Friday the 13th: The Game will include a very familiar killing ground when it hits later this year: The iconic Higgins Haven property featured in the third and fourth slasher flicks, the game developers announced at PAX East tonight.
The second playable map is based on the Crystal Lake shore, barn and two-level house where the third Jason movie took place and that the fourth shows briefly.
The first new video showing off during the panel, which you can see above, also shows a new kill. The second new video, which you can see below, gave fans a look at the game's stealth mechanic, with players hiding in spots around Crystal Lake.
After the video showing off the stealth mechanic, the team talked about how they're experimenting with things like whether to have a HUD on the screen and how much a counselor can zoom in on things or, in the case of the video, Jason.
"We've thought that maybe if you zoom in too much you can see him better, but he can see you too," said Ronnie Hobbs, co-creator and designer of the game. "Maybe if you zoom in more, your fear goes down."
Hobbs also noted that Jason has the ability to track counselors down.
"We won't say exactly what his abilities are, but he can sense fear," he said.
The now-official Friday the 13th video game adaptation started its life as a Kickstarter for a game called Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp.
Shortly after its announcement, the original film's director and producer reached out to game developer Gun Media to turn the game inspired by the film series into an official adaptation.
The game exceeded its $700,000 Kickstarter goal last November, with the extra money going into additional features.
The game is designed to be a multiplayer survival title with one player taking on the role of the iconic Jason and the seven other players taking on a troop of teenage tropes, like the "the girl next door," "the jock," and the "edgy guy."
"Typically in a multiplayer game both sides wants conflict," said Hobbs. "In this game, only one side wants conflict: Jason."
The development team also noted that matches will typically run about 15-20 minutes, mostly because as the game progresses Jason continues to get more powerful. Eventually, he'll just kill everyone.
Hobbs said that the team is working to make sure the game doesn't get too repetitive by adding random elements to the map that essentially make the map different every time you play.
The talk also walked through a number of kills and how carefully the in-game kills recreate how they looked in the movie. The team showed off a number of motion capture sessions for the kills.
In one example, Wes Keltner, co-creator and designer for the game, explained that the game makers wanted to include the iconic sleeping bag kill. In the movie, Jason picks up a sleeping bag with a counselor in it and slams it against a tree. The original movie had him slamming the sleeping bag against the tree seven times, but only one slam made the final cut.
In the game, Keltner said, they made sure to include all seven.
For more on Friday the 13th, see Polygon's in-depth preview from October.
