The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (TCM) is Gun Media’s 2023 entry in their long line of asymmetrical horror games. TCM’s unique take on the formula, the 3v4 matches, made it a highly anticipated and popular title on release. Gun’s ambitions, however, were higher than their budget allowed, and TCM unfortunately became another game that fell behind in the pursuit of a successful live service. Read on to hear from our GDS team about the challenges TCM encountered in supporting a long-term multiplayer experience.
1. Slow content updates
The slow content updates killed momentum for TCM after release. Game Pass kept player numbers high for a long time, but a game needs more than a unique premise to preserve engagement once it asks players to dedicate money to an experience they previously got for free. A live service game without substantial content in the first few months needs a strong starting foundation to keep players engaged, which TCM didn’t have.
The rollout of new characters, cosmetics, and maps was too slow to keep the experience fresh. Seven new characters and three new maps came out over the next two years. The maps were freely available, but the characters were $9.99 each, which was pricier than in similar games. Without seasonal challenges, events, or rewards, players didn’t have a reason to return beyond their first couple months of play.
The original development team handed off the game to a new studio for future updates, which impacted the slow update schedule early on. Sumo Nottingham announced that they were transferring development to Black Tower Games in Feb. 2024, about six months in. The shift was likely planned, though, as Gun had also passed Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds over to Black Tower later in their development. Financial constraints were possibly the real culprit.
Wes Keltner, CEO of Gun Media, doesn’t say anything directly about early live service but indicates that financial concerns were the main reason they stopped developing new content two years after launch. The need to release on both previous- and next-gen consoles reportedly added a year to the development time. Keltner says that, if he has any regrets, it’s the fact they devoted so much time to scripting, casting, and motion capture. The gameplay effect was minimal but these features cost the publisher millions of dollars.
2. Poor balance changes
Poor balance changes failed to target the fundamental sources of gameplay and balance issues. The term asymmetrical in the asymmetrical horror genre refers to the difference in team numbers, not team effectiveness. Each side ought to have clear strengths that make them equally engaging and balanced to play. The Slaughter Family, however, has a number of disadvantages which make playing them more frustrating than the victim side.
The main difference between the killers in TCM and other asym horror games is that the killers aren’t alone but work in a team of three. This feature is an advantage for the playerbase in terms of matchmaking, as finding matches on both sides is easy, but the implementation has room for iteration. Killers are able to kill but not be killed, so the designers limit them with several disadvantages (less mobility than victims, less favored in QTEs, 3-person team instead of 4). On top of the killers’ limitations, teamwork is required to cover the whole map, making each killer even less powerful. Chasing a victim around the map leaves other areas uncovered, so killers are encouraged to let victims run away if they get outside their patrol zone.
Grappling is a mechanic that demonstrates the issues Gun struggled with as the live service proceeded. The grappling system is simple. A victim who’s found a bone scrap uses it to enter a grapple with a killer, starting a button-mashing QTE. If the victim wins, they stun the killer for a time. If the killer wins, the victim dies. Because losing means death, the chances of winning the encounter have always been skewed in favor of the victim. Victims simply don’t have to mash buttons as many times as the killer to win.
Skewing the mechanic in favor of the victims works here but makes the game opaque and frustrating. A killer entering a grapple has no feedback telling them how much they need to mash or whether they’re even able to win given the other player’s stats. The lack of transparency results in the encounter feeling cheap. A player on the killer’s side has the option to pick a stronger character, but once the match starts, there’s no way to improve their chances against a stronger victim.
3. Overpriced DLC
The over-priced DLC compared to competitors gives players little reason to stay for upcoming content. The fairness of the DLC prices depends on the base price of the game, the (perceived) added value to the game, and how competitors price their optional content. Asymmetrical horror games tend to have an upfront cost with a selection of paid cosmetics and characters. When experiences like Predator: Hunting Grounds and Dead by Daylight (DBD) have cheaper and more regular content, players have a harder time justifying the investment in TCM.
The base price of TCM is on the expensive side of the genre at $39.99. The Outlast Trials is the only other big name to have the same price tag, but it also had an early access period where the game was available for $29.99. Predator: Hunting Grounds shared this $29.99 price tag. The cheapest, DBD, is one of the most popular too, frequently drawing in new players with regular sales. Not only is the base price high, but TCM doesn’t have sales with the same regularity, drawing in players with a Game Pass instead.
TCM’s content is rather expensive considering its higher base price. TCM characters are always $9.99, although they released the Content Pass that covers two of the new characters plus cosmetics for $19.99. The DLC combined totals $220.59, if the player bought the content pass instead of the separate DLC. These prices range from slightly to considerably higher than the competition.
