How Friday the 13th: The Game exploded from Gun Media’s fun horror ideas

GamesBeat: I imagine Jason wants to try to get the counselors to wander off alone? That seems to be how most deaths in the movies get set up. If so, how can he accomplish getting the group to split up?

Keltner: From our play tests, this generally seems to happen every match. Counselors just go in every random direction.

Sometimes you might have people team up, but even then … as soon as Jason comes near, it’s interesting to see how fast people will leave the other behind to save their own hide.

It’s a very interesting dynamic to see what players do in these situations. You get bonuses for sticking with each other. However, you aren’t punished if you go it alone. Many times it will probably work out in your favor more than having someone [else] reveal your location.

GamesBeat: On your Kickstarter page, you mention a stigma that people have for asymmetrical multiplayer gameplay. Can you elaborate a little bit on what this stigma is? I’ve never heard anyone complain about it.

Brungardt: It often can be a balance thing. Usually, everyone wants to play the bad ass lonesome guy, like the monster or the main killer. With Friday the 13th: The Game, we knew one problem would be everyone wanting to play Jason and a lack of people wanting to play the counselors.

We didn’t want to nerf Jason, so he wouldn’t be fun to play … he still needs to be deadly and powerful … but we wanted to make it really fun to play as a counselor.

Keltner: Right. The crucial part was giving the players that are counselors, the proper tools to try to stay alive. But this becomes more of a cat and mouse type gameplay. Wouldn’t you agree, Kedhrin?

Gonzalez: This was a big thing when we first started the game. Right out of the gates, Gun Media didn’t want the counselors to be something that you would compare to a competitive asymmetrical multiplayer game. You’re supposed to be weak, but how do you make that fun?

We went with staying closer to the rules of hide and seek. We decided to figure out a way to make it more fun to not be it, but still have a fun time if you are it.

There are just so many ways for you to interact with the world that Jason can’t. It’s a completely different experience. Naturally, Jason is for for it’s own reasons, I think you can probably imagine.

GamesBeat: I mean … maybe I am sitting in a position of luxury saying this, being a fan of asymmetrical design and all, but if a small portion of the audience doesn’t like the genre, should you care? I mean, we can’t please everyone, right?

Gonzalez: I think asymmetrical multiplayer can be a lot more subjective to the player when it’s put into a competitive light.

When the game takes itself extremely seriously on the balance and play-by-play, it makes players really focus a lot on that’s not fair or strangers never play together type of discussions.

Even though you’re a counselor, you can play 100 percent solo, just as if you were playing with other team members. Other asymmetrical experiences force you to cooperate with your team if you want to take down the 1  in the 1 vs. many scenario.

GamesBeat: Will there be a single-player component?

Keltner: We have a stretch goal to include a single player challenge mode. This will be smaller gameplay moment, ripped straight from the films.

The films didn’t rely much on a strong narrative. It’s simply not what the audience was after. They wanted to see the undying killing force of Jason kill teens in creative and unique ways. Who needs a story when you have that kind of eye candy?

We hope that we can hit that stretch goal, as we feel the design we have for our challenges will be crazy fun. To get an idea, it’s somewhat similar to a mission in Hitman, however, you only have a few targets to take out, so the experience would be much smaller than your normal Hitman mission.

Alternatively, if you’re playing as a counselor in the challenges, you have a couple of objectives, like: find the car keys, escape the cabin, and get to the car.