Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight is filled with a variety of killer creatures that run, jump, float and, with the addition of new killer Vecna, fly. However, it turns out that characters in the popular asymmetric horror game never actually leave the ground.
In an interview with Gfinity, Dead by Daylight developer Game Designer Janick Neveu revealed that flying characters are always on ground level to avoid breaking the game.
A great Dead by Daylight Vecna build requires players to use the character’s Fly ability to soar over the map and quickly close distances. However, Vecna’s character model is never in the air.
“It’s all a trick of the mind,” Neveu told Gfinity. “The character never lifts from the ground, and it's just the way we handle the camera to make it feel with the animation that you're flying."
The way that Dead by Daylight is created leads to a host of problems whenever a character is disconnected from the ground. For characters like The Twins, who can use a lurch ability, they are quickly transformed into a projectile until the ability is finished.
“We try to keep our Killer grounded to the map,” they continued. “Because anything that disconnects the character from the ground goes into a lot of problem territories."
Dead by Daylight’s faux flying is just the latest of developer trickeries to be revealed. In recent weeks, Mass Effect developers revealed that the game’s sprinting system never made characters move faster, just like Dragon Age Inquisition’s infamous fake horse gallop.
Being a multiplayer title, Dead by Daylight’s need to keep characters situated at ground level is likely even more important, especially as players discover exploits and glitches to grief others.
Alongside the reveal of Dead by Daylight’s fake flying mechanics, the developers also revealed plans to nerf Vecna’s most powerful ability as well as how the character was originally balanced.
Dead by Daylight is available right now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile.