- 1 day ago
Category
đŸ˜¹
FunTranscript
00:00There's nothing more powerful than imagination.
00:04It can shape the fabric of reality, transforming everything you may think you know.
00:10But as with any power of such magnitude, it's unpredictable.
00:14To think that Dead by Daylight is approaching its 10th anniversary is beyond wild.
00:20Though it may not boast the same numbers as bigger live service titles like Fortnite or Warframe,
00:25Dead by Daylight has amassed a colossal player base composed of fans from all corners of horror.
00:33But what makes this game's current status in online gaming even crazier
00:36is how it even managed to get here in the first place.
00:40Welcome to Mojo Plays!
00:42My name is Ty, and today we're taking a look at how Dead by Daylight began
00:47and what led it to becoming a tour de force in online gaming and the world of horror.
00:55Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long,
01:03so be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
01:09Not to start things up with an overly extensive history lesson,
01:13but Behavior Interactive used to be a significantly smaller studio, and it was for several years.
01:18With the exception of its first game, the PS1 platformer named Jersey Devil,
01:22Behavior Interactive specialized more in licensed games back when it was known as artificial mind and movement.
01:30You may have played some of their games before without even realizing it.
01:34Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters, The Grinch, Scooby-Doo Unmasked, Teen Titans, Monster House,
01:41and because I know our editor here is going to say something,
01:45they are also responsible for Ed, Ed, and Eddie, The Miss Ed Ventures.
01:49Surely you've jazzed hands like a baby, Ed Boy.
01:52Only after you have coiled in filth like the son of a shepherd can you use such a machine.
01:56Begone!
01:58Jeez! What's with that guy?
02:00But those are just a small handful of the many licensed games Behavior worked on back in the day.
02:05Matthew Cote, the head of external partnerships for Behavior Interactive,
02:10even mentioned this history in an interview with us back in August 2025.
02:14Said Cote,
02:16We had a great reputation among the developers and the licensors, the Disneys and THQs,
02:22who else that needed games, knew Behavior, we had a great reputation, but players had no idea who we were.
02:29This lengthy history of making licensed games would, unbeknownst Behavior, lay the seeds for success with DBD.
02:35But if the experience were the seeds, then The Soil was a rather obscure title released all the way back in 2010.
02:44Naughty Bear was arguably the studio's most ambitious game at the time,
02:49as it was exploring the concept of reverse horror in video games,
02:53an idea that was rarely ever entertained in video games at the time.
02:57Described as, quote,
02:59A Saturday morning cartoon gone horribly wrong, end quote,
03:02Naughty Bear tasked players with terrorizing a jolly island of colorful, cotton-filled bears in various ways.
03:09Hide in bushes to observe the bears from afar,
03:12sabotage items to hinder their activities,
03:15and commit nefarious deeds to drive them to the brink of insanity.
03:19If you wanted to be among the best players,
03:21you had to become a true terror as quickly as possible to maximize your score.
03:27Are you going to be alright, Naughty Bear?
03:34I suppose you will be.
03:37But if Naughty Bear's single-player campaign was The Soil,
03:41then its multiplayer side was The Cement,
03:44the foundation for Behavior Interactive.
03:46Those wanting some PvP action could jump online and play different game modes based on classic deathmatch rules,
03:53Capture the Flag,
03:54and even a mode based on the Golden Gun mode from the N64 classic, GoldenEye 007.
04:00The mode we want to draw attention to, however, was called Jelly Wars.
04:04This was an asymmetrical multiplayer mode where three players were tasked with gathering ingredients while a fourth player hunted them down as Naughty Bear.
04:13Although, this mode was rudimentary in its design, as Naughty could be easily bullied in most situations.
04:20Kinda hard for the lone wolf to defend himself from a team of three.
04:25Nevertheless, there was an idea for something decent.
04:28Something that could become bigger than it was here.
04:31Behavior Interactive continued working as a contract developer,
04:37making games with a variety of licenses and taking on projects for various publishers.
04:42But in between projects, they tinkered with a few ideas here and there.
04:46One of them was the concept of an asymmetrical multiplayer game almost similar to the Jelly Wars mode we had seen in Naughty Bear,
04:53and it was made by the same exact team that was responsible for Naughty Bear.
04:58Four players must work together to repair generators in order to escape.
05:02Escape from what, though?
05:04Well, escape from a fifth player who was roaming the map and hunting all of them down.
