Halloween revealed before Friday, the 13th: Game developer – IGN interviewed Indfonic in single player story mode, collaborated with John Carpenter, etc.
Blog Andrew Joseph 20 Aug , 2025 0
Halloween revealed its first trailer and a series of game details in Gamescom 2025 Future Games show.
Illfonic is an asymmetric horror expert like Killer Klowns from outer space: Games, Friday, 13: Games and Predator Hunting Grounds, is developing Halloween and will be published with Gun Media. It is based on the iconic 1978 movie and should be released sometime in 2026 with PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and PC.
Unlike Illfonic's previous horror games, Halloween has a single player mode. John Carpenter and Compass International Pictures were also involved in making the original film.
This is the official work:
Entering the cold world of John Carpenter's genre films, now it's a suspenseful single-player horror experience. Put on the iconic mask and be the ultimate machete, Michael Myers, track and execute citizens of Haddonfield, or work to stop Michael Myers’ plans as civilians are determined to save unknown towns before it’s too late.
As civilians, stick to the shadows, look for Haddonfield residents to warn them and find a way to contact the authorities. As Michael Myers, give them a reason for fear and cut the phone line to prevent the police from ruining his favorite vacation. Whether it's solo in story mode, offline bots, or facing others in online multiplayer, each mode rewards stealth, strategy, and skilled gameplay.
True to the original film, Illfonic masters the Haddonfield atmosphere of multiple maps and real locations. Halloween is inspired by legendary films, haunting atmosphere and scores, brings Horror House into a new experience that will keep the new generation looking at their shoulders.
Before the announcement, IGN had the opportunity to interview Chief Creative Officer Jared Gerritzen and Design Director Jordan Mathewson to learn everything you need about Halloween.
IGN: People are known for their multiplayer horror games. Why is it important to you to have a single player mode for Halloween?
Jared Gerritzen: It's definitely because we finished the game. This is our fifth run using only multiplayer. But in the past, in my previous work, there was only the only game released, especially when it had a very strong fan base – it was just the fact that some people don't play multiplayer games. We've learned this in the past. In Ghostbusters, we have increased our ability to compete better with AI. Hardcore Ghostbusters fans were able to come in and play the game and get a great experience, then they got the skills, then they saw the multiplayer button, and then they came in. It's really cool because the people I know now, I'm here, I'm trying to attract Ghostbusters, but now I'm a multi-person fan, and now I'm playing multiple games.
Because I do think in this day and age we'll get these very cool and exciting IPs, but without multiplayer experience and without single player experience, I do think people won't catch these itches. Year after year, each of our disease’s games is an iterative process where we look at the last project and we will try to do better. So it's very important, especially during Halloween, where we bring an experience to people who don't play hardcore multiplayer games.
Asymmetric multiplayer games may also be more hardcore. The pressure to be a killer with a bunch of bullies can be daunting. So we really want to make a way where people can play single player games, learn a story, and go deeper into the universe. So, this is very, very important. That's why we not only strengthened our development team, but we did put in a big effort to get some really great AI engineers, but also brought Pollard to help them with skills and abilities. So I think it would be a really cool experience just to have a total package of popular IPs.
IGN: How will single player mode actually work? You mentioned the story. How broad will that be?
Jared Gerritzen: OK, so we can't really talk too much, because that's definitely a different stage. But we are working with John. We are working with Malek (Akkad, President of Compass International Pictures). We have some really great writers and we are working with the world.
This will make the movie indulge a lot. When we use IP, we really have to be fans of it. We reject IPS more than chasing IP. We know this movie is like the back of our hands. So, I think there are a lot of things that are, if you’ve never seen this movie, you’ll get this great experience, but if you’ve seen this movie, you’ll see those really cool moments that have been seen over the decades. It's so cool if you're a fan who only knows Michael Myers and has seen a few new movies. But I think it would be fun for people to be able to really connect to OG movies.
IGN: You decided to focus on the original movie. Why is this important to you? John Carpenter is involved in this process?
Jared Gerritzen: Listen, I definitely say we need to make sure John is happy multiple times! John Carpenter has really released my favorite movies, like my first five movies. He made such a great movie that we worked with him, such as with the Predator or being able to work with the Ghostbusters with Dan Aykroyd and Ivan Reitman, we were used to it. We are used to the people we like, this is their children, this is their business. We play in their sandbox. But I do feel like we're leaving something really cool and making them feel really happy.
