Obakeidoro Team Asks Dead by Daylight Devs How to Balance Data and Passion
The exchange gives the Obakeidoro team direct guidance from the senior asymmetric multiplayer studio on data-driven balance and UI design, including the question of whether Japanese players require distinct adjustments.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Free Style and Behaviour Interactive held a roundtable on asymmetric multiplayer design. The Obakeidoro team asked how to weigh player data against creative instinct, whether Japanese players need special balance treatment, and how to protect a game's core identity while adding features. Behaviour advised measuring time-to-match and iterating through player tests.
The second half of the roundtable turned to practical development questions. Free Style asked Behaviour Interactive how much weight to give player data versus creative passion when making balance changes, and whether Japanese players are different enough to need special treatment.
Behaviour's answer leaned on measurement. The team tracks the seconds between a player deciding to play and actually entering a match, a metric they call Speed to Play, and admits they sit closer to the bottom than the top among games on that measure. They also described their UI process as iterative: ideas on a whiteboard, a prototype, then repeated tests with real players before a final version ships.
On protecting a game's identity, Behaviour stressed that adding features should not come at the cost of what makes the game itself. The full discussion, including the first part on DbD's influence on Obakeidoro, is available in the interview.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.