The Dead by Daylight franchise is one of the modern horror genre’s most explosive success stories. Delivering a compelling mix of asymmetrical multiplayer mechanics with the most revered properties in Horror multimedia, the original title has enjoyed a massive following since its launch in 2016. In 2024, the series' first single-player entry, The Casting of Frank Stone, is set to release, which looks to combine developer ​​Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight universe with co-developer Supermassive Games’ interactive story formula. To successfully do so, The Casting of Frank Stone needs to nail one of Supermassive’s most popular mechanics.

The Casting of Frank Stone will adapt Dead By Daylight’s lore and characters for an experience akin to the Dark Pictures Anthology and The Quarry. The title sees a group of teenagers attempting to make a movie about Frank Stone, a legendary serial killer from their hometown of Cedar Hills’ past. However, the threat is very much alive and well, and the teens soon find themselves crossing paths with a host of threats both corporeal and supernatural. Like Supermassive’s past interactive stories, the title will feature branching paths, and not every teen is guaranteed to survive.

Related

Dead By Daylight: 6 Killers That Could Star In A Stand-Alone Game

With the announcement of The Casting of Frank Stone featuring Dead by Daylight lore, these DBD Killers would make great standalone horror villains.

The Casting of Frank Stone Must Carefully Adapt Supermassive’s QTE Mechanics

During May 2024's Dead by Daylight Year 8 Anniversary Broadcast, fans got their first extended glimpse at The Casting of Frank Stone's gameplay. Environmental puzzles, branching choices, and high stakes-QTEs were all on display, but it's the latter that can make or break the title's overall experience. As the title hopes to please fans of both Dead by Daylight and Supermassive Games, it needs to carefully implement its QTE elements. One way to accomplish this goal is to mix and match the best mechanics from each property.

QTE mechanics are no doubt familiar to fans of Dead by Daylight, as the title's Skill Checks see a brief QTE accompany specific interactions at random. However, those found in Supermassive Game's narrative adventures are usually far more complex and take the form of extended interactive sequences. The Casting of Frank Stone should meet in the middle of these two formats, injecting Skill Checks into minor interactions and featuring less extensive action sequences. What’s more Skill Checks could play a major role in a potential branch of the story wherein a character who was caught due to a previously failed QTE can be unhooked or freed, given a set of prerequisite events.

The Casting of Frank Stone Needs to Nail Its QTE Difficulty

Since 2015's Until Dawn placed Supermassive Games' at the forefront of interactive horror, QTEs have played a massive role in its titles. However, recent years have seen the quality of this central mechanic prove inconsistent. Many fans have criticized the difficulty, or lack thereof, in recent years, with The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me delivering one of Supermassive's hardest titles, after The Quarry, released five months earlier, delivered one of its easiest. For The Casting of Frank Stone to succeed, Supermassive needs to balance the title's difficulty. This process starts with ensuring that its QTEs are accessible, fair, and challenging while maintaining high stakes and dire repercussions.

Much is still unknown about The Casting of Frank Stone, including how the title plans to implement the mechanics and lore of Dead By Daylight. However, the title's recent gameplay trailer and previously released story teasers allude to Frank Stone's larger connection to the source material, and the appearance of some familiar faces. Though a 2024 debut is seemingly still confirmed, The Casting of Frank Stone does not yet have an official release date. Fans hoping to learn more about the next entry in the Dead By Daylight franchise should stay tuned to June 2024's Summer Game Fest, as Supermassive Games has a history of making surprise appearances at the year's major presentations.

Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game in which one player takes on the role of a Killer and the others play as "Survivors." The Killer must hunt the Survivors, while the Survivors must escape.