05:10This was Dead by Daylight, and it was unlike any other game the industry had seen before 2016.
05:16Admittedly, it was rough around the edges when it came to animations and level design,
05:21but it was a horror game that allowed friends to work together or scare the crap out of each other.
05:26It was enough to catch the attention of big YouTubers and streamers such as Markiplier,
05:31and enough to attract tens of thousands of players early on.
05:34Chandler Riggs himself was enamored with the game very early on in its infancy.
05:39Said Riggs, quote,
05:40Yeah, it was mostly, it was me and two other friends that played,
05:44so there was always a random, and we would always dog on the random.
05:48Always, like, that was our, like, you know, collective person to shout at and be angry with,
05:53aside from the killer, of course.
05:54Yeah, I mean, some of the best times playing games were just, like, you know, awesome, crazy escapes,
06:00or, you know, you know, pulling yourself off the hook, you know, and going and jumping in the hatch,
06:05and, um, yeah, it was just awesome times.
06:08Was it enough to call it a success?
06:11Maybe.
06:11Dead by Daylight was made on a pretty measly budget compared to most games at the time,
06:15and the plan was to throw the game out onto the market, make whatever money it could for behavior,
06:21and then we all move on with our lives.
06:23Except we didn't.
06:24Not when new killers and survivors were getting added soon after launch.
06:28While The Nurse would serve as an interesting kickoff for this post-launch life,
06:32DBD garnered more attention with its second expansion, the Halloween Chapter.
06:38Even more folks began checking out the game,
06:40now that they were told that they could play as Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
06:44With his unique tier-based mechanics, Michael Myers could stalk survivors from a distance
06:49in order to make survivors become exposed, forcing them to be instantly downed when hit.
06:54It perfectly incorporated the horror of the original Halloween movie with video game design elements.
07:00Even the classic music stings accompanied Michael whenever he ascended or descended a tier.
07:05For the next year or two, the player count was somewhat stagnant.
07:15Dead by Daylight would continue seeing licensed IPs,
07:18and would soon invite Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series,
07:22Amanda Young from the Saw movies,
07:24and introduce a new character to don the ghost face mask from Scream.
07:28The game even got Silent Hill's Pyramid Head and Heather Mason in 2020.
07:39However, it wasn't until early 2021 when Behavior Interactive really saw DBD take off
07:44with all guns blazing.
07:46In April 2021, Dead by Daylight got massive exposure to an entirely new audience
07:52when Capcom and Behavior announced that Resident Evil was making its way into the fog.
07:58The series that made survival horror gaming
08:00was finally joining the legends of horror movies and TV shows.
08:04After that announcement, the player count grew in a way DBD nor Behavior had ever seen before.
08:11Personal note, yours truly had already been playing the game for a few months by this point,
08:15and the announcement was everything I could have wanted.
08:17So, big Resident Evil fan, just got into Dead by Daylight, I'm sold.
08:23The player base grew even further when DBD got a second Resident Evil expansion the following year.
08:29Not only could you play as Nemesis, Jill, or Leon now,
08:33but you can also play as Rebecca, Ada, and Wesker as well.
08:40Hmm, let's finish this.
08:42Since then, Behavior Interactive was managing to acquire more and more licenses
08:46to cram into the fog.
08:48From Chucky and Pinhead to the Xenomorph and Demogorgon,
08:52every new chapter felt like a scramble to make the ultimate video game
08:56that celebrates horror across every form of entertainment.
09:00How exactly, though, is Behavior managing to justify
09:03all of these crazy crossovers to be under one roof?
09:07Well, there's a simple narrative trick that Cote explained to us very clearly in that interview.
09:12There's a good story about, like, one time when that thing sort of crystallized in my head,
09:19and we were talking to the people, the people responsible for Silent Hill,
09:25who were creating the chapter at that time.
09:27And they were telling us, in the lore, Pyramid Head and Cheryl have never been together.
09:33Like, those two are not part of the same thing.
09:36You can't have them inside.
09:37They were like, no, no, no, I don't think you understand.
09:40Like, Dead by Daylight, like, imagine you play all the Silent Hill game.
09:44Then you watch the movies.
09:45Then you read the books and whatever.
09:47Then you go to sleep and you have a nightmare about it.
09:50All of these things are going to be jumbled together.
09:53The entity creates the reality of Dead by Daylight out of thoughts and fears and memories of people,
10:02but it's not the real thing.
10:04It is a representation of the thing.
10:07And that got them on board.
