The Encampment
- to
- Unreal Engine 5
- Map Concept
Enter the old abandoned village, once occupied by Charlotte and Victor, now on the brink of collapse. The Encampment is a "Twins" inspired Dead By Daylight® Map Concept. Navigate through the foggy countryside and derelict buildings as you evade the killer.
Team
Solo Project
Role
Level Designer
Tools
Overview
The Encampment is designed to fit into the Dead By Daylight gameplay cycle and steps were taken during development to ensure the map would play well.
While this map is purely a solo project, efforts were made to communicate to players and get feedback on tiles and elements of the map to ensure gameplay would be enjoyable. Comparisons were also made against other maps in Dead By Daylight to ensure the map scaled correctly in size.
Key Contributions
- Designed an environment which fits into gameplay flow of Dead By Daylight, in Unreal Engine 5.
- Iterated design based upon player feedback.
Design Discussion
The Encampment is set in an abandoned village, transporting players into the cold countryside where they must navigate through the fog and mist, avoiding the killer at all costs.
By analysing and following design conventions found throughout Dead By Daylights current map rotation and using player feedback on what makes a map “good” and “bad” I set out a series of guidelines to follow when designing this map:
Goals
- Design a map not compressed into narrow paths, opting for a more “open” style map.
- Design a map large enough so the killer cannot reach both sides of the map too quickly while not being a daunting task.
- Provide a central “hub” of the map where all paths can lead.
- Allow for vertical movement, otherwise certain abilities will not be functional.
- Spacing generators, hooks, pallets, exit gates and windows consistently so players are not compressed into small areas of the map.
- Offering both “strong” and “weak” interactive loops for survivors.
- Creating “Deadzones” (Areas where there are little or no resources for the survivor) while promoting survivors to enter these areas with generators.
Compression & Expansion
Unlike The Red District, The Encampment offers lots of free movement as it is less focused on tighter pathways intertwining. Based on player feedback from images, the overwhelming consensus was large open maps provide more varied playstyle; allowing killers the opportunity to cut off survivors and survivors more freedom during chases.
Environmental Storytelling
The dark, moody ambience combined with the various derelict thatched buildings aimed to create a sense of isolation for players. Ideally, if this map was implemented as a fully playable map, the ambient sound would mimic the British countryside; featuring distant animal calls, rustling leaves and light wind.
The map also connects to existing Dead By Daylight characters “The Twins” with a series of small Easter eggs players can find throughout the map.
Cohesion in Dead By Daylight
Map Size
The distance between the furthest 2 generators on The Encampment is actually smaller than that of The Red District. This compares to be one of the “smallest” generator distances in Dead By Daylight. It’s made up by the fact navigating across to these generators can often mean navigating around obstacles, meaning you are more likely to encounter survivors and initiate chases.
Landmarks
Providing a landmarks is important for players to orient themselves on the map, as well as providing a great vista and setting the mood of the environment.
The Encampment features a burning windmill. This acts both as a key landmark and also the maps central hub. It’s accessible in three directions, provides a vista for almost the entire map and provides additional verticality. This area is a “Dead Zone” though, so there’s a risk/reward to survivors venturing to it.
Gameplay Variation
The Encampment offers a variety of unique tiles and structures not found on any other Dead By Daylight map. These new tiles contain both weak elements such as the tall walls and unsafe pallets, but also allow the survivor to “loop” the killer around by using the stronger windows in conjunction. This tile allows for a varied playstyle, and every player can adapt to it uniquely.
Acknowledgements
This is a custom map and is not representative of work by Behaviour Interactive. I do not claim to be an employee of Behaviour Interactive.
I do not claim to have created or modelled any of the assets shown on this map.
Copyright
© 2015–2025 and BEHAVIOUR, DEAD BY DAYLIGHT and other related trademarks and logos belong to Behaviour Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.