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Exclusive interview – Summer Camp renamed Friday the 13th: The Game, Kickstarter begins

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.

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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.”

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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.”

friday 13th game on ps4

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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Though the main crux of the game is already nailed down, the Kickstarter campaign introduces various stretch goals that are purely feature-related, including new maps, new characters, more consellers, and more ways to kill. We asked Hobbs whether Crystal Lake would be an open-world setting or whether they’ll be multiple maps available.

“At first for Summer Camp we had one large map, but we found that we were rarely seeing the other counsellors when playing as the killer. So we’ve dialled that back to a smaller area, which is still big, to get that key interaction with Jason, “ he said. “ It’s still a semi-open world but it will be a mixture of cabins and the wilderness, Right now we have one map but it’s going to dynamic and change. The counselors will have a few ways to survive. They can find a weapon, some weapons stun and others can kill. So, you can try and take on Jason, or you might want to try and find a landline that works and call for police, or you might go looking for keys, or fix a boat or a car so you and your buddies can escape – or you could just take off in it and leave them behind.”

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Though Gun Media isn’t going down the class-based route for its counsellors, Hobbs explained that each character will have specific traits.

“We didn’t want players to feel shoehorned into a specific play-style. Just like in the movies they all have their own tropes, so you’ll have the intelligent nerdy guy, the jock who maybe will have a better melee attack and who’s faster, but who shows up more on the radar,” he explained. “We’ll have the hero girl who has a better chance at killing Jason, but she may suffer in other categories, so we’ll have those type of classes, but they’re really just tropes.”

So what tools will Jason have at his disposal?

“Jason is the ultimate killing force, but he won’t be so strong that he can kill everyone in two minutes,” explains Hobbs. “He’ll have different weapons that can inflict killing blows, just like any melee game. Jason can also grab you, and can initiate various grab kills, such as a back-breaker, a head smash or an eye gouge – we’re letting Tom Savini design all of our kills.

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And, finally, he can execute environmental kills. There’s certain areas scattered throughout the map and if Jason can get you near to those he can activate a kill. He also has a morphing ability, which is limited, allowing him to appear at any location on the map he wants, so he reappear in front of you just like he does in the films. Conselors will have weapons and traps, that will allow them to slow Jason down.”

The Friday the 13th: The Game Kickstarter campaign runs for one month only, until November 13, 2015, so if you’re excited as we are to see the rebirth of Jason Voorhees, then head on over to the Kickstarter page and get pledging.

For more information, check out the official Friday the 13th website.

For other horror-related features, check out:

Top 10 scariest PlayStation Characters
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