Dead by Daylight: Designing The Dredge

blog.playstation.com:

In Dead by Daylight’s new chapter Roots of Dread, the new Killer is The Dredge. A formless mass of twisted limbs writhing in the shadows, The Dredge is a manifestation of darkness itself. A uniquely frightening figure, it was imperative that The Dredge captured the spirit of a monster lurking beneath your bed. And while Dead by Daylight is most certainly a horror game, conjuring such a unique flavor of fear presented an exciting challenge for the game design team.

For one, its Reign of Darkness Power shrouds the map in a pitch-black state, turning simple navigation into a matter of life and death. During this supernatural nightfall, visibility becomes severely limited, making it so that Survivors can only see what’s directly in front of them. While this certainly brings an exciting new horror element to Dead by Daylight, such a drastic visual change was not without a few behind-the-scenes hurdles.

“One of the first things, and this is something people don’t often consider, is that we must think about the technical feasibility of our desired experience,” explains Patrick Harris, Dead by Daylight’s lead game designer. “Lighting levels and visibility levels are a very technical challenge, and when conceptualizing a Power like The Dredge’s, we have to consider that.”

“It becomes an interesting discussion between the tech side and the design side,” he notes. “The design side says we want an experience like this, and tech says doing exactly what you just said will have implications on performance. We work together to find a balance.

“It’s tricky to get the lighting and visibility to change dynamically in a match, maintain performance, and adhere to the original design desire. On top of that, you must then consider the feedback