Read more Dead by Daylight ➜ https://deadbydaylight.mgn.gg
Hey everyone! Sorry for the break in content but I am back! And with a brand new track… well video. Today we’re exploring Dead by Daylight’s direction, do BHVR seek to create a competitive or casual game? We’ll explore make I think it is that makes the game so good! The recent updates with the Skull Merchant and Knight, the MDA model and discuss what I think would be the best direction to take!
References:
GDC, 2017. An Approach to Holistic Level Design. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpOoTAVeEcU [Accessed on 06 May 2023].
Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M & Zubek, R., 2004. MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research. [e-journal] Available online at: https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf [Accessed on: 06 May 2023].
OtzdarvaYT., 2023. OtzdarvaYT Twitter. [online] Available online at: https://twitter.com/OtzdarvaYT/status/1650496264952217602/photo/1 [Accessed on: 07 May 2023].
Peanits, 2019. Community | Community Data Requests [online] Available at: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/61114/community-community-data-requests [Accessed 07 May 2023].
source
Anniversary has to be good or else it’s dead… by daylight. Still waiting for Alien or Springtrap. I don’t believe in Singularity being anniversary killer. Literally will drop dbd and finally start living. Hope it’s licensed
welcome back! i enjoy a lot the format of your videos and commentary.
They can repair. Scrap everything that came after Spirit and build up new. Dont ride the "Nerf everything" Course but try to find real balance! No 3rd Health States (Legion, Deathslinger, Trickster, Plaque), no breakable Walls, smaller maps, less pallets, make other gameplays then looping effective and fun, but most important: NO NERFS! On NEITHER side! If there is something "too powerful" (Which does not exist!) buff the opposite!
Only way!
Now with a Otz/Scott Style Patch? Naah.
The Last ideas of Scott in his 7.0 Patch were nearly all implemented, look how the Game sucks now!
Glad you're back man! Love your videos!
he is back!!
Dead by daylight is in a terrible spot, its losing players and those players are going to other games (Mostly last year) what dbd needs now is…. well simple a big license chapter that will get new players in the game while pleasing most old fans, you know fnaf or jason. if the power is fun it will get people intersted again, because let's face it skull merchant is the worst killer in recent history (not the worst killer of all time twins are objectively that) we need a fun license killer
7:12 wow that adrenaline couldnt be better timed
Asymmetrical multiplayer games should be balanced so that a lobby of casual solo-que players can win half the time there simply isn't a big enough competitive scene the Asymmetrical genre is a niche genre and niche genres need to focus on the common gamer not the hardcore fan yes this will result in the killer role being hard but that's how it should be.
Great to see you back! I feel the game was much more fun and engaging in both roles before the changes of 6.1.0 The changes made to the timing ratios between certain in-game actions, hook sabotage and M1 cooldown for example, cracked the foundation of the game. While I agree with some perk changes the game has overall left me much less satisfied than it previously had.
This might be a hot take but I also think the game would benefit from ranked mode. However, I don't think that means adding rank to the current game, but instead creating a division where only certain maps would spawn and killers like Nurse, Blight, and possibly Spirit, would only be allowed in ranked play. Bonus bloodpoints would be granted for players using killers with a lower kill ratio and for hooking different players and/or hook states in general.
Ideally, Casual would then be decided by hooks, while competitive would remain kill-based, in terms of win conditions. That would allow casual players an "everyone wins" non-zero scenario, while keeping ranked play closer to a set of four 1v1 non-zero games, as it currently exists.
This whole chapter was truly and wholeheartedly, a tool of torment.
As someone who plays DBD casually (and not very often) but loves to see how the state of the game is for passionate players, I found your analytical perspective very interesting! Thanks!
I am someone who plays the game that is essentially "DBD if it were a competitively oriented" that is Identity V, I find a lot of what the DBD competitive oriented players are asking for is definitely not the way you want to go unless DBD gets a complete rework and the core game loop changes to be heavily timing based and mistake oriented like Identity V is. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but is probably nothing like what those players expect it to be like…
Keep up the great vids!
