Dying Light Boss Tymon Smektała Quits Techland At Series Peak

Tymon Smektała is leaving Techland. The franchise director who built Dying Light into one of the few zombie series anyone still talks about announced his exit on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in a short post shared across his social channels. He’s walking away from the studio he joined in 2013, eight months after Dying Light: The Beast turned into the biggest commercial moment of his career.

His departure lands at a strange time for Techland. The Beast cleared 1.5 million copies in its first week. Tencent now owns the studio. And the company is openly hiring designers to build a live-service Dying Light experience that none of the existing games are. Smektała is leaving the franchise just as it is being rewritten under him.

The Goodbye Post And What It Actually Says

Smektała’s farewell is short, warm, and notably forward-looking. He thanks the team, thanks the players, and frames the exit as the start of “a new chapter” without naming the next destination.

There’s no easy way to say it, so let me just say it: After years with Dying Light, I’m moving into a new chapter. It’s been an incredible journey, and I’m proud of what we’ve built. The franchise is in great hands, and I’m excited to see it grow even further. I can’t wait to experience its next chapter as a player. I’ll always root for Dying Light. Good night, and good luck.

The phrasing matters. “In great hands” is the language of a planned transition, not a dispute. There’s no mention of a new studio, no LinkedIn update yet, and no timeline for the handover. Techland has not named a successor publicly.

Twelve Years On The Same Franchise

Smektała joined Techland in May 2013 as a producer on the original Dying Light. He moved up to lead designer on Dying Light 2 Stay Human, briefly held a deputy director role, and was promoted to franchise director in November 2022. By the time The Beast launched in September 2025, he was the public face of every keynote, every Dying 2 Know stream, every roadmap reveal.

That visibility is unusual in Polish development, where studios traditionally let the work speak. Smektała pushed the other direction. He answered comments, sat for hour-long interviews, and absorbed criticism on stream when expansions slipped. Players came to associate the brand with his face the way they associate CD Projekt Red with Adam Badowski.

Here is the career arc compressed:

1. May 2013: Joins Techland as a designer and producer on the original Dying Light.
2. January 2015: Original Dying Light ships and becomes the studio’s defining title.
3. February 2022: Lead designer credit on Dying Light 2 Stay Human at launch.
4. November 2022: Promoted to franchise director with authority over the entire series.
5. September 2025: Dying Light: The Beast ships and quickly outsells expectations.
6. May 2026: Announces his departure from Techland.

Twelve years on one IP is rare in modern AAA. It’s also the kind of tenure that gets cashed in for a creative director job at a competitor or a founder-CEO role at a new studio. Smektała has not said which.

The Beast Is Still Selling, And That Changes The Stakes

Smektała is not exiting a sinking project. The Beast hit roughly 90,000 concurrent Steam players at launch in September 2025 and shipped 1.5 million units in its first week across all platforms. Steam reviews currently sit at “Very Positive,” with 87% approval. Metacritic averaged it at 78.

The audience cross-over is the other useful number. Roughly 82% of The Beast’s Steam population had logged time in the original Dying Light, and about 77% had played Dying Light 2. That’s a returning fanbase, not a discovery hit. You can track the title’s live concurrent player counts on Steambase’s Dying Light: The Beast charts, which still show the game holding a steady tail eight months after launch.

The launch math, in one glance:

• 1.5 million copies sold across all platforms in week one, per Techland’s own figures cited by industry trades.
• ~90,000 concurrent Steam players at peak on launch day in September 2025.
• 87% positive review score on Steam from verified buyer reactions.
• 78 Metacritic average across professional outlets, the highest in the franchise since 2015.

Why Techland Is Hiring A Live-Service Designer Right Now

The exit lines up with a clear pivot in Techland’s hiring. The studio’s careers page is currently advertising for a Lead Online Game Designer who will, in the company’s words, “define the framework and structure for a new online experience in the Dying Light franchise.” The role demands senior-level experience in live-service and Games-as-a-Service titles, not the single-player open-world skillset Techland has historically prized.

