STACK #156 Oct 2017

GAMES FEATURE

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foremost is attention to detail, and so far, our fans have shown a lot of support.” This month, the title is finally getting a local retail release on, quite fittingly, Friday the 13 th , and the game has, quite expectedly, been rated R18.

So what can Australian gamers expect from the title and why should they pick it up? “We believed in a game that

stayed true to the slasher genre and were fortunate enough to gain the license [because] the owners of said license believed in what we were doing. Our Kickstarter and Backerkit backers believed in us and the game already has over 1.8 million players around the globe,” Strauss says. “Our launch was a bit rocky and we have

When you think of slasher movies, the Friday the 13th franchise is right up there. Now you can play the game. Words Paul Jones "F riday the 13 th : The Game started as a passion project that had been on our minds for some time Crowd-funding thus became perhaps the smartest route to take.”

had our bumps, but with newer content coming and lots more for players to do, we

believe this is the homage to Friday the 13 th that gamers have been asking for these past two decades. You get to feel like Jason Voorhees, or a counsellor trapped at Camp Crystal Lake."

• Friday the 13th: The Game is out Oct 13

Strauss says that the team made a concerted effort to reproduce the right aesthetic from the films, knowing that series' aficionados would be scrutinising every part of the game.

prior to actually getting started. [We thought] a good homage to the slasher flicks of the 1980s could become a fun game, and our team was pretty confident in the idea when we announced Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp ”. That, according to community manager for Gun Media, Ben Strauss, is how the idea for the game originated. When the team were eventually granted permission to use the Friday the 13 th name, their ambition needed to be scaled accordingly; Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp became Friday the 13 th : The Game and the decision was made to crowd-fund the project.

We believed in a game that stayed true to the slasher genre

Until Dawn Eight teenagers in a log cabin and a serial killer on the prowl – what could possibly go wrong? With a good twist and jumps galore, Until Dawn is an essential game for horror fans. Alien: Isolati n Without conventional weaponry on hand, this survival horror extravaganza will test the nerve of all that play as you try to navigate a space station with a Xenomorph in pursuit. Condemned Oh yeah, remember this one? Playing as a special agent on the hunt for the psychopathic Serial Killer X, this first- person, er, melee title will have you on the edge of your seat.

“Attention to detail is everything,” he says. “We looked at each mask; we looked at each movie; we looked at every aspect of this franchise and worked to get it translated to a gaming environment. “Given that there are

“Originally, we set out to self-fund the title we were working on prior to being granted the license. After

Friday the 13 th was given to us, we felt something more needed to be done – more than what we planned for,” Strauss explains. “We did try the traditional route; however, we were met with

very little actual behind- the-scenes photos, and the fact that many of the sets are no longer around, it’s been tough to recreate things as close to the movies as possible, while still creating maps and environments that work from a gameplay perspective. The drive first and

quite a few challenges. Several publishers did not think the game would perform well with users, while others wanted us to change the tone of the game to include less violence.

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OCTOBER 2017

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