Dead By Daylight is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and to celebrate, they just threw a massive anniversary event where its creators revealed some big changes coming to the long-running video game. But don’t worry, the Behaviour Team is taking a fan-first approach to all of the upcoming updates in the works.
They are acutely aware of the time and money fans have invested in the game. They’re also aware that starting over means leaving everything behind, and that’s simply not something they’re interested in. So rather than launching sequels to the incredibly successful franchise, which they are routinely asked about, they prefer to evolve the game, strengthening the foundation into something “stable and future-proof.”
I was able to attend the Montreal anniversary event in person, and it was incredible to be fully immersed in the community and dedicated fanbase. During the main event live stream, every big new announcement was met with the crowd erupting as though the Beatles had just taken the stage at the height of Beatlemania. It was a glorious thing to witness.
My weekend kicked off with a Saturday morning tour of Behaviour Interactive and a sneak peek at some of the announcements coming to Sunday’s live stream.
From a team that has grown from about 40 people to 400 over the last decade, it was pretty incredible to tour their massive office and specifically to see a mural of the company’s history spanning back to when they primarily did work for hire before the birth of Dead by Daylight. Including some early 2000s Scooby Doo games, which feels pretty full circle considering Scooby was just announced as coming to Dead by Daylight. But perhaps the most surprising title in the company’s massive history? A Suite Life of Zack & Cody game.
We caught up with Dead By Daylight’s Mathieu Côté and Dave Richard during Sunday’s anniversary event to chat about the future of the franchise, DBD’s best dressed character, and what other media they’d like to take over.
A decade later, Côté reflected on how the team anticipated the time they’d spend on DBD after that initial release. “In 2016, we wanted to have a DLC or two. We assumed we would do something else in this game, another chapter or DLC, some characters. It’s going to be fun, and that’s it. Back in 2016, that’s the format we were used to as game developers. You make a game, you release it. Maybe a few DLCs, patches, and then it’s over. That’s it.”
In a fast-paced world where it seems the latest hit “thing” remains in the conversation for a week (on the long end) before folks move on to the next topic, it feels fairly miraculous to have a decade old game that doesn’t wane in popularity, but in fact only seems to keep growing. At the time of this writing, the Steam charts show 104,942 players active, and that doesn’t even account for players across platforms.
“Strangely enough, when we do industry surveys or whatever, it feels like more than 50% of players’ time is spent on games that are more than five years old,” Richard shared. “You play games, you try things, and it’s great. Then you go back to playing the game that you’re used to playing with your friend. It’s the old familiar. It’s something reassuring, it’s comforting. It’s like watching shows that you’ve seen many times. We’re lucky that we’re one of those that people keep going back to.”
The interesting thing about Dead By Daylight is that while players are well acquainted with the gameplay dynamics, the maps, etc (the familiar), the game is also constantly introducing new elements in the form of new playable characters, maps, in-game events, etc. The team has found a unique way to combine the familiar and the new in a way that (clearly) keeps players returning and enticing new fans into the fold.
“That’s beautifully put because not just the fact that people play the game and then we keep bringing content, but the game is built around that too, right?” Richard said. “The contrast between familiar and unexpected. Yeah, it’s the procedural map. It’s the idea of the nightmare where you’re in the school that you used to go to, and behind this door used to be the basement, and now it’s something else. The familiar and the unexpected have been a theme that has been very important to the game forever.”
At this point in the franchise, Dead By Daylight has transcended media. Beyond the video game, there are graphic novels, an in-universe spinoff game (The Casting of Frank Stone), and a movie adaptation that’s currently in the works. The DBD world is rich, and there’s a lot of lore to be tapped into, so where else would these two like to see the DBD universe go?
“A play,” Côté immediately answered. “Like theater? Broadway?” Richard prodded.
“Broadway. Yeah. I mean, why not?” Côté shrugged.
“It sounds silly, but that’s the thing, we never stop ourselves from those sorts of silly ideas,” Richard added. “What if, though, right? That’s why we ended up with Hooked On You. Yeah, it’s a silly idea, but it’d be cool though. And we had a good time.”
“Deep in my heart, I am a gamer, so I do want to see more games of different types in the universe,” Côté added.
In a game where fashion and the look of a character play such an important role, I was curious who these two would dub the best dressed character in the Dead By Daylight franchise.
“That’s such a cool question!” was Côté’s first response. With so many style icons in the universe, this one took a bit of thought. After mulling it over, Côté noted: “Mikaela has got a few good outfits.”
“When we work on something, it’s in our values to say ‘this has to be the best because it’s the best for somebody, ‘” Richard explained. “Some people love a character, even if that character is used 1% of the time, which is very rare, it’s still the favorite of that 1%. So we always try to make something either creepy or really good-looking. My favorites would be Mikaela. I’m not going to say Sable, never say Sable. I love what the Plague is wearing, so regal.”
“The Dredge has so many cool opportunities to do crazy stuff,” Côté added. “They’re all good. Except for Ace. No, Ace is cool.”
DBD has a dedicated community team to focus on the concerns and requests of players, and bring that to the internal team. You simply can’t go 10 years without listening to the fans, but what is the balance of taking in that feedback while also taking logistics into consideration?
“Obviously we can’t please everyone at the same time,” Richard said. “We make sure that we keep it as balanced as possible, that we hear the different crowds and their needs, and we cycle into serving a specific crowd or making sure that in the vision of where we want to go, we pick the right features so that happiness comes more often than not.” It’s funny and worth noting that at the moment we were discussing the importance of keeping the community happy, massive cheers could be heard as the start of the cosplay costume contest was getting underway on the main stage. Happy indeed.
After a full decade of growing the DBD team by approximately 900% since the early days, Côté and Richard remain adamant about not just listening to the players but to their internal team as well. Something they take seriously, even with a team of hundreds.
“Every individual has a life story, a set of skills that make their secret spice,” Richard shared. “A lot of times, we get asked, what’s the secret sauce of Dead by Daylight? And it’s not about that recipe. It’s about every individual having their own life and their own story being put into these characters or whatever they’re working with.”
“But for that to be relevant, it means that we have to listen and we have to give everybody a place to talk,” Côté added. “That’s always been very important for us. It doesn’t matter where you are sitting on the team if you have an idea, sure, we’ll listen. Not all good. But yeah, I think there is this freedom where everybody’s just like, yeah, I think Dork was pitching you a killer last week. But that’s it. It just feels great if people are inspired by what we’re doing and they want more and they want to do things.
“Creating survivors that are varied and that people can see themselves in has always been super important because our team has grown, and we have a variety of people with different backgrounds and different realities. It’s been a boon. It’s been very good to be able to use that so that people can see themselves in the game. It’s important.”
“We started at 30, and our doors were always open for that creative flow, being organic,” Richard shared. “It’s usually something you struggle with as you get into the hundreds of people, but we found new ways to be able to keep it that way in some phases of development, so that at least we get these inputs from a lot of different people because if we’re alone, we’re just going to run circles at the point.”
For all the new Dead by Daylight reveals coming your way, including Art the Clown, Scooby Doo, a movie adaptation, improved graphics, sandbox modding, mall map, and more, check out our rundown of announcements from the Dead By Daylight 10th anniversary event.
