Why Saw's Famous Puppet Isn't The Killer In Dead By Daylight's New DLC

Dead by Daylight's newest DLC is based on the Saw film franchise, and since every DLC chapter of the game has included a new killer character, players might have expected to see the most iconic "character" of the franchise in that role. Billy the Puppet isn't exactly a character in Saw as he's just an avatar for Jigsaw himself, but he is the one character that even those not familiar with Saw movies would likely recognize. I had the opportunity to speak with Dead by Daylight's game director Mathieu Coté who told me that when they were first working on bringing Saw into the game, they were trying to make the puppet the game's new killer. However, technical limitations prevented the idea from working. According to Coté...

While Billy the puppet isn't a homicidal murderer in the Saw films, the fact is that nobody really is in those films, as most deaths come as the result of intricate traps that Jigsaw and his followers put people into. Still, Dead by Daylight requires that somebody play the role of the killer. However, since Billy the Puppet only has mobility when he's on his little tricycle, that would make for a very different sort of killer, and mechanically it just didn't work in the game. Especially because the map that will be part of the new Saw DLC chapter is the first in the game to have two floors. That meant stairs, and how exactly does a puppet get a tricycle up and down stairs?

Rather than trying to make the puppet work, the developers instead decided to use the character of Amanda, in the film's iconic pig mask, as the killer for the new chapter. Fans of the Saw franchise will remember the character as a survivor of the first film, who then becomes a protege of Jigsaw.

Fans of Billy the Puppet need not worry, however. He's still part of the new DLC. One of the new chapter's mechanics will see survivors fitted with bear traps on their heads. In order to get them removed, players must obtain a key from a puzzle box located within the map. If you find the box, you'll find the puppet, sitting there and laughing at you.

Dead by Daylight's DLC chapters have been quite popular among the game's players, and the newest chapter looks to add new mechanics that promise to have a material impact on the way people play the game. Billy the Puppet would be proud.