10:10It's almost hard to imagine that there was one IP that DVD was still missing over the next couple of years,
10:15and it was the most requested IP that Behavior had ever received throughout the game's history.
10:20August 2024 marked the 10th anniversary of Five Nights at Freddy's,
10:26the indie horror game that became a phenomenon with its terrifying Chuck E. Cheese gone wrong premise.
10:31To mark the occasion, series creator Scott Coffin took to social media to tell fans to expect an announcement from someone.
10:39It wasn't long until Behavior announced that Five Nights at Freddy's was indeed coming to Dead by Daylight.
10:45And sure enough, when Springtrap and Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria released in June 2025,
10:51hundreds of thousands of players were rushing in to learn the game just to play as Springtrap.
10:56Or Glitchtrap.
10:58Or Matthew Lillard.
11:04Although, sometimes it's not enough to just contact a licensor and say,
11:09Hey, we want to do this thing with your IP, is that cool with you?
11:12Sometimes, you need a bit more of a push from fans, such as Rick Grimes for DBD.
11:17Rick had begun as a massive fan of The Walking Dead before entering the fog in DBD.
11:23Um, that's, I caught up just in time for Season 3,
11:28and then from there, it kind of just became a world I fell in love with.
11:31Having been a massive fan of the show and the comics,
11:34Rick began a move to get The Walking Dead into Dead by Daylight,
11:38starting with getting Chandler Riggs, who played Carl in the show,
11:42to post a cameo?
11:45Riggs was not only surprised, but excited to be able to geek out about DBD in public.
11:50Needless to say, the post caught fire quickly,
11:53which put behavior a little bit on edge, as Cote explained.
11:59Interacting with these kind of things is always very delicate.
12:01Because if it's something that's in the works,
12:05it's sort of touchy to respond.
12:07But if it's not, and then we respond like, nothing's happening,
12:11is it more telling?
12:13So we should act as if it's not telling and just interact with it anyway?
12:16No.
12:17It's really, really delicate.
12:19It's a weird dance we have with the,
12:23especially very prolific content creators,
12:25or people who are super engaged, like you.
12:28Yeah.
12:28We want to, because that enthusiasm, that passion, that's fuel, baby.
12:34Indeed, the addition of Rick, Michonne, and Daryl speaks volumes about how colossal DBD has become in horror gaming.
12:41It's almost impossible to ignore at this point.
12:44But looking back,
12:45it's not surprising that Behavior Interactive managed to turn DBD into a successful live service game.
12:52If anything, you could say it was a happy accident.
12:55As Cote had mentioned to us,
12:56the studio already had tons of experience developing games based on various IPs between movies and TV shows.
13:03So what exactly was the difference between doing that and adapting IPs in a totally original work?
13:09Admittedly, you can say the big difference is wrestling with spaghetti code, but you get what we're saying.
13:15It's still interesting seeing how it went from dormant horror icons like Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger
13:21to modern giants like Resident Evil and Five Nights at Freddy's.
13:25It's even more fascinating how DBD went from a simple experimental title
13:29that was just meant to pay the bills and then move on
13:32to it's now Behavior's entire source of revenue.
13:36Almost.
13:39You'll be my next creation.
13:44So the only question now is,
13:47who's next?
13:48Who else is the entity going to wrangle into the fog?
13:51At the time of this video,
13:53we recently saw Rick, Michonne, and Daryl from The Walking Dead get added.
13:57But who else is left?
13:59The Predator?
14:00Art the Clown?
14:01Jaws?
14:02Or maybe a certain hockey mask-wearing water zombie finally joins the fray?
14:07Next year's 10th anniversary will be one to watch.
14:10We managed to ask Kote about Behavior's plans for DBD's 10th anniversary,
14:14such as, I don't know, are there plans for a fan event?
14:18We're gonna do something big.
14:20I think we're gonna do something big in Montreal and I'm gonna leave it at that for now.
14:27Well, in that case, time to get the passports ready.
14:30Was there a license that got you into Dead by Daylight?
14:33Because even after all the death, decay, and darkness,
14:40I still remember exactly who I am.
14:46But let us know what you think down in the comments below,
14:48and don't forget to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great videos every day.
14:53We'll see you next time.
Recommended
12:32
|
Up next
3:24
23:01
1:15
0:43
7:14
1:23
1:02
1:58
11:27
1:34
2:29
6:21
2:15
11:47
13:56
Be the first to comment