When playing as a survivor, players assume the role of Dwight Fairfield, Meg Thomas, Jake Park, or Claudette Morel. The goal of the survivors is to escape the enclosed area, which can only be done in one of two ways: by activating a certain number of generators (usually the amount of generators is one more than the amount of survivors who are playing) so that they can activate any one of the large metal doors leading out of the area, or by escaping through a trapdoor that only appears when there is one survivor left, spawning in a random location.
Source: Wikipedia, "[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_by_Daylight Dead by Daylight]", available under the CC-BY-SA License.