Zombie Studios head Jared Gerritzen talks exclusively to GamerHub.tv about his new psychological horror title, Daylight.
First announced at the DICE Summit in February, Daylight aims to shake up the video game horror genre. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, Gerritzen has previously stated Daylight will be a high fidelity and atmospheric experience in a procedurally-generated haunted asylum.
Written by games industry host and presenter Jessica Chobot, Daylight‘s plot will be centred around an unnamed woman armed with only a smartphone to aid her in escaping a psychologically harrowing environment.
In his GamerHub interview, Gerritzen discusses the elements and experiences which combine to give Daylight its unique approach to horror gaming, citing his experience as a developer on F.E.A.R. as a key trigger point of what he suggests was an evolutionary misstep of the genre. Gerritzen sees importance in moving away from the widespread use of heavy weaponry, which he says undermines the principles of survival horror.
On the replayability provided by the procedurally generated game experience, Gerritzen explains how it is even YouTube-proof, with every walkthrough showing different events.
“When I demo’d [Daylight] at PAX, even I got startled because it wasn’t the same room that has the dogs jumping through the window. It’s completely out of our control. It’s both a gift and a curse – ’cause if we [have] a bug, it’s really tough to find it. But with that, everytime a dev plays they instantly start getting scared.”
“It’s a really interesting thing and I think that as the success of Minecraft or Day Z [has shown], when people play, my experience will be completely different from yours. That will allow people to talk about it more.”
“But the really big thing is what we did is we made kind of a YouTube game, where YouTube has become such a phenomenon, so many people are playing and recording their experiences that it’s become an entertainment and the idea of I can show my playthrough and someone can show a different playthrough will really be kind of cool and socially interesting… all the sharing of information, but also their experiences.”
Daylight will be available for PC via Steam in Q3 of 2013.
