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We recently asked our Content Creators to come up with some Questions about this years plan for Phasmophobia, here are our answers!
VR Update
Will VR users with older headsets (e.g., Oculus 1) notice a big difference with the new system compared to the previous?
- Every VR user, regardless of headset will see a significant difference in both playability and performance with the VR Rework
Will we be able to throw objects more accurately in VR after the update?
- Yes! There will be no need to pick up an object twice before you can throw it! Not to mention much more realistic throwing physics
Has there been any VR capabilities from previous games you all have worked on that you are bringing in Phasmophobia?
- We’re adding hand poses to almost every player interaction in the game, e.g., your hand grabbing door handles, or flicking light switches
Are there any plans to release Phasmophobia for the ‘Quest 2’ to play without a PC connected?
- Sadly not, Phasmophobia is a very complicated game and we will not be able to port this over without limiting a lot of the graphical settings and features
What content will be available to PC players in the VR update
- Sadly, there isn't a lot of new ‘content’ for PC players, however, we’ll be doing a small patch afterwards with some things to tide you over until the ‘Custom Difficulty’ update is finished
- However, there is still some stuff!
- Sound sensor
- New truck screen UI
- Crossing off ghosts in the journal
- Several balance changes to hiding places and blockers, as well as small tents on Maple Lodge Campsite working properly
Future Content
What are some of the craziest difficulty options we can expect with Custom games?
- There are some mental combinations if you want some really hard games;
- Imagine moving at 50% speed, while the ghost moves at 150%, with zero hiding places and a broken fuse box!
- How about a ghost only giving one evidence with super low interaction or event rates (it’d be like a demon, rev and shade had a baby!)
- Or throw balance out of the window and make yourself super speedy, the ghost go crazy with activity, and play with every Cursed Possession at once!
Any plans to add more detailed stats in the future?
- Yes! We have plans for a brand-new stats screen tied to your account, as well as a more detailed post game stats screen for debriefing after each contract!
How many upgrade tiers can we expect for each piece of equipment?
- We’re aiming for three tiers for equipment, but at this stage not every piece of equipment has upgrades planned (like the poor old salt shaker)
Could you give us any insight into how upgradable equipment will be implemented?
- Of course!
- Upgrades will become purchasable once you reach the required level for that equipment’s next unlock
- Once you have purchased the upgrade, you can choose to bring whichever tier of that equipment with you for that contract
- You only pay to bring the equipment itself, only unlocking the tier will cost extra! For example, if you have three flashlights, you could choose to bring one of each tier for the same cost
Will the new daily / weekly challenges be more incentive driven?
- We’ve got loads planned for new challenges and objectives. Some of them will be more complicated than others, but they will all help give players a large incentive to play more often, with worthwhile rewards
Any ideas for what the hallucinations might be if they get added?
- Hallucinations will definitely be added with Horror 2.0! We’re looking to add things such as:
- Paintings melt as your sanity decreases
- Writing and symbols on the walls
- And many more....
Can we expect the option to have more than one ghost or friendly ghosts in the custom update?
- One ghost is currently our limit for technical and performance reasons.
- You will be able to disable ghosts' ability to hunt (this will stop you earning rewards)
What kinds of new animations should we expect to see in the Progression Update?
- Loads! We can pretty much add animations to anything, such as:
- Toggle animations like turning on and off a flashlight
- Placing and pickup animations for candles or motion sensors
- Walking / running animations for the first-person view
- Switching between items like grabbing the spirit box and pulling out its aerial
- Idle animations like fiddling with items!
- Much better multiplayer animations (no more bendy backs 🙁)
- Death animations and new ghost animations will come straight after the Progression patch with the Horror 2.0 main update
What should we expect to see when character customization options are added in the Progression update?
- Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but we’re planning for several player options:
- Hair styles and colours
- Skin tones and face presets
- Clothing options
What will the Unity Engine Update and new Render Pipeline bring to the game?
- Performance should increase greatly across the board
- We’ll have access to VFX graph, allowing us to create insanely detailed particle systems with a very low GPU performance cost
- New options for lighting and materials such as parallax mapping
What are some of the potential new things you will be able to do once you switch to those new/improved systems?
- VFX graph will allow us to have thousands of particles for the performance cost of just a few, this allows us to do things like:
- Much more realistic rain
- Smokey ghost shaders and effects
- Better fire, embers and smoke for the campsite and smudge sticks
- Crows or other birds perching on rooftops and flying away
How do DK and Lavender spread out their duties while working on (for example) the VR update?
- Everything we do is separated into small tasks and then assigned to someone, such as an individual bug that needs fixing or a feature that needs adding.
- The VR update’s programming tasks have almost entirely been done by Lavender
Any updates on a console port?
- Sadly, we have no timeline for when this will happen, but we will update you as soon as we do
Any plans on leaving Early Access on Steam?
- Once we’ve finished this year's roadmap of updates, Horror 2.0 and maybe add a map or two, we think we’d be nearing the release of Phasmophobia v1.0
Any plans to further expand the team?
- We’re not currently looking to expand the team further as we’ve got a nice balance between art creation and code creation with our workflow