Survive or Kill came together in a maelstrom of last-minute emails, passport renewals, and scrambling to find a camera operator. The trip was edifying and extremely gratifying, and would not have been possible without the kind and transparent team at Behaviour Interactive. Thank you to everyone who put up with a full day of being filmed and questioned—nicely!—about your studio’s history and projects.
A tremendous thank-you is due to Marie Claude Bernard, Behaviour’s public relations manager who arranged our travel plans and made sure we got all the information we needed to make this feature possible.
Much gratitude to Tyler Nagata, the PR rep who initially reached out to Shacknews regarding this story. I’m glad he did. Tyler and I had collaborated in the past, and it was a pleasure to coordinate together again.
Clay Patterson stepped up as a freelance camera operator and did a fantastic job recording interviews as well as capturing the environment and culture of Behaviour. We celebrated a job well done—he said humbly—with a late dinner of exquisite poutine before preparing to depart for our respective flights. Clay has my gratitude for coming through in a pinch and knocking the video components of this feature out of the park.
On the home front, Greg Burke, Shacknews’ video editor, did a stellar job—as always—working with me to cut up the interviews and transform them into dazzling featurettes.
Thank you also to the individuals whose brains we picked for six-plus hours: Matt Jackson, Geneviève Forget, Ash Pannell, Kirk Sandiford, and Mathieu Côté.
Last but never least, thank you to Asif Khan, Shacknews CEO and editor-in-chief, for believing in the importance of long read features.
Survive or Kill was written based on research as well as extensive interviews with developers at Behaviour Interactive. Unless otherwise noted, information from the feature came from those interviews.
Chapter 1
overseers presided over 10,000 workers: “Walk through Montreal's history in former garment factory tour,” Montreal Gazette, https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/walk-through-montreals-history-in-former-garment-factory-tour.
who toiled away for 15 hours a day: Ibid.
50 cents for every two dresses: Ibid.
when nearly half the working class went on strike: Ibid.
over 11,000 individuals worked in Quebec’s: “THE VIDEO GAME EXPLOSION,” Investissement Québec, https://www.investquebec.com/international/en/industries/multimedia/the-video-game-explosion.html.
Montreal is the fifth-largest center: Ibid.
co-founded by Rémi Racine in 1992: “Behaviour Interactive,” Behaviour Interactive, https://web.archive.org/web/20140901170653/http://www.bhvr.com/about-us/our-history/.
The resultant entity was called: Ibid.
for up to 30 minutes while Deathgarden tried: “DeathGarden is literally almost dead after free week,” Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/Deathgarden/comments/99b06a/deathgarden_is_literally_almost_dead_after_free/.
which in turn annoyed Runners: “Only one player gets guns in the Dead by Daylight dev's new asymmetrical shooter,” PC Gamer, https://www.pcgamer.com/deathgarden-preview/.
Chapter 2
features that players couldn’t imagine the game existing without: “7 successful Early Access games that all developers should study,” Gamasutra, https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/275719/7_successful_Early_Access_games_that_all_developers_should_study.php.
gradually improved it by culling feedback: “In defence of Early Access – five of the biggest devs speak out,” PCGamesN, https://www.pcgamesn.com/early-access/steam-early-access-games-released.
Chapter 4
working 100-hour weeks for months at a time: “How the West Was Digitized The making of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2,” Vulture, https://www.vulture.com/2018/10/the-making-of-rockstar-games-red-dead-redemption-2.html.
exhausting and physically breaking schedules were expected of them: “Inside Rockstar Games' Culture Of Crunch,” Kotaku, https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1829936466.
crunch on and off for years on games: “How BioWare’s Anthem Went Wrong,” Kotaku, https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964.
confided that they hoped the game failed: Ibid.
