The worryingly slow development of this game
Hello!
Before I start, if you are here, I would like you to read this entire post and comment if you agree or disagree, please.
I am writing this because I would like to express my dissatisfaction with the game regarding its last few months of development. I started playing Dead by Daylight in 2021, when The Artist chapter was released. Since that date, I have put over a thousand hours into the game. I love it and enjoy the games very much, but as much as I love it, I am losing this passion because I don't see the same passion reflected in the developers. It saddens me to think this because for me, Dead by Daylight has a huge potential and the developers don't realize this.
There is one thing that worries me, that is how slow the development is. It is unbelievable how slow the changes in this game happen. Literally years ago you were mentioning the rework to The Twins, until this April it came to the PTB as a major change. This change was announced months in advance, exactly in November 2023, that is, 5 months ago. We all know what happened in the PTB, there is no need to explain it, it was horrible. It's hard to believe, but it's true, it was months of work thrown away. What's wrong? Don't you review the changes before introducing them to a PTB? Don't you know your own game? You promised a new animation for Decisive Strike and it turned out to be one of the most horrible things in the game, bad visually and practically. Of course you removed it. Again, time wasted. This Midchapter was dire, I'm amazed at the lack of passion the developers of this game have. To think that this game is 8 years old and you make mistakes like this is just crazy.
It took you 7 years to add a search bar for perks. It took you 8 years to add 2 modifiers that yes, were interesting, but nothing interesting enough to keep you playing for hours. Thankful that you tried and are improving in that aspect.
Now, why do you waste time adding features to the game that nobody asked for or needs? In this patch now if you press ESC your perks will pop up, why would I want to see my perks if I already know what they do and I chose them myself. Why don't you add in this same interface the perks your teammates have and also the challenges you selected and their progress? I was surprised when in a Q&A they answered about seeing the perks of your teammates "it's something we are working on, expect to see it in a couple of years in the game"... A COUPLE OF YEARS? sounds like a joke, but it's true, sadly. And it’s just a quality of life improvement.
If I was guaranteed that any developer would read this I would keep writing about ideas for this game and all the potential it has, but I see the developers don't care either. I appreciate the chapters they release, the weekly skins (they could do a lot better because even the mobile ones are better) and the licenses they have. Although, I must say, with how passionless, lack of updates and emptiness you feel in this game, I don't understand how they got licenses like Alien, Resident Evil, Scream, Halloween, etc. They get lost in a game like this. Aside from the fact that they could have been much better, especially Alien in the gameplay sense. In some old licenses they could make a visual rework to those killers and survivors, but that's another topic. Also adding voice lines to every survivor when going against a specific killer. But, yes, it's not going to happen lol.
The crazy thing is that the company is not poor, they have these giant licenses, they have money, relationships with companies and contacts. Also, they charge you for everything, for the base game, for the skins, for the battle pass, for every DLC. It's not lack of money. Just a bad and weak development.
Good job with the new store, should have been like that since years ago to be honest.
I just want the best for this game, but it seems absurd how slow it advances.
Comments
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Yeah I pretty much agree with everything you have said. It would be great if they finally added some different game modes, or even just more modifiers. BHVR really prioritises the wrong things sometimes.
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I wish perks were changed way more offten. Seriously there are so many perks that would be suddenly decent and even usefull if they just buff their numbers. Some perks are bad by desing so they need a rework or major change.
There are many killers who need changes and addon passes or some addon changes.
There are many buffs SoloQ needs to be more enjoybale and playbale. You will never fix a gap between SWF and SoloQ of course but you can totaly make it way more close to each other to the point the difference won't be so big anymore (except for good teamplays).
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Artist was released in November 2021 though.
I disagree that the devs don't have passion for the game. They just don't have the same priorities we have. They made a new animation for DS even though nobody asked for it and it sure didn't make them any money, so from a business perspective there was no reason to do so. Now, it was a bad animation because it created a new issue and it also didn't look right with all the different killers but it's something they thought of. The Twins' rework on the other hand was catastrophe, let's be honest and after waiting 2 years for it, I can say, that I'm really disappointed.
The changes they are going to make are good and pretty much what the Twins need but that could have been done at any time during the last 2 years. There was no reason to ignore this killer for so long to begin with. It won't change all of their issues because the giant 8 seconds cooldown between a down with Victor and switching back to Charlotte are not going anywhere but it's an improvement still.
In this patch now if you press ESC your perks will pop up, why would I want to see my perks if I already know what they do and I chose them myself.
This is something the community has wanted for years. We have 255 perks (and counting) in this game. It's only natural that someone might not remember all the intricacies of each perk. This is especially sad because it only affects players that don't run the same perks all the time. So an option to check up, why a perk did or did not work can only be a positive to everyone who wants to use something different from the meta. When I did Chucky's adept I completely forgot Two Can Play only activates on the third stun.
Why don't you add in this same interface the perks your teammates have and also the challenges you selected and their progress?
That is a good question. If they can do it for your perks, then it can't be that hard to do it for your team mates' perks.
The thing about voice lines is, that after a while it would feel very annoying having every survivor and killer talk non stop and there have been suggestions for so many things that warrant voice lines, I'm glad they haven't followed that route yet. DBD is not a single player, story driven game where characters constantly need to talk. It's also not Overwatch (do they talk in Overwatch?) or League of Legends where it fits the world they created. It's also not exactly cheap getting all the voice actors on board to record them.
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I think the issue isn't lack of passion from the devs, it's that they're working on 4 chapters at a time, tons of cosmetics, modes, events, archives, tomes, meetings over licensing rights, etc.
It seems that whoever is time managing at BHVR wants the company to put so many resources towards new content that makes money, that balancing, reworks, map changes, QoL etc. all get shafted. You can't really expect the devs themselves to be able to juggle so much at once, but it is absolutely on the higher ups at BHVR to stop reaching for our wallets so often and to direct their incredibly cunning and otherwise competitent team to give more time to projects that need it.
Look at the Twins rework for example. A standard chapter includes a from the ground up killer, survivor, and map that needs to be made. That's been said to take about a year to develop, yet changing around a single killers power took YEARS of blubbering and non answers only for a poorly thought out redesign and some good QoL, only for the Power change to be axed after basically everyone in the community recognized immediately it was a design potentially stronger than Nurse.
I refuse to believe that was a scenario brought forth by the same team capable of beating the camera system into submission in order for a seamless Chucky experience. Rather, it sounds much more reasonable to me that the Twins rework was the result of one or a few people working on it on their off hours after a few initial design pitches failed and had to shoulder most of the programming themselves for years until they could finally present a design that was halfbaked because it didn't get the eyes it needed on it.
The issue I don't think is that the devs don't care, it's that they're spread so incredibly thin and constantly choked by deadlines that unfortunately major issues can be ignored just because they aren't on the list.
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A couple of years for a twins rework that resulted to some number changes.
I agree 💯
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we needed a meta shakeup update like once or twice a year. Yet we only ever had one and prob wont ever get another again.
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It is just what happens when companies have a monopoly over something, in this case it's the genre of asymmetric game of tag. There's a safe consumer base that wants to play this type of game and there is no risk of them switching to another game of this type. So, updates slow down and innovation is not as incentivized, outside of the skins department. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset.
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