Level 99 | Dead By Daylight | Board Game | Ages 17+ | 3-5 Players | 45 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

When we see a movie, or a book, or a video game, we'll pay top dollar for an excellent design. We still haven't reached that level of maturity in the board game industry.

As fans of the original video game, we worked hard to capture the tension between the Survivors and the Killer on every turn," said D. Brad Talton Jr, the board game's designer. "The moment when you commit to your move and then have to hold your breath while the Killer makes their play - to me that's the essence of Dead by Daylight."

Putting that aside, Dead By Daylight is one of the best licenced board games on the market. Although it is flawed – around the player count and people losing their turns – it translates the video game exceptionally well. When we spoke previously about the Dead by Daylight board game, you mentioned that there was inspiration drawn from Scotland Yard. ( The classic hidden-movement board game.) And then also Battleship, which I was surprised to hear… Survivors must use the movement cards at their disposal, along with their unique loadout of helpful perks and items collected from around each map, to outrun the killer - equipped with their own unique abilities - and avoid being sacrificed before they can escape.

Behind Dead by Daylight’s tabletop adaptation is Level 99 Games, the publisher known for its board games heavily inspired by classic video games, including fighting game series Exceed, retro-flavoured Pixel Tactics and fast-paced puzzle game Bullet. It was very involved. The team at Behaviour are board gamers themselves, and they were really interested in how we would adapt the licence. They wanted to play the game, see it for themselves and approve a lot of the sort of large design philosophy. They gave us a very open space to make the game, but they definitely approved the gameplay that we created. We are really excited about the new characters, and especially the new original killer [Carmina Mora, The Artist] that's been released since then,” the designer said. “There's a ton of cool content coming out for Dead by Daylight. Open-world games; we've got some really cool open-world board games now with Gloomhaven and with Sleeping Gods. I would say that those are the closest you get to an open-world video game - until you go into RPGs, which are the true open-world games. I think there's still room to do that.

Dead by Daylight Board Game - Kickstarter

Outside of the fact it’s got a colon in the middle of its title. You know this is a Level 99 Games production from the sheer amount of board game in the box. From the many hours of watching my friend stream Dead By Daylight, it appears the board game nails the same vibe. From the overpowered killer with supernatural powers to the survivors using hit-and-run tactics on generators and sacrificial poles. Meanwhile, whenever someone is sacrificed in a five-player game, their turn is missed while they’re on the hook. Then when they return, they’re wounded and still an easy target to be re-sacrificed and sidelined from the game again. Players will be able to play as familiar faces; all original survivors and killers from Dead by Daylight prior to the release of The Artist will be available as minis. Unfortunately, licensed characters will not be available as playable characters, nor will their perks appear in the game. The Dead by Daylight board game may see future expansions that bring the latest killers from the video game to the tabletop, but not if they make for a worse game, publisher Level 99 Games has said.