Phasmophobia | 2024 Roadmap and Beyond...

[Moonface]

I'm surprised the developer hasn't tried to hire help, considering the amount of sales this game has got probably means they have a good amount of money already and the publicity around it means that with the right treatment it would easily generate even more. It makes me wonder if they just have no idea how to handle the way this game blew up and have overwhelmed themselves.

[Dragon Lord]

That's the big question everyone always asks, Moon. People have done the math. With how many copies of the game have been sold (at $15 a pop), minus the 30% that Steam takes, and then they greatly overestimated the taxes (used 50% just to make a point), he'd still have made something like $21,000,000 off of Phasmophobia. And again, that 50% for taxes is a gross overestimate to really show how rich this game has made him in such a little bit of time.

The thing is, from what I've heard, he absolutely refuses to let anyone else work on this game. It's "his baby" and he won't let a single other soul touch it. He's the only person allowed to do anything with it, and he'll let this game die before he even thinks of letting another touch the code.

[Moonface]

The thing is, from what I've heard, he absolutely refuses to let anyone else work on this game. It's "his baby" and he won't let a single other soul touch it. He's the only person allowed to do anything with it, and he'll let this game die before he even thinks of letting another touch the code.

Ah, so the developer is Brandon from ZetaBoards.

If that amount of money he made is true, I would have to wonder how long will he even care to update the game? Doing so is working for nothing since updates are free, and I expect the majority of people who would buy the game have already done so.

[Dragon Lord]

A lot of players thinks that's why there hasn't been any major updates to the game. He's made millions off of it, enough to never have to work another day in his life, so why continue to work on this game? He pushes out very minor tweaks here and there, but that's it. No new maps, no new ghost models, no new ghosts -- nothing since November.

The game sold over 2 million copies by November though. Game is $13.99 USD. So by November, he made $27,980,000 off of the game, before Steam's cut and then taxes, but now add in how much the game has old from November until now, and he's definitely pocketed at least $20 million.

[Mr EliteL]

Holy sh--the guy's made that much?! Damn, yeah I won't be surprised anymore if he lets the game die or ruin it before it does as what the last updates have begun to sort of do. What a shame, the game could have so much more and I thought all the tiny updates that were coming at first were a good sign that he cared to an extent. In a way I'm glad I haven't bought a copy yet when I was at one point very interested in doing so.

[Dragon Lord]

Well, I still think the game is worth playing if you have a group to play it with. it's still an insanely fun game just to screw around with your friends and see what kind of shenanigans end up happening.

I still want to play it with people here (pending if my laptop can run it. Haven't tested it yet because I don't want to buy the game until I'm 100% certain we are going to play it together).

[Mr EliteL]

I'd still be happy to play with people here, I'm kinda waiting for it go on sale but admittedly I haven't checked much or at all since when I was looking at buying that or Among Us. *checks* Nah it isn't. Disappointing there hasn't been big updates like new maps, hoping he's still on that plan he had for adding other stuff, just taking his time when he could have help to get that out sooner.

[Dragon Lord]

Well, as I talked with Moon a bit, the eventual release of that Forewarned game could light a fire under his but and force him to start adding major updates to the game, or else watch as his game sinks into nothingness while Forewarned takes his entire player base away.

We'll see what ends up happening. For now though, we really gotta get a group together for this! Been itching to play it with ya'll.

[Moonface]

It'd probably be a really big help if the game had Steam workshop support like games such as CS:GO have. There are so many extra maps for that game and the AI knows how to navigate those maps, and if that could be made to work for this game it would add a lot of life to it.

[Dragon Lord]

So last week (Friday), the changes to the Beta version of the game were finally pushed to the main version. So now the ghosts are much more dangerous, the ghost can hear you during a hunt even if you're not talking with the in-game chat. The ghost just hears everything from your mic. So if you're playing the game, hiding from the ghost, and your cat meows loud enough, the ghost will pick up that sound and go straight to where you are if it's close enough to you at the time.

But more importantly than all of that: A new ghost type has finally been announced. The Beta version of the game will soon be receiving an update that adds a new ghost type named "Yokai." Joining the Oni and the Yurei as Japanese-themed names for ghost types. No information on what this ghost's powers will be or anything. It's still in development, but it's on the "upcoming" for the Beta, so it should be released relatively soon, hopefully. Looking forward to finally seeing a new ghost type in this game, and hopefully it'll be able to really throw players for a loop.

EDIT: So there's actually going to be TWO new ghosts being added to the Beta soon. The other one is called a Hantu. I'll put their descriptions and powers in spoilers below if anyone is interested in seeing what they do.

Yokai

A Yokai is a common type of ghost that is attracted to human voices. They can usually be found haunting family homes.

Unique Strengths: Talking near a Yokai will anger it and increase it's chance of attacking.

Weaknesses: When hunting a Yokai can only hear voices close to it.

Evidence: Spirit Box, Ghost Orb and Ghost Writing.

Hantu

A Hantu is a rare ghost that can be found in hot climates. They are known to attack often during cold weather.

Unique Strengths: Lower temperatures can cause the Hantu to move at faster speeds.

Weaknesses: A Hantu will move slower in warmer areas.

Evidence: Fingerprints, Ghost Orb and Ghost Writing.

I really like that the Yokai becomes more active if you're talking around it (possibly increases the chances of it hunting as well?) and one Spirit Box is one of its evidence, meaning you have to talk around it to figure out what it is. So you're forced to feed into it's strength to figure out what it is. The Hantu is interesting as well, though I feel like it'll end up being pretty weak. Unless a player is too lazy to turn the breaker back on, it'll just be very slow. Basically the opposite of a Jinn. Overall I don't think either of these ghosts will add much of a threat to the game (as long as you keep the breaker on for the Hantu), but we'll see. I guess it depends on just what kind of effect talking around the Yokai will actually have.

