Dead by Daylight Devs on 10 Years of Horror and Future Plans

I recently visited the Behaviour Interactive studio in Montreal to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Dead by Daylight. For a horror enthusiast, it is a fascinating look at how a project that started in 2016 has evolved from a single game into a massive, 1v4 asymmetrical horror universe.

Sitting down with Dave Richard and Mathieu Côté, it was clear that the team's longevity stems from a commitment to the unexpected. As Côté noted, even after 8,000 hours, some staff members are still surprised by the game’s chaotic nature. “You never know who you’re against,” Côté explained. “Most of the time, you don’t even know all the other survivors.”

Addressing New Player Onboarding

The team is acutely aware that a decade of content can be intimidating for newcomers. “We realise that the game is 10 years old, and it’s becoming quite dense and complicated to understand,” Richard admitted. To bridge the gap, the studio is prioritizing a graphical rework alongside significant overhauls to onboarding and progression systems. The goal is to provide a clear path for new players to enter the community without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of existing content.

The Evolution of Live Service

When asked how the game survived in an industry where many live-service titles struggle, the answer was surprisingly simple. “We did not build a live-service game,” Côté said. “We built a game, put it out there, and said, 'If you want more, we've got a couple of chapters and new stories.' We became a live service because people wanted to keep playing.”

This approach has required constant technical maintenance. Richard compared the process to “repairing a plane while you’re still flying.” From replacing obsolete Scaleform menu technology to updating character rigs, the team is performing massive, invisible surgery on the game's foundation to keep it running smoothly.

Looking Ahead: Modding and Creative Control

Perhaps the most intriguing takeaway from the anniversary event was the mention of a future modding experience. While details remain under wraps, Richard emphasized that it will be a “controlled experience.” The studio wants to give players the tools to explore their own versions of the game, whether they want to lean into horror or create something “super silly.”

“It’s as open as we can make it, legally, tastefully,” Richard said. “We want to create an experience that we feel would be in a horror movie, but for the players, if they want to make something super silly, go for it. This is not our universe anymore. It’s your own parallel Dead by Daylight universe.”