Malik, this is his right to birth. His father was the one who produced this. He has been doing Halloween since he was a child. So he and John are indeed arbitrators, and when we come up with a crazy idea, we have to come up with it, we have to explain it, and likely give them a few days to unpack and then come back and get more of these questions.
So the way I see is that by working with these guys and proving to these guys what we do is right, I think that should mean that anyone with any fan should be happy with our work as well. Because we have to add the system with video games, so we have to add the gameplay, so we have to understand that in your movie, you are like, OK, this is a cool scene. But in the game, you don't know how to cut the camera, you can't go, well, cut other positions. We're trying to explain these things and I'll really feel like we're going to start getting heavier on the gameplay, and I think people will definitely be like, oh wow, that explains some of the main components of the series. When we brought it up, people were very satisfied with it.
Honestly, what we'll talk about in the future, I'm so glad we figured it out because it changed the way you look at Michael Myers. Very cool. Always stressed, saying, “Hey, that’s the crazy idea.” Honestly, the way they see us is a bunch of kids. In 1978, I was two. Jordan is still floating. I was the one who said, “Well, in the seventies we did that, there were cables on the phone connected to the wall.” So that's one of those really weird things, by choosing that era, it was so far away, and the technology had gone so far, like playing – I don't want to say it was as bad as Red Death – but it was definitely like playing something that a lot of kids didn't understand.
Jordan Mathewson: This is the purest form of Halloween. It's the beginning of the whole concept, not only the unique mentality of the seventies American towns seen in the movie itself, but it's great. The reason it resonates and clicks on that horrible element is that it is a calm, normal, modest town that you wouldn't expect to have this massive killer.
So it provides us with a really good, rooted foundation to lay everything we want to be in the game space on top of the gameplay of that era. It offers us a lot of benefits, which makes it very focused on the whole Halloween. It was really fun to go that path and focus on that movie.
IGN: You can't just call outside to help you! Is there any moment during development that you have to explain to young employees how things work then?
Jordan Mathewson: One thing that is very tame is that the police became policemen at that time. We have 911 now, and that's an understanding of how you get an emergency, but it wasn't exactly the same back then. It didn't develop that way. So we have to do a lot of sync with technical understanding to make sure everyone is very aware of what was there at the time.
We did some research on how the technology will flow into the country’s Illinois. Landlines, phone lines and similar ideas. The way to dial is not always a button, sometimes a rotation. So it's a very interesting conversation and we always explore different things back and forth. And then from there, how do we use it as a gaming mechanic? Because it might be fun if we want to try to set it in place instead of making it cumbersome and actually making it a mechanic.
IGN: Is there a canon on Halloween? Will this lead to what you are doing? Do you have to follow any rules?
Jared Gerritzen: Yes! We haven't talked about a lot of rules since the beginning. But there are a lot of elements that we do try to use this movie as a canon. We pull out of as many frames as possible.
There are certainly controversial points and warning points, just like the gameplay. So it's not one-to-one, but it's almost, these are factors that we have to attract. But in reality, it's about Michael's Halloween night, like he's out. You are not following Laurie on the day, nor do you do boring things. You want to do that, well, that's what he did when he had nothing to do with him. So these are the big things we really want to push forward.
It's very difficult, but we've done a lot in the past. Honestly, it's important when we have to push that wall and open the box.
IGN: Are there any interesting situations you have to point out that this is actually what it is? Who is the guardian of Halloween legend?
Jared Gerritzen: Yes! Malek and Ryan (Freimann, Trancas movie) absolutely… they are very hardworking. They are really great and add authenticity.
The mask is probably the best. We must capture the mask with the highest loyalty. Looking at the original molds, looking at the original masks, they were degraded. It's not to say that someone put it in and exactly the same, but to make a transformation of Mike's mask, I mean, it's probably the greatest thing, where did you guys put a lot of effort into it? That's the key thing because when you get screenshots of the rendered… there are a lot of Michael Myers and a lot of other games, and they're made by top artists, but that's a part like that, OK, we're doing all these other things.
We put the laser beam on the mask, every wrinkle, every crack, and find out exactly how it happened, and talk to them like, “Hey, in this picture, that's it, it's like that.” Well, yes, yes, because when he takes off the mask in between and pulls it down, it's folding box differently, or the hair is a little different. So that's why we really grit our teeth with them.
Like I said, we are in their sandbox, so we have to follow it, but they are very knowledgeable and flexible about what we need to do.
Wesley is IGN's news director. Find him on Twitter via @wyp100. You can reach Wesley via [email protected] or secretly visit [email protected].