Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th films are a staple of the horror film genre, and the Halloween season alike. On October 13, Gun Media announced that the mass murderer will be getting his own video game, allowing you to take control of the psychotic slasher to terrorize your friends. They also announced a Kickstarter campaign to help finish funding the development of the game. Check out the announcement trailer:
The project, brainchild of Ronnie Hobbs and Wes Keltner, was initially not licensed by the franchise and was simply titled Slasher Volume I: Summer Camp (which we talked about last year). The idea is to pit 1 player as a powerful blade wielding serial killer against a group of player controlled counselors at a summer camp on a lake. Pretty obviously an homage to the Friday the 13th films. Fortuitously for Gun Media, Sean Cunningham, one of the creators of the film franchise, got wind of what they were doing, dug what he saw, and gifted them the license to use for the game.
Several Friday the 13th film veterans including Tom Savini, who handled the special effects for a few of the installments in the film franchise, along with Kane Hodder, who has actually played Jason in four of the films, were already involved in the project prior to Gun Media receiving the license from Cunningham. Harry Manfredini, the composer of the original Friday the 13th movie with that oh so chilling, iconic theme also jumped aboard. This is a great sign for hardcore fans of the franchise as you can expect a more authentic feel due to their involvement in the development of the game.
In regards to the gameplay Randy Greenback, the Executive Director, says,
“Jason is the driving force of the game, every match he is the dispersal agent, like if, counselors are getting together and they’re trying to team up and they’re trying to throw Jason off, like, Jason gets in there and breaks up the plan and everybody goes running and everything’s crazy.”
He goes on to say how great and important it has been to have Hodder there to help really bring Jason to life in the game.
One player will act as Jason, while up to seven others play as the camp counselors trying to survive by any means necessary. What’s really interesting though is the range of options available to aid you in your attempts to not die. Naturally you can simply find a weapon and defend yourself as best you can. Additionally counselors may try to fix vehicles on the map to try escaping in, call for police if you manage to find a phone, and utilize traps with the team. There are also counselor classes that are in the vein of classic horror archetypes so not all of the counselors will play exactly the same as the other.
Now the problem with these sorts of asymmetrical multiplayer games where one player is ultra powerful while the others aren’t is that everyone just wants to be the ultra powerful guy. An issue that Chuck Brungardt, Tech Director and Lead Producer, is aware of saying,
“We knew our biggest challenge was going to be playing the counselor and as soon as that was awesome and I had a great time playing the counselor, that’s when I kind of knew that we had something special.”
Now, as any fans of the film franchise know that two of the staples are gore and nudity and those same fans will be pleased to know that Gun Media intends to stay as true to the films as possible. It’s actually part of the reason they’re looking for some crowdfunding.
On their Kickstarter page they write;
“We love working with publishers, most of them are great companies to work alongside. Fans of the Friday the 13th film series know that when it comes to Jason Voorhees, violence, gore and nudity aren’t just concepts to consider – they’re necessities. Collectively, we wanted to make certain that this game delivers the same kind of fun, brutal scares and creative kills that the franchise is known for and didn’t want to risk having to tell our story with a ‘T’ for Teen rating. We don’t want that. You don’t want that.”
Knowing full well that they have a responsibility to the fans to make something special now that they have the license, Keltner ends the video on their Kickstarter page by saying,
“We want to make sure we deliver that and then some, so to do that the right way we need a couple more bucks than what we already had, like, we’re pretty good and we could still make something that’s pretty damn fun but we want to go, like, face-meltingly awesome.”
Currently the game is slated to come out sometime next fall.
So horror fans, how does this sound to you? Are you looking forward to wandering around Camp Crystal Lake or is that a big no? Let us know in the comments section!
Make sure to check out some of our other Countdown to Halloween content like Table Top Bonanza’s Gruesome Games to Play on Halloween or ideas for Star Wars costumes! Or for more Voorhees stuff, take a look at our retrospective on Friday the 13th; Part VII or All of Jason’s Kills in Two Minutes!
Images: Gun Media
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