Dead by Daylight studio's new game is a 'building-and-raiding' FPS

Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive unveiled a new "first-person building and raiding game" called Meet Your Maker that challenges players to build and raid sprawling, fortified outposts in the horrific wasteland of the future.

The Earth is dying, you see, and rather than addressing the root causes (this is already not sounding like fiction), humanity's overlords decided the thing to do was to create an artificial being called the Chimera, which is somehow going to save what little life remains on the planet. But in order to make that happen, the Chimera must evolve, and in order to evolve, it needs pure genetic material. That's where you come in. 

Using a system of customizable digital building blocks, players will create their own unique outposts and stock them with traps and guards whose behaviors are controlled by a simple AI recording system. These imposing, post-apocalyptic outposts are where you'll extract and protect that sweet, sweet genetic material—GenMat, in the game's parlance. But of course, survival is a zero-sum game—for me to live, you must die, or something like that—and so along with nurturing your own GenMat, you also need to get out there and steal everyone else's, and smash up some of their stuff while you're at it.

Building and raiding in Meet Your Maker can be done solo or in teams of two. Raiding is entirely asynchronous, but the built-in recording system will enable players to see attacks on their outposts in their entirety, and to iterate their bases and modify their guards in response. Along with the genetic material required to upgrade your Chimera, successful raids will also grant new building resources and upgrades, allowing for more (and more dangerous) base-building options.

"The game is built on UGC [user-generated content] and creates deep social connections, whether you play alone or co-op," creative director Ash Pannell said. "As a builder, share your meticulously built Outpost and watch other players take them on via our replay system. It never gets old to watch others die. You’ll reap rewards and learn how to strengthen your creation. As a raider, you’ll try, die, retry, and eventually gain the knowledge to extract that Genmat and exit victoriously. In both cases, it’s highly entertaining and always fun to watch."

Meet Your Maker is expected to launch sometime in 2023, but the first closed playtest is set to begin much sooner—on August 23. If you'd like to check it out for yourself, you can sign up to take part at meetyourmakergame.com.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.