The Future of Dead by Daylight- Interview with Mathieu Côté
Feature
An interview with Mathieu Côté, Head of Partnerships at Behavior Interactive
Q. When considering potential collaborations with other brands and IPs, such as FNAF or The Witcher, how does your team decide whether said content fits within your vision for Dead by Daylight?
Côté: That's a very good question, and could probably fill a couple of books. The short version is, yes, we do have a long list. There's a bunch of us that get together and we sort of look at whether it a good fit. Is it also something that would surprise and delight our players? Is it something that would not just add something to our lives, but could potentially add something to theirs also. And then also: will it surprise people? Will it keep people on their toes? Sometimes it's about shaking things up a little. We also have player surveys that we send regularly to get people's impressions, and their desires.
Q. So in the case of Five Nights at Freddy's, I'm guessing that was something a lot of people were asking for. I did see quite a few FNAF cosplayers in the room when you made the announcement. What's that like, to see so many people come together to show their support?
Côté: It's interesting, because we launched here about nine years ago, and Five Night at Freddy's, back then, was still a small-ish game, right? It was one of the first indie horror games that really picked up. Today, it's a giant thing, but back then, it was sort of a smallish thing, but it just kept growing, people kept talking about it, talking about it, and now just ended up being the right time.
Q. How does it feel, to come all this way, and still see the playerbase continuing to crave more from Dead by Daylight
Côté It is. It is magical. It's it's also a little insane. Seen so many cosplayers. The cosplayers are the ones that make me the happiest, really. Just the passion behind it all. Everyone who comes here has a story to share about what Dead by Daylight means to them, how they discovered the game, what friends they made through the game, and that is that is very special. That's something that everybody here at our PAX EAST booth, who are all on the dev team, each and every one of us is going to hold on to that feeling and bring it back home and spread it as much as we can. Not the germs from PAX, (laughs) but the joy.
Q. How many people are on the development team, to the best of your knowledge?
Côté: When we first shipped, about nine years ago, there were about 30 people. Today, it's between 350 and 400.
Q. So how long does it take, to integrate a new IP like Five Nights at Freddy's, into the game? Factoring in the time to sign the paperwork, create the map, the killer, survivors, etc.?
Côté: From the first conversations to the moment where we sign a paper and go, let's do this, it could be anywhere from a few months to a few years, and then once that's signed and we get going, it's nice. On average, it's about 12 months. It takes us about a year to start and finish and get all the approvals and get it buttoned up and ready to go.
Q. So in this case, when you were working with with Scott Cawthon, the maker of the games, how far back was that initial conversation?
Côté: It's been a few years, since our very first chat.
Q. So looking at the new content that you're adding, you know, with the five nights at Friday's addition, what's one new area or one new thing in the new map that the team was really, really excited to add?
Côté: I'd say it's in the map, but it's also part of the killer. We've done that kind of thing a couple of times, but this time, it's very present. I don't want to say anything stupid, but essentially, when you play Five Nights at Freddy's, it's a survivor's experience first and foremost, right? You usually don't play the killer, and you're just sort of interacting and getting scared and all of that. So for us, it was important that when you play against Springtrap, the experience of the survivor changes and becomes something that's very different from playing against the other killers. So we've added some elements that are adding gameplay to the survivor when you're facing Springtrap. I don't want to go into details. There is a livestream coming where we will talk about it in detail, so I'll just leave it at that.
Q. If you don't mind me asking, what is the approximate release window for this Chapter?
Côté: Oh, so it's coming very soon. Imminently. A few weeks. Am I supposed to say that? (Confers with Behavior Interactive team)
Q. Okay, how about soon-TM?
Côté: Yes, very soon. it's our next chapter.
Q. All right, so moving on to new features. You recently mentioned that the it was mentioned at the panel that the team is working on a new survivor item, which is expected to launch in the second half of this year. Without specifying what the item itself is, can you describe what the process of adding a new survivor item to the game looks like? What does this team usually consider when adding new items?
Côté: No, because there is no template for it. We've been talking about [adding a new item] for the last nine years. I mean, we've done it with the firecrackers a few years back, and it's something that we've always said, "we want to do more of those", and it just didn't happen. Not because it's the most complicated thing, it's just because we always had something else to do.