You can play as Jason in the first 'Friday the 13th' game in 25 years

It's been six years since Jason Voorhees last swung his machete on the big screen, but he's about to get choppy again.

Gun Media and Illfonic are bringing Friday the 13th back to the video game world — the first time the classic horror film franchise has been turned into a game in more than 25 years. The seven-on-one asymmetric multiplayer title, which launches a Kickstarter campaign today, is targeted to hit the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next fall.

The scenario is a familiar one. Seven players controlling counselors at Camp Crystal Lake will be systematically stalked by the near-unstoppable killing machine Jason, controlled by another player. They can work together to find and repair vehicles to escape the area or search for a landline to call for help from the police. Or, if they're especially organized, they can try to find weapons and kill Jason before he kills them.

"You can defeat Jason," confirms Ronnie Hobbs, a producer at Gun Media. "We're not saying how that happens yet, and it's very hard to do. ... You can be the stealth guy and try to wait it out, or, if you pick the jock [as your player], you can certainly try to find a weapon and try to take down Jason yourself. But we certainly don't advise that."

The road to Crystal Lake

The story of how Friday the 13th: The Game came to be isn't typical. It's a triumph of dedicated fandom and happy circumstance rather than corporate exploitation.

The hockey-masked homicidal maniac who slashed his way through more than 150 people over the course of a dozen Friday the 13th films has only appeared in one video game: a 1989 title for the Nintendo Entertainment System. But he has certainly inspired dozens of others, from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis to The Evil Within.

And that inspiration — and love of horror films — is what led Gun Media to start making Slasher Vol 1.: Summer Camp, a game where one killer systematically hunts a group of stereotypical characters found in most horror movies. (Jocks, for instance, have high strength, but stink at stealth. There's the nerdy guy who can repair things, but has bad luck. And the heroic girl who's incredibly lucky, but slow.)

"I've been watching horror movies and playing games since I was a little kid," says Hobbs. "I've always loved the games with one-on-one, where you're being chased."

The team at Gun Media are big fans of the Friday the 13th films, so they decided to reach out to key members of the cast to help with Summer Camp.

Tom Savini, who did the make-up effects for the original film, agreed to come on board to design the kills. Kane Hodder, who portrayed and did the stunts for Jason in most of the films, agreed to do motion capture. And Harry Manfredini, who composed the iconic soundtrack, is crafting the game's music.

"We essentially had a Friday the 13th game without the license," says Hobbs. "We didn't really think anything of it. We just put our head down and started building."

Meeting the head counselor

About five months into development, though, the team got a call from Sean Cunningham, the creator and director of Friday the 13th — and the man who holds the rights to the license.

"He said 'You've got all my guys already. The only one you're missing is me'," says Hobbs.

That kicked off a series of conversations with Cunningham, which ultimately led to him offering the license to the team at a price they couldn't refuse.

"He said 'If it will make your game better, you can have [the license],'" says Hobbs. "We were like 'Sean, we can't afford it' and he was like ' no... you can have it.'"

With license in hand, the team approached larger publishers to partner up, but they didn't like what they heard. Some wanted too much creative control. Others were concerned about the amount of blood. And at least one wanted a game that was T-rated, something that makes absolutely no sense given the license.

They decided instead to make the game themselves, which led them to Kickstarter. They're asking $700,000, but of course are hoping for much more to meet certain stretch goals.

And the team is counting on horror fans to help them hit those.

"Horror, as a genre, is all over the place," says Hobbs. "If someone says they like horror, they could be on the other side of the field from you. There's exploitation. There's slasher. There's paranormal. But when it comes to something like Friday the 13th, it hits right in the middle. When you see Jason, he speaks to everyone. You don't necessarily have to love horror movies to love Friday the 13th. And the super hardcore horror people love Jason, too. Somehow, he pulls you in and you start cheering for him."

The final cuts

Some details of the game are still being nailed down, such as whether there will be a time-based element, but others are finalized. As he was in the films, Jason will be a mute stalker. Also, no one will come to your assistance if you don't find a way to call for help.

And if the Kickstarter (which ends, naturally, on Friday, November 13th)  were to fall short of its goal somehow, there's still sufficient funding for the Summer Camp game, though it won't have the iconic Friday the 13th elements.

No matter what the team does, it knows it's going to face built-in resistance from some players because it's creating a game based on a movie license. But Hobbs says the team isn't letting that worry them.

"That prejudice exists until review scores come out and people see that others really enjoy it," he says. "The way you squash that is through showing gameplay and doing interviews. But the proof, ultimately, is in the pudding. You have to make a good game."

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