TCM’s competitors price characters a little lower, or, if they price them the same, include extra cosmetics. DBD has some $9.99 characters, but many characters are priced between $4-6 on release. Bundles of characters like the Resident Evil chapter come at the cheaper end of that range at $11.99. For players of the other two popular asym horror games, the DLC is also cheaper despite the lower base cost. Two skins and a pack of items for customizing the player’s cell are $4.99 in The Outlast Trials, while all the DLC combined is $99.92. In Predator: Hunting Grounds, new classes are $4.99 each, which is the equivalent of a new character in TCM.
Underpricing DLC is an issue for monetization, but the context of the market is important for making those decisions. DLC that’s very cheap is likely to be perceived by players as low quality, reducing the number of possible sales. Gun Media is a small company that needs to think about their bottom line, and there’s no doubt that they took many factors into consideration when pricing their DLC. The availability of cheaper content that’s proven to be of high quality, though, makes it a challenge for TCM’s DLC to compete.
4. Toxic community
A toxic community is a problem in many asymmetrical horror games, and it makes a difficult onboarding experience in TCM even more difficult. Bad teammates on the victims’ side focus on their own escape and ignore new players who need help. Bad sports on the killers’ side take advantage of novice victims to get an easy kill.
TCM is a complex game. The maps are dense with obstacles, contain many objectives, and feature an entirely different set of rules for victims and killers. Killers have to manage collecting blood along with setting up the area for victims in the early game. Setup involves placing traps, removing obstacles that block killers in a chase, locking doors, adding extra padlocks, and poisoning objects. Focusing too much on these tasks and not collecting blood, though, locks killers out of the basement until they feed Grandpa enough blood to wake him up. Not every killer is capable of every action here, so each player needs to learn their character’s role. There’s no tutorial or offline mode for players to get used to the rules before joining real teams, so they must rely on experience and the community for help internalizing this ruleset.
Victims have little incentive to help each other, as the experience gained from teammates escaping is 150 XP each compared to 500 XP for personally escaping. All three teammates need to escape for the value of helping teammates to be more than 500. As a result, victims treat the game like a free-for-all.
The fact players are able to see each other’s level in the lobby menu further contributes to a poor experience. Gun Interactive claimed that, when they investigated issues with balance, they found that lobby dodging was a big part of the issue. Some players simply leave when they see a low or high level in the match. Finding matches with a variety of characters is a challenge as a result.
5. Unhealthy gameplay meta
An unhealthy, stagnant gameplay meta makes matches predictable and repetitive. Certain characters have the most powerful abilities, most XP gain, and crucial team skills. Three of the most common characters, Cook and Hitchhiker on the family side and Connie on the victims’ side, are very popular and contribute a samey feeling to each match.
Connie’s ability to unlock doors without a lockpick makes her very powerful. The family’s main line of defense against escape are locking doors and Cook’s padlocks, which Connie is designed to get around. The quickest escape routes are those accessed by lockpicking. In Gas Station, Connie players don’t even have to disable any traps but are able to just walk out the door.
The family side has Cook, whose kit is an important utility, and Hitchhiker, whose mobility is higher than most killers’. Cook gains XP quickly by using his Seek ability, which both helps the team by marking locations of victims and helps Cook level up. Hitchhiker moves through crawl spaces and narrow areas, unlike Cook, making him very powerful. Victims tend to pick whatever area Hitchhiker isn’t patrolling to escape. Since the other killers just aren’t as quick, it’s a very effective strategy.
The consistent choice of these characters makes the strategy the same each time. Not selecting Cook runs the risk of leaving vulnerable areas open, while not selecting Hitchhiker means the family isn’t able to access all parts of the map. Sissy is another killer of the family who’s able to go through crawl spaces, but she doesn’t have the traps and damage that Hitchhiker does. This means the victims ought to expect the same lineup each time.
6. Lack of new player retention
A lack of new player retention developed because of the lack of content. Launch content included three maps, a single game mode (three killers vs. four victims), and five characters to select on each team. Each map also has the same types of escape routes, so the variety is low over a multi-hour play session.
The lack of content on launch meant keeping hype up around the game was a challenge. Viewer numbers on streaming services like Twitch show there are only a few peaks of engagement in TCM. TCM received bumps in viewers around release, but struggled to maintain relevance. A lack of major updates in the first couple months of release made it challenging for content creators to keep up engagement. Streamers moved back to competing experiences like DBD that keep up regular seasonal content.
TCM had an unpolished release that had a part to play in its low retention. The framerate dropped for all players when a killer and victim got in close proximity, removing any tension caused by not knowing where the killers were or how teammates were doing. Polish features for multiplayer, like rejoining a match after getting kicked out, were non-existent at launch. One bug caused the lockpicking minigame to be impossible to complete, cutting off intended avenues of escape for players. Problems with animations not playing correctly were common. All these issues combined with the game’s small amount of content gave the impression that it ought to have been an early access title.
