'Dead By Daylight' Announces Game's First Openly LGBTQ+ Character

Dead By Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive have revealed the game's first openly LGBTQ+ character.

David King, a fan-favourite survivor who was introduced to the asymmetrical horror game back in 2017, is to be the star of the game's recently released 11th Tome, part of the narrative Archive mode. This new story content will dive into King's past and his struggles with his sexual identity, confirming previous fan speculation that he's gay.

Take a look at the trailer for Tome 11 - Devotion below!

Dead By Daylight creative director Dave Richard explained to Eurogamer that the reason it had taken so long for the team to actually explore the sexuality and relationship of the game's survivors is because they previously believed it was better to leave that open to interpretation. However, he now admits this was a mistake.

"It was a long effort to get here today because we wanted - like any type of representation that we do in DbD - we wanted to make sure that we do it right, that it's not token, and that players will feel represented by this character," he said.

"For us the best platform to do it faster, and in the right way, was the Archive, because the Archive is the platform in the game where we can go in-depth in the narrative, versus a new chapter where we focus more on the horror and why they've been taken by the Entity. And so because of that, it means that it needed to be retroactive, it needed to be a character that's already in DbD. It added to the challenge: which character would fit the best, which character makes sense to do this narrative and how?"

Richard added that the team worked closely with LGBTQ+ organisation GaymerX to make sure not only that they chose the right existing character, but that the story was handled with the care and respect it deserves.

"David King is a loved character, a youthful character, he is loved by a lot of players, the LGBTQ community already considers this character in their fan love story as being gay as well. So it was a great fit to tell an amazing story," he added.

The new Tome is available to download and play in Dead By Daylight right now.