In my opinion, DBD was meant to be a casual game. It will never be a truly competitive game (way too many randomized elements implemented into the core of the game). By trying to "balance" this game, developers are taking away some of the fun I used to have while playing this game. Honestly, I don't even think that the game is balanced. That's why I made a video about how the game is survivor-sided. I love this game & I think it will stay relevant for a long time, but at the same time, I'm very disappointed.
Dead By Daylight to me, will always be a casual party game. The best parts of the game is when killer or survivor goofs around, when things get wacky and people don't play optimally, when people put fun before winning. In what other game would I have the choice to leave a survivor alone because they're wearing a Reverse Bear Trap? They're being tested, I shouldn't bother them. I feel stuff like that will die if this game shifts from its casual nature into a more predictable competitive one. Also, I don't think Behavior has it in them to make this game competitive, not in the slightest.
I love using my tools to torment those who whine and cry about me😈
Great video, Gary. Very well put together, fun, and informative.
6:10 re: Dead Hard and Head On – I'm sitting here nodding in agreement w your assessmt. I love when a survivor pulls off a well-timed Dead Hard or Head On; it's annoying sometimes, but I have to admire the skill. I can't pull them off when I play survivor.
10:49 hahahahaha
11:31 Gary, as I sit here avoiding getting any writing done, I'm intrigued by how this game design model could be applied to almost any creative "product" for an intended audience. I tend to navigate my own projects from a handful of scenes that evoke a specific mood (aesthetics), and then reverse-engineer them from ending to beginning, deciding along the way what stylistic choices will fit that mood (system) and applying my own understanding of various story formats by length (rules). Thank you so much for including the description of this model in your video, I'm going to be thinking about that for a while!
12:58 every single time, even if it's a map I like, I'm internally groaning. it feels like agency has been removed from me or possibly from the random nature of the game itself. I want the map to be a surprise.
13:15 some of those maps I actively dislike (Badham Preschool in particular) but the rest I'm pretty okay with – I think Garden of Joy is challenging
What do I think? I heard DBD Mobile has ranked and unranked matchmaking, and I think if we were offered the same split in Steam / PS / Xbox play, that would solve a big piece of the problem. There are a ton of super serious "competitive" players in the DBD community and they should be given a playground so the casual players can continue to have fun. And I think players individually need to make better choices with their perk spreads – and maybe BHVR needs to include more offerings that benefit the whole group, like Bloody Party Streamers. I can play a decent or mildly dull match and then realize someone brought Party Streamers, and I'll immediately feel much better about the match bc someone else was looking out for my enjoyment / benefit.
A good chunk of the changes they've been making have been good personally, like I appreciate that they've successfully diversified the meta, at least for survivor, and some of the things they changed really did need to be addressed (eruption, nurse kind of, and they tried with knight and Adriana). The competitive leaning is not the best tho. I'm excited and hopeful for year 7 🙂
A new game mode i believe will help the game keep its players. Maybe an 8v2 or even small mini games there are quite other possibilities.
Bought Wesker played for a week and then I've been idle since then. Played pretty regularly before that. Now I've tried some matches the last couple of days and I had a lot of awful players, not bad sports just bad and the games have been quite fun as the random factor of never knowing what crazy stuff the others might be up two. Hanging on a hook for two full hook states with a camper while the others are t-bagging in a corner. Things are random but fun. Maybe if my MMR goes up I will have more consistent unfun games.
13:41 gonna stop you right there twins are never picked so i dont know how to feel on that one
Omg, Gary posted! ❤
I always feel so much smarter after your videos. It's not just informative, but you can tell that someone with background in game design is speaking here. Lots of interesting insights!
To me DbD could never be a competitive game, it's such a party game in its roots that every change in that competitive direction truly ruins the experience.
As a solo queue player I don't want to jump from generator to generator, praying we don't 3 gen. I used to play DbD for the horror aspects, the thrill and fear of hiding and running away from the killer, trying to escape. And that honestly seems to be missing lately
No Mither counters Skull Merchant.
Change my mind.