Interview: Deathwatchers Aims At Challenging Gameplay While Keeping The Essence Of Original Game Alive

Ben: Hey! My name’s Ben. I’ve been a games developer for around 15 years now, I’ve worked on lots and lots of games. The most recent bigger project is the upcoming FNAF game!

I’ve been developing Deathwatchers for just over a year now in my spare evening time, I do everything for the game from the programming to making 3D meshes & animations! And then I piece it all together to make it work!

Ben: The biggest inspiration for the original game is ‘I’m On Observation Duty’ and if you’ve not tried it yet, go give it a try, they’re awesome! Me and my friend were playing it and we liked the concept so we decided to create our interpretation! I really wanted the original game to be co-op however it was only meant to be a short project and adding multiplayer to it would have increased development time quite dramatically.

So, a few months after the release of the original, I decided to start work on Deathwatchers! Deathwatchers is MUCH, much bigger in scope than the original game. It packs a lot more content and much more replayability, and of course, you get to enjoy the spooks with several friends!

Ben: The original game has a lot of fans and I didn’t want them to feel left out so, Deathwatchers has a ‘Classic’ game mode that allows you to play the new levels in the original game fashion. Also with up to 3 friends! The core feature of the original game is that it’s a ‘spot the difference’ horror game.

This is still the focal point of the sequel with the game revolving around paranormal events that will alter and change the environment, you must be keen-eyed enough to witness them all! Especially the harder ones.

Ben: Spotting the difference in horror games can be quite challenging, some people are much better at spotting certain events than others. With a good team, each focusing on event types that they’re better at spotting and utilizing the right equipment for those types you can become a super successful paranormal events team!

You don’t think spotting the difference between horror games is gonna be fun until you try them. Then you’re hooked!

Ben: Audio Sensors, Floodlights, Video Cameras that can be attached to most flat surfaces, Void sticks that allow you to seal voids and stop various entity activities, photo cameras so you can take pictures of the environment before it starts to change, EMF readers that help you find objects that have disappeared into the void any many others! I’ll also be adding more post-launch!

Ben: At the start of the level, the events that need to happen are randomized, the herbs and the events they need are randomized, the weather is randomized, and each location is separated into ‘rooms’; these rooms at the start of the level are either open or closed. So you can play a level many times, and it’ll be different for a significant number of playthroughs.

I would eventually like to implement a system where most objects in any room can be made to be an event at runtime, and the game would then instantiate them and use them at runtime. That would essentially make it impossible to ever have a similar playthrough!

Ben: The way the ‘Event types’ are chosen at the start and ensuring they happen per the randomized ritual ingredients was quite awkward to implement, took some time and a lot of testing but I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Ben: Depending on the difficulty chosen, the game scales quite significantly, with ‘normal’ mode being the easiest difficulty. You get quite a lot of space between the entities’ aggression levels on the easier difficulty, allowing people the chance to try to figure out the game while playing! There’s a wide variety of video tutorials (and text) that help to explain how the core loop works and each piece of equipment, as the game can be quite overwhelming at first!

If you decide to play on ‘Hard’ or ‘Nightmare’ the game jumps quite a bit, the entity will come for you much earlier on and much more frequently. You should only be playing this mode if you’re familiar with the mechanics and you’re packing a lot of void sticks to keep yourself safe! But you, of course, get paid a lot more for the harder difficulties, so it’s kinda worth the risk!

Ben: Audio is key when it comes to horror games, the game has a huge array of ambient effects that occur randomly and are also based on things that the entity does or things that are triggered through the location! Weather is also great for ambiance, rain trickling down the roof, and lightning crashing while you’re heavily inspecting something can really get you when you least expect it.

This is something I’m a huge fan of and something I really focus on with both the original game and the sequel.

Ben: The feedback has been amazing, people have been so understanding of any bugs and have reported them to me straight away. It’s been so fun watching people play and seeing people genuinely excited for the game. Made me feel that all the stress has been worth it. Even if the game isn’t ‘successful’, seeing people enjoy something I’ve made is a wonderful feeling.

I don’t see the surge in co-op games slowing anytime soon, everyone loves to play with their friends, especially horror games. I’m quite confident co-op development will continue to grow! And I’m definitely going to be a part of that!

Ben: For me, it’s more about making the player anxious and uneasy instead of throwing scary faces at the screen and screaming all the time. It’s more about subtle audio cues and eerie sounds mixed in with the occasional chase as you fight for your life. Never knowing when the next ‘hunt’ is going to happen or when the entity stands in a corner just staring at you for a few seconds. Are they going to attack me now?

It’s all about making the player question what’s going to happen and giving them no implication of what’s going to happen or when it’s going to happen. I think both of the game modes in Deathwatchers definitely focus on that.

Ben: I think the biggest current trend is cloning Lethal Company in various ways, co-op spooky Perma Death runs are always going to be super fun with your friends and although Deathwatchers is very different from that style of game, the core element of Perma Death during a run is essential for Deathwatchers.

You can no longer talk to your friends, if only one person is alive they’re now completely alone. This is key for creating tension and making sure players try their best to not actually die and to use all the tools at their disposal.

Ben: If you like paranormal games and are looking for something with a twist, something quite different from other ‘figure out the entity’ style games. Give the Deathwatchers demo a try!

You may think a ‘Spot the Difference’ horror game sounds weird, and you’re right; it does. But it’s surprisingly very fun to sit and look for scary differences, all while trying not to be ‘taken’ by whatever entity lurks within, especially with friends!