Techland is a Polish video game developer based in Wrocław, Poland, who was responsible for the development of Dead Island and its sequel Dead Island: Riptide. In addition to these two games, Techland also returned to the franchise in 2016 to make high-definition remakes of these two games as a part of the Dead Island Definitive Collection.
Overview[]
Techland was founded in the year 1991 by Paweł Marchewka and initially focussed as a translating company for foreign software, translating it into Polish and sell it to the Polish market. This continued for two years until 1993, when Techland began producing its own software in the form of dictionaries and translators, as well as dabbling in computer games. Their first in-house developed game was Prawo Krwi in 1995, however their first full release game was actually Exterminacja in 1999.
In 2002, Techland released the game Pet Racer which was built on the first iteration of the Chrome Engine, the game engine that Dead Island was built on. The Chrome Engine is best known for is use in the game Chrome in 2003, however, and Techland continued to develop the Chrome Engine through subsequent years, with the Chrome Engine 2 debuting with the game Xpand Rally in 2004, Chrome Engine 3 with Call of Juarez in 2006, Chrome Engine 4 with Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in 2009 and finally Chrome Engine 5 with Call of Juarez: The Cartel in 2011.
Up until 2011, the company's most noteworthy and well known game series was the Call of Juarez series, which was their flagship series for each new iteration of the Chrome Engine created between the Chrome Engine 3 and 5. In 2011, Techland developed the original Dead Island which was published by Deep Silver. The game proved popular enough for a sequel to be developed using a lot of the same assets and on the same engine, with Techland developing Dead Island: Riptide on the Chrome Engine 5 with it being released two years after the first game in 2013.
Riptide was the last Dead Island game that Techland would work on, with them leaving the franchise after this to continue development on other games, most notably Dying Light in 2015, which was also the debut of the Chrome Engine 6. However, Techland was not completely finished with Dead Island, as the following year in 2016, Techland returned to the franchise with Dead Island Definitive Edition and Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition which were built on the Chrome Engine 6 featuring new lighting, HD visuals and new models, a lot of which were taken from Dying Light.
After the Definitive Editions, Techland had no more interaction with Dead Island, instead focussing on Dying Light, with continued support for the game and the release of its sequel, Dying Light 2 Stay Human, in 2022.