TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 1,997
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
"We just made a game ready to walk away. But it worked, and people wanted more, and so we gave them more."
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In June this year, Behaviour Interactive's Dead By Daylight will celebrate ten years of release: quite the feat for an asymmetrical multiplayer game that was designed with no thoughts of live service or roadmaps. The core of the game remains the same as it was at launch, more or less, but everything around that experience has been carefully built out by Behaviour over the years, and at the time of writing around 50,000 players are enjoying some grisly horror on Steam (and it's also available on multiple consoles).
PC Gamer's Chris Livingston had the chance to sit down at GDC with Behaviour's Dave Richard, senior creative director, and Mathieu Cote, head of partnerships, and when he opened by remarking on those ten years, Cote immediately shot back, "It's crazy."
"We're one of these stories that we arrived with the right format at the right moment, with the right people, with the right collaborator, and then with the right players and community," says Richard. "And then a whole heaping pile of luck on top of that," adds Cote.
"The thing also is that we didn't build this as a game as a service," says Cote. "That was not the intention. It sort of became that over the years, we turned the game that was live into a live game, which wasn't really a thing or certainly wasn't the goal at the time: we just made a game ready to walk away.
"But it worked, and people wanted more, and so we gave them more, and we kept at it, and we kept at it, and we built on it. So it's sort of a trick question, because if we were to try to recreate the same thing, we'd probably fail: we didn't intend to do what turned out to happen, and therefore starting with that intention would automatically lead somewhere else."
Cote says the plan initially was just to release DBD and then move back onto the everyday job at Behaviour, "which was making games for other people." But it very quickly became clear that plan had to change. "Literally within the first few days we realized no, no, we have to stick at this," says Cote. "We can't dismantle the team and move on."
"Back in the day, battle passes, cosmetic stores, stuff like that was barely starting, so it wasn't part of our deal," says Richard. "We were not experiencing that either. It's through the years that we've lear...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
In June this year, Behaviour Interactive's Dead By Daylight will celebrate ten years of release: quite the feat for an asymmetrical multiplayer game that was designed with no thoughts of live service or roadmaps. The core of the game remains the same as it was at launch, more or less, but everything around that experience has been carefully built out by Behaviour over the years, and at the time of writing around 50,000 players are enjoying some grisly horror on Steam (and it's also available on multiple consoles).
PC Gamer's Chris Livingston had the chance to sit down at GDC with Behaviour's Dave Richard, senior creative director, and Mathieu Cote, head of partnerships, and when he opened by remarking on those ten years, Cote immediately shot back, "It's crazy."
"We're one of these stories that we arrived with the right format at the right moment, with the right people, with the right collaborator, and then with the right players and community," says Richard. "And then a whole heaping pile of luck on top of that," adds Cote.
"The thing also is that we didn't build this as a game as a service," says Cote. "That was not the intention. It sort of became that over the years, we turned the game that was live into a live game, which wasn't really a thing or certainly wasn't the goal at the time: we just made a game ready to walk away.
"But it worked, and people wanted more, and so we gave them more, and we kept at it, and we kept at it, and we built on it. So it's sort of a trick question, because if we were to try to recreate the same thing, we'd probably fail: we didn't intend to do what turned out to happen, and therefore starting with that intention would automatically lead somewhere else."
Cote says the plan initially was just to release DBD and then move back onto the everyday job at Behaviour, "which was making games for other people." But it very quickly became clear that plan had to change. "Literally within the first few days we realized no, no, we have to stick at this," says Cote. "We can't dismantle the team and move on."
"Back in the day, battle passes, cosmetic stores, stuff like that was barely starting, so it wasn't part of our deal," says Richard. "We were not experiencing that either. It's through the years that we've lear...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?