Fans of ‘80s horror slashers are in for one hell of a treat in 2016 with the arrival of a cult name on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. Friday the 13th:The Game has been officially confirmed today as the new title of Gun Media’s previously-announced Slasher Vol.1: Summer Camp, after the developer was granted permission to use the official movie license by creator Sean S. Cunningham.
Though Summer Camp was inspired by slasher movies, the indie studio never expected to secure a license that will enable them to create a true love letter to one of their favorite films. In an exclusive interview with PlayStation Universe, Friday the13th: The Game co-creator, Ronnie Hobbs, confirmed the news, and told us why development on Summer Camp has been turned on its head, with the focus now on revisiting every area of the game to capture the atmosphere and locations of the cult franchise, as well as bringing the terrifying figure of Jason Voorhees to life.
“The story of how it happened is pretty incredible,” Hobbs told PSU. “We set out to create a game inspired by’ ‘80s slashers, because we grew up worshipping them, especially Friday the 13th, so that’s why we created Slasher Vol.1: Summer Camp, and that’s why we hired Tom Savini, and Kane Hodder and Harry Maldini, all people who worked on the original film.
“So we put our heads down,” he continued, “and were working on this killer versus camp counsellor dynamic and all the interactions, and then one day we get a call from Sean S Cunningham, the creator of Friday the 13th and the director on the original film. After a lot of conversations and some awesome meetings, he said ‘If my license will make your game better then you can have it.’ We were like, “we can’t afford a license. That’s why we did Slasher Volume 1: Summer Camp.’ and he was like ‘no, this is a gift from me to you.’ We got handed the best gift we ever hoped to be handed.”
With the Friday the 13th license granted, this now means that Gun Media has a lot of work ahead to do justice to a major franchise and expand on their original concept. With cash in the bank to cover the original idea only, Gun Media has launched a Kickstarter campaign in a bid to raise $700,000 in order to fully create the vision they have for Friday the 13th: The Game.
The Kickstarter campaign launches with the following trailer, which ends with our first look at the imposing figure of Jason Voorhees.
Hobbs explained to PSU why they’ve decided to take the crowd-funding route in order to complete the game.
“We had money for Summer Camp only, and we didn’t anticipate taking on a license,” he said. “We need to make it bigger and better, with all the different versions of Jason in, and the real location of Crystal Lake rather than a generic one. We need more creative kills, more of everything, but we don’t have the money, so we’re launching this Kickstarter. The gameplay is going to stay the same, but the one person who plays the killer is now Jason Voorhees, while the other seven are still camp counselors. It’s still a camp setting, but now it gets to be Crystal Lake.”
The original concept for Summer Camp was that it was going to be an eight-player asymmetrical online multiplayer game only, which allows players to step into the shoes of teen counsellors as they attempt to escape, evade or kill Jason. As previously mentioned, players can choose to control Jason and attempt to hunt down and kill as many counsellors as possible. In Friday 13th, the premise remains the same, but Gun Media is planning many improvements, including the introduction of single-player missions.
“At first it was only an asymmetrical online multiplayer game, but now it’s Friday the 13th one of our stretch goals is single player challenges where you can play Jason or a counsellor,” confirmed Hobbs. For example, you may be held up inside a house and need to find the keys or a weapon while Jason is beating the door down. You could either go out the front door, sneak out the back, try and take him on, or go upstairs and hide. So we’ll have this AI Jason chasing you. That’s just one example of the single player challenges.”
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