The asymmetrical horror category has become a very popular segment in games. While Dead by Daylight is still the behemoth of the bunch, we’ve seen countless other examples, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Evil Dead, Ghostbusters, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Friday The 13th, and so forth. Many of these games are even made by developer Illfonic, who will soon be adding to the bunch by turning to another epic horror franchise.
Halloween is getting the asymmetrical horror treatment, and Michael Myers will soon be looking to cause havoc and chaos in a digital version of the town of Haddonfield. That game will be coming out next year (we’ll let you guess the launch window…), but as part of Gamescom we had the chance to sit down and learn more about the game with Illfonic’s chief creative officer, Jared Gerritzen.
During the interview, we asked Gerritzen about why they chose to base the game on the original 1978 film. He told us the following:
“I mean, it’s the best one. I mean, it’s where it all started. And the way that we see it is the 78 film is essentially the start of all of the world. You know, it’s where everything grows out from.
And so that was the big decision.
“But also it’s been really fun because it’s kind of like a period piece. It’s the 70s. We’ve really done a lot of research on how terrible carpets looked and all of the wood paneling that our parents, you know, for some reason had. And just everything about it is giving that vibe but also pulling back the technology. I mean, phones had cords. You didn’t have a cell phone. Like you didn’t have a flashlight with you all the time.
“And it’s a really fun kind of study into the, you know, it doesn’t seem like that long ago. But when we’ve gotten deeper and deeper, it’s like, man, like there was so many ways that this guy could have been doing so much terrible things and never, you know, been found. It’s really scary, honestly. I’m glad that we live in this era, you know.”
Otherwise, we also inquired about how Illfonic has had to adapt its formula to suit Michael Myers’ signature abilities.
Gerritzen explained: “Yeah, I mean, Michael has this great ability to show up out of nowhere, and show up at the worst time. And that’s the big thing that we’re going to do with this game in multiplayer, is really kind of show this kind of darkness and shape that can be out of nowhere and can be stalking you the entire time. And really, the goal is to have us return to that real horror slasher, you know, vibe. We’ve been working on a lot of other styles of games. And really, I think now it’s time to come back to what really kind of put us on the map, which is slasher horror.”
Check out the full interview below to see how else Illfonic is paying homage to the epic Halloween franchise with this upcoming game.