As a part of the Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary celebration, I had the pleasure to speak with two of the game’s developers: Mathieu Cote (Head of Partnerships) and Dave Richard (Creative Director). It was an enlightening chat, and while I haven’t put in the hours that many of my friends have, I have a special love for DBD as a horror property. As a long-time fan of horror/slasher films, it’s nice to see a game carrying that torch proudly and accurately.
During our chat, we spoke about several of the announcements that were revealed in the evening’s livestream, as well as some other curiosities, such as the New Player Experience. Despite it being a 4v1 game, there’s a lot of depth and a lot of potential things to know, and that’s only going to grow. Here’s everything we spoke about in our exclusive interview.
Dead by Daylight’s developers discuss upcoming collaborations, the new player experience, Jason, and more
Q. Fans everywhere are super excited about Jason Vorhees being in Dead by Daylight. As a child of the 80s, Friday the 13th is one of my favorite film film franchises, so I was hyped for this announcement. How long were you in talks to get the rights to use him?
Mathieu: This is always a very delicate kind of question to answer. But, it’s been years in the making.
Q. While I love Jason’s powers, some have said he’s pretty similar to two OG killers (The Trapper and The Hillbilly). What makes Jason stand out from his contemporaries?
Dave: Great question, because that would be a misconception. So, obviously the comparison with The Trapper is that The Trapper is our very first character. And we are also inspired by his movies that we love, like Friday the 13th and other slasher movies. So, The Trapper is a slasher, right? So, that’s where it ends. Jason is completely different.
He has a power that allows him to basically become invisible to the survivors around him. And to pop him from a window vault, a pallet, by destroying them and surprising the character. That’s to recreate the movie where Jason, even though he’s just walking, he’s always around. He’s always right there.
Mathieu: He’s one step ahead, always.
Jason: That’s what makes me want to play him. I need every bit of help I can get.
Mathieu: He’s going to be perfect for jumpscares. But that’s the thing. We focused on one of the things that makes him unique. Built around it, so that it would be very different to most of the stuff that we have right now.
Dave: So, the other part, have you played with Jason?
Jason: Not yet. I have played quite a bit of The Huntress, so I’m ready to throw things.
David: Okay, so you’ll like that part. So, the secondary power or action that Jason is that we wanted to make him as creative as he is in the movie. So, he has different tools around the map that he can pick from. And uses a projectile to spear survivors to walls. Even the hook is becoming a weapon now.
Q. What are the odds of us seeing a “Pamela Vorees” cosmetic for Jason somewhere down the line?
Mathieu: None is planned right now.
Dave: And I cry.
Mathieu: But then again, you cry a lot. [Laughs]
Q. There are some massive Collections coming to Dead by Daylight throughout 2026, including the oft-requested Scooby Doo characters. How did that collaboration come about? Did the more recent depictions of the Scooby Doo gang as serious characters (Scooby Apocalypse) help?
Dave: You have some bonus points for asking this question. Yeah, I love Scooby Apocalypse. But it’s not the reason why we’re considering Scooby-Doo. We have a long love story with Scooby-Doo. Like for myself, the first game I worked on was a Scooby-Doo game 20 something years ago.
And I mean, it is a horror. For a lot of us as kids, it’s the first spooky experience we got. So totally deserves its place in our area.
Mathieu: Funny enough, for some people, it feels like a collaboration that’s sort of a little bit left field. But for us, it was always on the short list. Even at the beginning.
Jason: It’s always about monsters. My first horror experience was probably the Twilight Zone. It was the episode with the faceless people. I couldn’t sleep for three days.
Mathieu: It’s funny because we keep talking about that. We all have that moment when we watch something way too scary, way too young. And for a lot of us, it’s now a very dear memory. At the time, it was terrifying. I have an older sister and she was watching The Exorcist. And I watched it with her when I was way too young. And it terrified me. But today, I’m like, oh yeah, that’s cool.