7. No long-term progression
No long-term progression means that players have few reasons to return to the game. The level cap of 99 remained the same from the time the game launched, and Gun Media said from the beginning they had no plans to increase it. The progression system kept players coming back for a time, but many players had reached max rank in the first year of release and didn’t have any new experiences in the form of seasonal content or new perks to look forward to.
Players earn XP in matches through completing certain tasks (destroying objects, disabling/arming traps, healing fellow victims, etc.). XP contributes to a level up, which grants the player 5 skill points. They’re free to spend and re-assign those points to any of the characters they own. Spending them grants perks to players which increase their stats, make them less susceptible to certain attacks, and make actions more effective. Earning levels also unlocks images and trivia related to the original film.
Players get through content quickly, so a progression system with rotating challenges and rewards is often key to keeping players engaged in the long term. Battle passes are so effective in live service games because they add the enticement of fresh rewards. Battle passes also cap progression, ensuring players come back over the course of weeks instead of grinding all the rewards in a day and moving on.
The other reward for leveling up, new cosmetics, is completely static, as the number of skins available through normal progression never changed. Players unlock new cosmetics with their characters by playing them once, 5 times, 10 times, and 20 times. Getting all cosmetics unlocked for favorite characters is a quick process.
8. Pay-to-win characters
Pay-to-win characters like Danny are more powerful than default characters, which causes several problems for the game’s meta. Players aren’t allowed to choose a character who’s already been selected, so it feels frustrating to miss out on a powerful player you spent money on several matches in a row. The price doesn’t feel worthwhile, though, if the character isn’t sufficiently powerful. Games with buyable characters often allow players to unlock them through gameplay, but encourage purchasing favorites to unlock them quicker and offer cosmetics as another source of revenue. The fact that powerful characters are strictly locked behind a paywall makes playing against them feel cheap in TCM.
DLC victims like Danny tip the scales in favor of the victims too far, especially since this asymmetrical horror game is less asymmetrical than most. Danny’s perk lets him study devices. The more devices Danny looks at, the more a meter fills up which allows him to tamper with devices for longer periods. Tampering prevents the killers from shutting down what Danny did; if he uses his ability to unlock a door, it stays open longer before the killers are able to lock it again.
Danny’s ability is very forgiving, making playing as Danny an easy experience and playing against Danny frustrating. Danny’s able to use his ability even if the meter is only partially filled, meaning Danny is almost always able to successfully tamper objectives. According to the developers, members of the community are in the habit of leaving if they see characters they don’t like on the other team, making finding matches difficult. This further adds to the perception that the community is toxic and the matchmaking poor, turning more players away from the game.
9. Repetitive gameplay
Repetitive gameplay is another issue for TCM, given it’s a paid experience and has a slow trickle of live service content. Unlike DBD, there aren’t a variety of objectives for victims to go after at the start of the match. Every map has the same lockpick, fusebox, and valve exits. Victims in TCM always start in the basement, which makes the beginning of each match feel the same.
TCM started with one game mode and three maps. The design of the game locked each map into a specific aesthetic and layout, meaning that the variety between the launch maps was minimal. Every map has the same four exits: a valve exit, a fusebox exit, and two more accessed by picking locks. The valve and fusebox exit require finding an item (a valve or fuse), delivering it to a location, and placing it to temporarily open an escape route. The exit types are nearly always in the same locations, with the car battery exit on the opposite side from the generator exit, the fusebox exit in the basement, and the valve exit elsewhere in the outer boundary of the map.
The repetitive map structure encourages going after a single optimal strategy. Using Connie with lockpicks to get to one of the exits immediately is a popular strategy. Well-coordinated victims who know the maps are able to get out within a couple minutes. Having one or a few best strategies means the game is too easy and victim players get bored. On the killers’ side, the early game is meant to be spent setting up traps and preparing, but the speed at which victims are able to escape makes the game frustrating. For matches that get beyond the first few minutes, playing as a killer isn’t always engaging because the killers have a limited role and checklist of responsibilities.
10. Checklist pacing and flow
Checklist pacing and flow result from the gameplay on the killers’ side. The time between tense encounters is filled with patrolling around a set section of the level. Patrolling and searching are rather dull activities, especially if no players on the opposing team decide to go into your area.
The early part of a match has the potential to be an engaging time for killers. The family must think about what their opponent is about to do and strategize, setting up traps and patrols. Unfortunately, many routine tasks have to be completed in the early game. Killers must turn on generators, lock doors, and feed Grandpa blood to level him up, which lets Grandpa alert killers to more of the activities of the victims.