You can read the requirements on Techland’s official Lead Game Designer job posting. The listing asks for a candidate who can lead a team “from conception and prototyping through implementation, release and continuous support after launch.” That last clause is the giveaway. Continuous support after launch is GaaS language, not premium box-product language.

This is not Dying Light 3 in the traditional sense. The Beast was internally treated as the third mainline game even though it kept the subtitle. Smektała said as much in a pre-launch interview, calling The Beast “really Dying Light 3 for Techland.” Whatever the new online project is, it’s a separate effort, and the leadership profile Techland needs to build it is different from the one that shipped The Beast.

That gap between past and future leadership is the most plausible read on the timing. A franchise director whose career was built on tightly scripted single-player parkour campaigns is a poor fit to oversee a live-service zombie sandbox. The smarter exit is the one Smektała just took.

Techland is also working on an unrelated open-world fantasy action RPG, staffed in part by former CD Projekt Red developers. That project is a second pull on internal resources and another reason the studio’s structure is shifting beneath the franchise director role.

Tencent Owns The Studio Now, And That Matters

The corporate frame around all of this is Tencent. The Chinese conglomerate completed its majority acquisition of Techland in January 2024 in a deal estimated at roughly $1.6 billion. Game Developer’s report on Tencent’s completed majority ownership of Techland notes the studio retained full control of its IP, including Dying Light and the dormant Call of Juarez series.

Tencent’s playbook with Western studios it owns is consistent. Riot, Supercell, Funcom, and Sharkmob all run live-service or persistent-world products. The hiring pattern at Techland fits that pattern. A live-service Dying Light spin-off is exactly what a Tencent portfolio studio gets asked to build.

Who’s Left To Carry The Franchise

Techland co-founder and CEO Pawel Marchewka still runs the company. Studio head Adrian Ciszewski is still the senior creative voice on game direction. The Beast’s design and narrative leads are still in place. The franchise director chair is the only confirmed vacancy.

The bigger unknown is whether Techland appoints internally or hires externally. Smektała’s profile, half producer and half public spokesperson, was unusual for the studio. Replacing him with a like-for-like franchise director would mean grooming an existing producer into a public role they may not want. Splitting the role into a quiet creative lead plus a separate communications lead is the other obvious path.

You can follow Smektała’s next move on his LinkedIn profile listing his Techland tenure, where the most recent role is still listed as Franchise Director at Techland. No update yet on what comes after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dying Light 3 Officially In Development?

No, not under that name. Techland’s currently advertised Lead Online Game Designer role describes a “new online experience in the Dying Light franchise,” which suggests a live-service spin-off rather than a numbered sequel. Franchise director Tymon Smektała has previously said The Beast functioned as the studio’s Dying Light 3, so a numbered DL3 is unlikely in the near term.

Will Dying Light 2 Keep Getting Updates?

Yes. Techland publicly committed to supporting Dying Light 2 Stay Human through 2027 with content drops, including the Tower Settlement update line. Smektała’s exit does not change that roadmap, since the support team operates separately from franchise leadership. Owners can expect continued patch updates and seasonal events throughout this year and next.

Where Is Tymon Smektała Going Next?

He has not said. His farewell post on May 5, 2026 mentions only “a new chapter” with no destination. His LinkedIn still lists Techland as his current employer as of publication. Industry watchers expect either a creative director role at another European studio or a founder position at a new studio, but neither is confirmed.

Does The Beast Still Get New Content After This?

Yes. Techland’s post-launch roadmap for Dying Light: The Beast runs through at least late 2026 and includes a free expansion zone plus weapon and parkour additions. The franchise director departure does not affect already-funded content, which is handled by The Beast’s standing live ops and design teams in Wrocław.

The exit caps an unusual run. One designer turned into the public face of a Polish studio, shipped three mainline zombie games over twelve years, and walked off the stage during a sales peak. The next person in the chair will inherit a healthy franchise, a Tencent-shaped owner, and a brief to build something Dying Light has never tried to be. That brief is harder than it looks.