I kind of wish the Hantu had Freezing Temps as one of its evidence, making it so that it will always be a speedy boi in its own room. This would especially be hilarious when you'd get a hallway Hantu on High School or Asylum, where the entire long stretch of Hallway would remain cold, giving the Hantu its speed increase.

[Mr EliteL]

Ooh sweet new ghosts sound good, probably one of the more important things Phasmo needed an update for to keep interest in. Need to keep an eye out for the release, maybe that'll get me watching again or even playing this time. I agree about the Hantu could've had Freezing Temps as an evidence like how Yokai has Spirit Box, maybe if Hantu is seen as weak by the community then one evidence will change over to that.

[Moonface]

Hey everyone,

The latest beta changes have now been moved over to the main build. These include two new ghost types and a new map as well as many other fixes and changes that you can find listed below.

As well as the update I would also like to make an announcement!

Over the past few years I have been developing Phasmophobia on my own however due to how much it has grown in both popularity and its future content plans it is now time to expand the team.

I have now started the process of hiring an experienced artist and a programmer to work on Phasmophobia. They will both start working with me on future content very soon as well as improving and expanding on the current content.

In the meantime you can enjoy the latest content update which you can find the full patch notes listed below.

New

• Added a new ghost type Yokai.
  
• Added a new ghost type Hantu.
  
• Added a new daily challenge "Capture a 3 star ghost photo".
  
• Added a new daily challenge "Capture a Dirty Water photo".
  
• Added a way to reset corrupt save files. This is a very rare occurrence, if you get this please join our discord and ask for help.
  
• Added a profanity filter for user and server names. Please report if your name is not offensive and is being caught by this.
  
• Added a sell button in the item store that will give you back 50% of the price.
  
• Added text to show the name of the level below the map in the truck.
  
• Added a confirmation timer if you change your resolution.
  
• Added a new small house map called Willow Street House. This map has no closets or lockers to hide inside and has been designed around hiding behind furniture.
  

Changes

• The smudge sticks smoking time has been reduced from 15 to 6 seconds to match the ghost delay during a hunt.
  
• The ghost will now walk to the front of the closet/ locker if it sees or hears you inside rather than walking past.
  
• If you fall out of the map or go out of bounds you will now be teleported to the last place you were instead of back to the truck.
  
• The high school top and bottom floor corridors have now been split into 3 sections each. This will make evidence be more accurate to where the ghost is.
  
• The Truck has been moved closer to the entrance on Prison.
  
• Kicked players will now be automatically kicked when they re-join.
  
• The ghost now has a small chance to wander far from it's room.
  
• Slightly increased the Demons chance to hunt.
  
• Increased the size of the Thermometer text to make it easier to read in VR.
  
• Changed how the alternative ports value is saved. This means you will have to enable this again if you had this enabled.
  
• Increased the ghosts chance to open or close a door when it's not hunting.
  
• Increased the ghosts chance to interact with objects.
  
• Flipped the High School and Asylum truck maps to make them less confusing to navigate.
  

Fixes

• Improved the performance and load times on most house maps.
  
• Fixed a bug where player voices would sometimes go high pitch.
  
• High School: Fixed a bug where sound sensors showed the wrong corridor names.
  
• Fixed a bug where equipment didn't teleport back to the truck if they fell out of bounds.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ghost was changing the temperature in the wrong room.
  
• Fixed a bug where new players would have their volume set to the old players volume.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ghost couldn't kill you in some closets.
  
• Fixed several safe spots.
  
• Fixed a bug where players would still show in the audio options after they have left.
  
• Fixed a bug where the resolution would sometimes be set very low when launching for the first time.
  
• Fixed a bug where Sensors could be placed on walls behind other objects.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ghost was never wandering out of it's room.
  
• Fixed a bug where the EMF Reader would still show a value if you picked it up from the floor into your inventory.
  
• Fixed a bug where Smudge Sticks could not be lit with a candle.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Thermometer would sometimes show values for the wrong room.
  

The new ghost types will have a 3x higher spawn rate until the next update.

I mostly posted this for the part about the hiring of more help for the game. Hopefully that means updates not only come out quicker, but maybe even larger updates or stuff too!

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, he made the announcement a couple of days ago, and I had meant to post here about it, but got distracted and forgot, lol.

Anyways, good to know he's hired some help. Sounds like he's going to stay in charge of what happens in the game, but the hiring of a programmer should help in making sure things work properly and smoothly. The artist/animator will hopefully eventually lead to some nice touch-ups and perhaps even getting some different kill animations from the ghosts (like the axe ghost actually using his axe to kill you). Maybe even some better character models/animations as well.

Though it did take him this long to hire help finally, so we'll have to wait and see just how much he actually lets them help.

[Moonface]

Hopefully it's not like when Brandon "hired" Reid to help him with ZetaBoards development only to restrict him so much that he basically never did anything and stopped trying.

He may have also taken so long to get help because of having to hire a programmer himself and I don't expect it's easy to hire people when you have no experience of doing so or knowing how to pick people out with confidence, especially for something that you created. Given the success he's had he may also be cautious that someone isn't trying to get onto the game solely for the money like how can be the case for rich people trying to get into a relationship.

On the subject of the game itself, is there any different kill animations currently? I've never died in the game, so I don't know if there's just a single animation or multiple.

[Dragon Lord]

Right now there is only one kill animation. When a ghost catches you during a hunt, you'll see a pair of hands come into your vision from behind you, and then close it on the screen. Death animation for every single ghost.