11. One-note narrative moments
The one-note narrative discourages players from returning to TCM’s singleplayer game modes. The lack of coherent, interesting characters in the multiplayer gives players little context about the matches and why they do what they do, or a reason to choose a favorite to return to match after match. Even in multiplayer games without strong characters, variation from season to season in the aesthetic of maps or bonus objectives offers more room for players to get engaged in the broader world.
Museum mode is the only singleplayer content available, and it doesn’t create the tension that The Cabin did in Friday the 13th The Game. Friday the 13th had moments where Jason was wandering through the cabin, making the player wonder whether they were safe. There are secrets in the Cabin that still haven’t been fully explained in the wikis. All of the passwords for characters have yet to be cracked. TCM’s Museum mode is much more of a safe experience, as the name suggests. Players pick up a checklist of items to take photos of, some of which are phrased like riddles to encourage exploration. The only mechanics are examining objects, picking them up, and taking pictures with a free cam.
TCM’s confusing backstory makes it difficult to connect with characters beyond the gameplay in multiplayer. The original film leaves most of the specific details hazy. We don’t know whether Cook is Leatherface’s brother, or father, or, ahem, both. The voice lines in the game are limited, as players on the same team are often trying to spread out and stay away from each other. The only character they interact with regularly is Grandpa, who doesn’t speak at all.
Narrative design in multiplayer games is challenging, but it has the potential to be rewarding when implemented carefully. A player drawn to that character’s personality has more motivation to play them again, or to try out and see how they like the other characters. Revealing small nuggets of information through dialogue during the match leaves the impression that there’s a lot more story to discover under the surface.
Christina Norman discusses her work designing the narrative for League of Legends in a highly informative GDC talk on the subject. The shopkeeper in League of Legends has special dialogue that encourages players’ imaginations to run wild. In the Howling Abyss, the League of Legends says to Violet that she looks just like her sister. No information exists otherwise about a sister: players were left wondering and posting in forums about which champion it was.
The dialogue is one way to make the narrative engaging in multiplayer, but objectives and small changes to gameplay have the potential to make players feel involved in larger narratives without taking them out of the experience. To use another example of Christina’s, Riot Games added an objective in-game which responded to the relationship between champions Kha’zix and Rengar. Both champions are hunters, with Rengar delighting in collecting trophies and Kha’zix motivated by evolving into the ultimate predator. Riot added a backstory in which Rengar and Kha’zix previously battled but weren’t able to defeat one another. When these two champions play on opposite teams, they get an objective to kill each other for a special reward, resolving the conflict set out in their backstory. The gameplay and backstory feed into each other here, but without the narrative getting in the way of the gameplay.
What can game designers learn from the TCM game’s failure?
Game designers can learn whether a live service title is right for them by looking at the Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Each genre of multiplayer game has standout examples that act as the model for other games to follow. Overwatch is the model for hero shooters, Fortnite is the model for battle royale, and League of Legends is the model for MOBAs. The asymmetrical horror genre has DBD, with its consistent seasonal content, battle passes, wide array of characters, and engaging take on the genre. TCM innovated on the format with a 3v4 formula, but Gun Media wasn’t prepared to deliver the level of content that players have come to expect from playing its competitors.
A positive lesson from TCM is the importance of Game Pass to their playerbase. According to some sources, monthly unique players reached over one million up to a year after the game’s launch on Xbox. Steam never pulled in more than about 10,000 in a day. Game Pass didn’t spare the game from issues with fresh content, but it kept the playerbase high for a long time. Fans dedicated to the game were able to play in a thriving community for years.
Players have strong expectations in the asymmetrical horror genre, though, and even the core fans eventually move on if those expectations aren’t met. DBD has set the standard for years of post-launch support. 24 seasons over the course of the past seven years have kept the 2016 release alive. DBD has partnered with popular franchises such as Alien, Chucky, and, yes, even the Texas Chain Saw Massacre to fill out its roster of killers. The gameplay itself is more balanced for both sides, too. Victims are able to escape and are given multiple tries after getting hooked by the killer, making it less simple than the two-minute matches possible with TCM.
Live service games need a variety of content up front to keep players engaged. A single game mode gets stale quickly, and adding the Rush Week game mode (1v6) a year after release was too late. TCM’s three maps all having similar exits and mechanics within one game mode makes for an experience that churns through players quickly. A second game mode on launch means players are able to play for longer, as they’re able to switch to the second game type when the other becomes stale. Seasonal challenges and game passes also give players incentives to return, with the main challenge to game passes being the creation of rewards and new content. A studio needs the resources to consider and implement these meta-game features to compete with other well-supported live service titles.