Q. The Diablo collection is the other one I’m truly excited about. I mean, I’ve played every version, all the way down to the PSX D1 release. Is it too early to reveal who will be receiving the Mother Lilith outfit?
Mathieu: Anybody who’s played video games in the last 20 years has played some Diablo at some point. It’s so big.
Dave: Oh yeah, it’s The Artist. If you look closely at how she’s built and the little modification in her body, it’s to fit The Artist’s unique shape. And she’s a legendary… Legendary? I would guess.
Q. One of the new modes teased was the 1v1 mode, a game type I have often thought about when playing DBD. Can you give us any details about how a Survivor could possibly hold their own against a Killer, without a team?
Mathieu: The idea is that if you can get away, it’s how long before you get caught.
Jason: So it’s an “outlast” kind of mode?
Dave: Yeah, exactly. Each player will trade roles. It’s like Horse, right? Who’s going to make the best trick? But in this case, it’s who’s going to survive the longest.
Jason: So there’s a set timer, like 20 minutes, 15 minutes?
Dave: There is a limit to the game. So if you reach that limit, I think it’s three minutes right now.
Q. Another big announcement had to be Art the Clown, from Terrifier. I first heard about the franchise funny enough, because of Chris Jericho’s involvement. Since there will probably be teasers and vignettes to tease the coming of Art, any chance of seeing/hearing Jericho in Dead by Daylight?
Mathieu: Not something we’re talking about today.
Jason: I figured, but I have to do my due diligence! [Laughs]
Mathieu: No, no, no. For sure. And I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t staying very vague.
Q. Shane Wiigwaas is confirmed for the next survivor, and is the first Indigenous Person to join the cast. It’s been interesting to see more of a movement to include Indigenous Persons in gaming, especially in Canadian studios, over the last few years (EG: Contest of Champions). What research and work went into planning the character to ensure they are a proper representation?
Dave: Yeah. So, Shane, this character, started as a shell with no story, no background at all. And we found very, very early in development a consultant coming from the Anishinaabe community. So that we would base his story, culture, symbol, everything exactly on what she could help us with.
Because there’s nobody around in our team that has this background. And we’re not confident enough to be able to deliver it properly and effectively.
Mathieu: But yeah, it was a lot of work. And it was very important work for us.
David: They were fun to learn about as well.
Q. While I’m very excited about the graphical overhaul DBD is getting in the coming year, Dead by Daylight can sometimes feel overwhelming to get into. There are lots of characters with varying uses/powers, and it’s not always clear what you should/shouldn’t be doing, especially as a Survivor. Has there been any thought on ways to improve the New Player Experience?
Dave: Yeah, great question. We got it quite a bit this weekend. It’s an important question. We know that the game after 10 years has become quite dense for new players. It’s something that we’re actively working to make better. So we’ve announced the graphical rework. And “other things”, as part of these other things, if it’s not on release of this graphic update, it’s going to be a little bit later.
There is modification to the first time user experience to make sure that players understand that it’s not only about being like, understanding everything that there is to know about the game and understanding that it’s not about just escaping is not the only way to win. Killing everybody is not the only way to win.
But to ease them in so that we can all have new blood. But also later than that, afterwards, there’s changes to progression as well. Changes to core components of the game that will rehash, simplify how perks work. This whole loadout that became so big through 10 years.
Jason: You have to know what’s on the map. You have to know the Survivors. You have to know who the Killer is and what they can/can’t do.
Mathieu: But also at the very same time, it’s true that if you don’t know anything and you just pick a survivor and you go into the map, not even a loadout, and you run around and try to get a gem and then get chased and survive or not, you’re still doing it right. It’s still fun to do it though.
But it is very daunting for players to start to do something without the knowledge, without feeling like they’re already in control.
Dave: It’s just like the Souls games. You have to die a lot.
Dead by Daylight just began its 10th Anniversary Celebration, and in addition to a fun in-person event with games, panels and lots of tremendous cosplay, there were also quite a few important announcements, which you can read about right here.
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Edited by Jason Parker
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