Phasmophobiaremains a runaway success for independent developer Kinetic Games, which began as the solo venture of Daniel Knight and has now become a small team of developers.
The game sees a group of paranormal investigators enter a haunted house to identify what type of spirit is possessing the residence. Add in proximity chat and voice recognition, and you get a thrilling experience that’s perfect for playing with friends.
However, Phasmophobia didn’t always have such a clear identity. In fact, Knight revealed inan interview with Eurogamerthat he almost stopped development on the game entirely because he didn’t know which direction to take his prototype in.
Banshees, Wraiths & Barghests
Originally, players had to investigate whether there was a ghost in the house or not. As you might’ve guessed, the game wasn’t very fun when you found nothing. Then, the game was centred around figuring out who the ghost was in life through interacting with items, but the problem became that the ghosts were ignored in favour of finding information. Knight couldn’t crack the code on how to make his game compelling.
“I just stopped. I couldn’t really decide where to take it,” Knight said. “I almost completely abandoned the game.”
Then, inspiration came from an unlikely source. While playing the early stages ofThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Knight happened across Devil in the Well, a quest in the White Orchard prologue area where Geralt is tasked with stopping a Noonwraith from haunting a well.
Geralt must investigate to determine the nature of the Noonwraith before slaying them in typical Witcher fashion, which sparked a ‘lightbulb moment’ within Knight: What if Phasmophobia was about identifying what type of ghost you were dealing with?
There would be a journal similar to Geralt’s bestiary, which you could reference to figure out the idiosyncrasies of every ghost. Everything coalesced around this idea, allowing Phasmophobia to take the form we see it in today.
“[Devil by the Well] is what inspired the ghost-type idea,” Knight explained.
Phasmophobia has gone from success to success as Blumhouse and Atomic Monster are collaborating on a movie adaptation. Kinetic Games is beginning to include some lore in its updates to pave the way for the movie’s narrative.
