VGTimes Interview with the Developers of Dead by Daylight: Thai Folklore, the Desire to Surprise Fans, and the Challenges of Development

At gamescom asia, VGTimes Editor-in-Chief Rodion Ilin spoke with the developers of Dead by Daylight from Behaviour Interactive. We learned more details about the Sinister Grace expansion, as well as the process of developing unique Killers and Survivors inspired by Thai folklore. You’ll find out about the future plans for Dead by Daylight and why its clones can’t survive on the market for more than a year in this interview.

VGTimes: Hello! Recently, Dead by Daylight received a major update, Sinister Grace, in the style of Thai body horror. Over the entire existence of the project, you’ve created a lot of DLCs and continue to surprise fans with unusual content. Few studios can boast such productivity. Tell us about your approach to developing expansions.

Behaviour Interactive: Hi! We have plenty of ideas for DLC, but bringing them to life is a complex task. And even though about 400 people are actively involved in the game’s development, creating another update is a very long and arduous process. For example, developing a major DLC can easily take an entire year. That’s why we have a special “roadmap” in the studio, which marks Dead by Daylight updates planned years ahead.

We take a theme from this “roadmap” and begin active research: digging through archives, studying legends and folklore, and of course, looking for interesting ghost stories. It’s extremely important to us that all new content passes an authenticity check, and that players immediately understand that we treat their culture with respect. Right now, we’re in Thailand gathering player feedback on the Sinister Grace expansion, and you know what? They come up to us and say they’re familiar with this legend and they like it. We created a new Survivor who is close to them. When the audience accepts our work, feels it, sees it, and hears it — that’s the biggest compliment that motivates us.

VGTimes: You mentioned a special “roadmap” that guides your updates. How many expansions do you have planned for Dead by Daylight?

Behaviour Interactive: A lot. At least five major updates are already in active development.

VGTimes: You often compare your major DLCs to full-fledged games. In what way?

Behaviour Interactive: In every way. For the past ten years, all we’ve been doing is releasing practically new games every six months. New chapters, killers, sets of abilities, survivors, and gameplay mechanics. At the same time, we constantly need to surprise players, maintain their interest, and introduce as many changes as possible so that fans who have played hundreds of hours in Dead by Daylight keep getting new emotions. It’s great when they have to relearn the behavior of new Killers, figure out mechanics, and explore locations. Such improvements help maintain interest in the project and preserve that very sense of tension that Dead by Daylight is known for.

VGTimes: That’s right, Dead by Daylight is about to turn 10 years old! Have you ever thought about how your game manages to retain its audience and avoid direct clashes with competitors?

Behaviour Interactive: First, Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer game where four survivors try to escape from the most terrifying nightmares. Its core is asymmetric game design, which is rarely found in other games. Many studios have tried to copy our formula, but in ten years, no one has succeeded. These games appear quickly and die just as quickly. As a result, our project remains the largest of all asymmetric games on the market. There simply are no competitors.

VGTimes: Tell us about the Sinister Grace expansion. What challenges did you face developing such unusual content for the game?

Behaviour Interactive: One of the biggest problems we faced was developing the new Killer — Krasue. She’s unlike any of the maniacs we’ve worked with before. By day, she’s the beautiful opera singer Burong Sakapat, but at night her body literally rips apart, so her organs and head start floating separately. She becomes very fast and agile. She can easily slip through doors and windows, catching up to survivors. In addition, she has a special attack that deals huge damage — a whip-like strike with her own intestines.

VGTimes: So, essentially, it’s two completely different gameplay styles for the Killer within a single match?

Behaviour Interactive: Exactly. The player gets two sets of abilities that perfectly complement each other. Playing as Krasue in her human form, you need to carefully lure out survivors and infect them so you can deal massive damage later in her monster form. It was important for us to think through the synergy of these two mechanics so that they not only worked well together, but also looked spectacular on screen — bloody and creepy. Creating Krasue was a serious challenge. Fortunately, the team did an excellent job with this difficult task.

VGTimes: And what about the new Survivor introduced in the expansion?

Behaviour Interactive: The new Survivor — Vee Boonyasak — turned out amazing. Besides her cool appearance, she’s also a drummer in the rock band “Axekick.” We put a lot of effort into her image to make her look friendly and represent the diversity of Thai culture, including both modern and traditional aspects. Thanks to her music, she increases the survivors’ speed and can even put on a full performance in the middle of a match, so the rest of the team repairs generators faster.

VGTimes: What are your overall impressions of this exhibition?

Behaviour Interactive: Everything is great. We came here to meet Dead by Daylight fans and hear their opinions about our work. In addition, we received a lot of positive feedback and suggestions for further project development.

VGTimes: Besides Dead by Daylight, do you play games from other studios? Maybe you have some favorite projects?

Behaviour Interactive: The beauty of working in gamedev is that we can play all sorts of projects and do research at the same time. And it doesn’t matter whether we do it at home or in the office — we always try to note things that we can later use for our own purposes. That’s the essence of professionalism in the gaming industry.

VGTimes: You develop video games, do research in the office, and play them at home. Don’t you ever get tired of them?

Behaviour Interactive: Well, nothing like that has happened so far. Of course, sooner or later it might, and we’ll want to take a break from video games. But definitely not today and not in the near future.

VGTimes: Do you have any favorite franchises, apart from your own games, of course?

Behaviour Interactive: (Laughs) Unfortunately, we can’t name them. There have already been some unpleasant incidents when we answered this question.

VGTimes: Maybe you have a message or wish for our readers?

Behaviour Interactive: Of course! What are you waiting for?! Join Dead by Daylight, for goodness’ sake! It’s time to start being scared, freaking out, panicking, and, of course, enjoying killing your friends!

Dead by Daylight is one of the most successful asymmetric multiplayers with a huge audience, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year. Despite its solid age, the game remains in high demand and easily outlasts any competitor that blatantly copies the game design mechanics invented by Behaviour Interactive.

Interview conducted by Rodion Ilin.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has attended dozens of exhibitions and festivals where our journalists gathered numerous exclusive materials. For example, at the year 2025 we saw with our own eyes one of Asia's major gaming exhibitions — ChinaJoy in Shanghai.