey” for some players, so we took it into a magnifying glass and made it heavier and more grounded. This also meant we had to tweak the values for the ragdoll that triggers after a successful kick.
Dying Light: The Night is Full of Horror
Game Rant: Similar to parkour, can you define what makes the Dying Light franchise’s nighttime experience unique? And how has that evolved with the introduction of Dying Light: The Beast?
Lemaire: In the franchise, Night is not just a weather/light modifier; it is a whole experience. If during the day, you can freely move around infected and fight, the night is there to remind you that you are still prey. We transition from a survival action experience to a horror stealth experience.
Smektała: Since the start of the series, our goal was to create an entire “night experience,” not just a darker version of the regular one that you get during the day. We were joking that we’re creating a “2-in-1” type of game, but actually, these jokes hold a lot of merit. Both the day and the night part of the Dying Light experience play differently and use a lot of different rules; they really do change how you feel about your presence in the world, how vulnerable or fragile you feel, how you think, and what decisions you make as you play.
In The Beast, we’re again helped by the new environment, which adds a new, exciting shade to the experience. Our players are used to nights in the cities, but a night in the forest or a night in the swamps—even if it uses the same rules and mechanics—feels completely different.
Game Rant: What do you think is so iconic to the Dying Light nighttime experience that you couldn’t change about it, even if you wanted to?
Nathan Lemaire – The duality of approach between day and night. Night is focusing on being stealthy and more mindful of your environment. This change of pace is defining for us.
Tymon Smektała – Also, the dread of the upcoming night. The scariness of the night works not only because it’s full of dangerous enemies that can kill you with one swing, but it’s also because we’re building up anticipation for that moment to happen. The sounds fade out, the sky gets darker, the zombies pause for a few precious minutes, the watch beeps…and then you know already something bad is about to happen.
Game Rant: How does Dying Light: The Beast’s night improve tension compared to previous titles? What’s different about it this time around?
Lemaire: We wanted to get closer to our initial direction for the Night Experience that made Dying Light 1 so special. In Dying Light: The Beast, the night is about Volatiles, and they are as dangerous as ever. In addition, we leverage Castor Woods and its diversity to create memorable moments.
Dying Light’s Zombies and Bringing the Pillars Together
Game Rant: How has the zombie AI in Dying Light: The Beast changed or improved compared to previous titles?
Lemaire: We did many improvements to our archetypes, starting with our iconic biters. They are now more aggressive, pushing players to be more tactical in how they approach a group. Another example is with our Volatiles, where we tweaked their behavior to be clearer while not undermining how dangerous they are.
Game Rant: Zombie fans know what to expect from zombies as a genre staple, things like walkers, runners, bloaters, crawlers, things like that. What would you say makes a standard Dying Light zombie different from the stereotypical media zombie?
Smektała: To be honest, we don’t really aim to make them different; we aim to make them iconic. Our ultimate goal for the series is to make Dying Light the go-to zombie game, the ultimate zombie experience. Therefore, we don’t want to reinvent the genre, at least not yet. We want to make sure we hit all the classic points expected by the fans of zombie fiction. That’s why we have slow zombies, fast zombies, mutated zombies, night zombies, etc. Instead of coming up with new zombie types, our goal is to find the scary, the gruesome in their design and their behaviors. There are a lot of subtleties that make a difference between a “cartoon” zombie and a truly terrific monster, even a simple, slow-moving zombie can be. I won’t share all of our tricks, but just a little pro tip for someone who has been working on zombie games for 12+ years: look at how ferocious your zombies are; how determined they are to get the player; try to convey that as strongly as possible using all of the means possible like the character of animations, the sounds that they make.
Game Rant: Can you walk us through the creation of the new Chimera for Dying Light: The Beast? What inspired their design and behavior?
Lemaire: Chimeras are powered-up versions of our iconic special infected. They are bigger, stronger ,and all have unique abilities. We wanted to challenge players in all the different areas of our game across the story while creating memorable moments.
Game Rant: How have Volatile AI and movement patterns been tuned for nighttime to make them feel like apex predators?
Lemaire: Volatiles roam in a way that makes them very dangerous. As a player, you can, most of the time, anticipate where they are going, but they can also be unpredictable and disrupt your plan. In addition, they have a sharp hearing and will investigate the source of the noise, something that is as dangerous as exploitable for players.
Game Rant: Can you explain all the changes that take place with zombie swarms, appearances, AI, etc., when the sun sets in Dying Light: The Beast?
Lemaire: At night, the normal zombie population is slightly reduced, and Volatiles are roaming around. Players can also encounter Bolters, running infected, holding valuable
loot. It is also possible to come across situations where humans stayed outside for too long and were killed by infected, creating a pocket of danger, but with loot to get.
Game Rant: Can you talk a little bit about surviving the night? When caught outside a safe area, how does audio, darkness, visual obstructions, and all of that come into play?
Lemaire: Night is both something you encounter while playing normally and a time for opportunities. When going out at night, visibility is reduced and players need to use their flashlight, while avoiding directly using it on infected, as they can spot it and investigate. When chased by Volatiles, the dynamic changes. What was a stealth run becomes an escape situation where you need to lose their tails and try to hide, or run to the closest safe zone.
Game Rant: Crane is a survivor and has some special senses related to this as well. Can you talk about how these “survival senses” affect nighttime gameplay?
Lemaire: Kyle’s survivor sense is very useful, specifically at night, as it allows players to both spot looting opportunities and roaming volatiles, allowing them to react faster to any situation.
[END]
Dying Light: The Beast
- Released
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September 19, 2025
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Use of Drugs
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op
- Franchise
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Dying Light
- PC Release Date
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September 19, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
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September 19, 2025
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