Mind the Competition
This upcoming batch of games will be the first of their kind in in quite some time. It’s unfamiliar territory for all involved, and that leaves us with a lot of room for innovation, as well as potential for failure. There are no proven concepts, established rules or expectations to guide them, so it’s important for the developers of each of these games to mind their competition.
Duplication is always a risk when there are multiple developers working on similar games at the same time, but it’s one I’m especially worried about for the Friday the 13th game because it already sounds strikingly similar to Last Year. They’re both asymmetrical multiplayer games where a player-controlled masked murderer is tasked with hunting down a group of teens, also player-controlled.
It’ll be interesting to see how each developer approaches what’s also a relatively new trend in horror games. 2015 may be the year for slasher games, but it’s also looking like a pretty great year for asymmetrical multiplayer (Evolve, The Flock).
