The game's source code was stolen?

[Uhtred son of Uhtred]

I recently found a game called "Ghost Watchers", and it looks like a copy of Phasmophobia, I mean, same assets, animations, mechanics, etc.
Phasmophobia developers can't do anything against this? looks like plagiarism.

[Shurenai]

Regarding the assets/animations, They're premade unity store assets; Anyone can purchase and use them. Mechanics might get into questionable territory, but, some of them might also be unity store assets.

[Maya-Neko]

Ideas can't be copyrighted in most countries. So as long as the Ghost Watchers devs either use their own code or getting the license to use a specific code (like from the asset store), they're save about it.

And its no surprise, that many of these games look similar, since all these items and its intended functionalities weren't invented by Phasmo, but derive either from real life or Ghost Hunting TV shows..

[DasaKamov]

Uhtred son of Uhtred の投稿を引用：

I mean, same assets

That's simply false. Neither a single model nor map is the same between Phasmophobia and Ghost Watchers.

[Maya-Neko]

DasaKamov の投稿を引用：

Uhtred son of Uhtred の投稿を引用：

I mean, same assets

That's simply false. Neither a single model nor map is the same between Phasmophobia and Ghost Watchers.

Both, Phasmo and Ghost Watchers use the HQ abandoned school (modular) asset pack from the unity Store

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/urban/hq-abandoned-school-modular-106665

Like the Map isn't called Brownstone High School just for fun in Phasmo, but it's rather this way, because the school is called that way in the asset pack.

And while Phasmo at least used the modularity to build something new out of the given objects, Ghost Watches just plainly used the demo map of it. Also the Phasmo devs already started to rework the game, so that they can swap everything with original assets instead of using asset object (and Ghost Watchers pretty much shows very well, why that's a good idea).

I don't know, if Ghost Watchers plans to do something like that as well, but given that they put so less effort into the game i would actually be surprised, if the actually start to polish the game. As of now the game is in a horrible state, given that they state, that 10 developers work on the game.

[Ulfkarl]

ghost watchers is better than phasmophobia, they are not the same, in ghost watchers hunts are different and you have to actually hunt the ghost, not only "guess" what kind of ghost it is

[John Elden]

Karl Hammerhand の投稿を引用：

ghost watchers is better than phasmophobia, they are not the same, in ghost watchers hunts are different and you have to actually hunt the ghost, not only "guess" what kind of ghost it is

Ok? Your point?
Nothing in your statement qualifies as being 'better', unless you're trying to pass off your subjective opinion as objective fact?

They are different games, with different mechanics.
You want to investigate? Phasmo.
You want to hunt the ghost? Ghost Watchers.

Being able to fight back does not objectively make GW 'better than Phasmo'.

[Ozone]

Ghost watcher has very low replayability. I wouldn't call that better.

[Maya-Neko]

Karl Hammerhand の投稿を引用：

ghost watchers is better than phasmophobia, they are not the same, in ghost watchers hunts are different and you have to actually hunt the ghost, not only "guess" what kind of ghost it is

Feel free to have your own opinion, but only speak for yourself, if you write about it. As of now i don't really see, that the GW devs really put any effort into the game, like what we actually see with Phasmo right now. If they surprise me by actually polishing the game, then i might take a look into it, but until then i keep playing other games.

And well, i could tell you like 5 games right now, which also include hunting or exorcism and which are more polished and especially more unique than GW. As of now GW runs off of the "It's new"-experience, but we've to see, how many players stick to it over the course of the next few weeks, especially now with the upcomming update for Phasmo

[VanillaLucia]

Maya-Neko の投稿を引用：

And well, i could tell you like 5 games right now, which also include hunting or exorcism and which are more polished and especially more unique than GW. As of now GW runs off of the "It's new"-experience, but we've to see, how many players stick to it over the course of the next few weeks, especially now with the upcomming update for Phasmo

Those particular developers have a very shaky and questionable track record. I don't mean to bag on them too much - but it's not very convincing to me that these developers would actually deliver something for real with the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality when they've been running a broadcast looping a video for nearly a whole month now that somehow consistently holds thousands of viewers. It's strange when the old trailer and screenshots were all pulled off of the Steam page and were replaced with ones more accurate of what the game is (and the trailer conveniently has minutes of footage from that broadcast that showed up some time during the broadcast).

If we aren't talking about what the game looks like on Steam's reviews and how popular the game is, I feel its community (Steam Screenshots) and the general attitude of the Discord users say more than enough who the audience for this particular game is. If the developers really pull through and deliver a game that people want, like, and enjoy, that's all kudos and credits to them - but it only has me questioning "why" the developers are hiding from and being so dismissive of their thousands-and-thousands of players who clearly enjoy their game. If we can take these metrics to other platforms like Twitch, I feel that such a huge audience would be an easy profit and morale boost for everyone involved but instead you have these developers who have inconsistently named files (some of the initial pictures shared on Discord have a very "telling" name on what the game is) and when they are busy censoring and scrubbing away information they have shared in the past.

Uhtred son of Uhtred の投稿を引用：

I recently found a game called "Ghost Watchers", and it looks like a copy of Phasmophobia, I mean, same assets, animations, mechanics, etc.
Phasmophobia developers can't do anything against this? looks like plagiarism.

The assets for things like the High School map are actually like "digital LEGO's" where you buy the pack, you get a free sample map (one made to demonstrate the assets), and then can piece and build your own layouts, change the colors/materials of anything, and even include your own changes and twists for things you would want (such as custom lighting effects, game mechanics, and more). The developers for Ghost Watchers has their maps all based on the exact "default" sample map and the only real change they did was that they broke the default lighting system and replaced it with one that's nonsensical (a little glowing orb/emitter that sits below the lights or sometimes without a light "fixture" there to add immersion).

[Maya-Neko]

VanillaLucia の投稿を引用：

Maya-Neko の投稿を引用：

And well, i could tell you like 5 games right now, which also include hunting or exorcism and which are more polished and especially more unique than GW. As of now GW runs off of the "It's new"-experience, but we've to see, how many players stick to it over the course of the next few weeks, especially now with the upcomming update for Phasmo

Those particular developers have a very shaky and questionable track record. I don't mean to bag on them too much - but it's not very convincing to me that these developers would actually deliver something for real with the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality when they've been running a broadcast looping a video for nearly a whole month now that somehow consistently holds thousands of viewers. It's strange when the old trailer and screenshots were all pulled off of the Steam page and were replaced with ones more accurate of what the game is (and the trailer conveniently has minutes of footage from that broadcast that showed up some time during the broadcast).

If we aren't talking about what the game looks like on Steam's reviews and how popular the game is, I feel its community (Steam Screenshots) and the general attitude of the Discord users say more than enough who the audience for this particular game is. If the developers really pull through and deliver a game that people want, like, and enjoy, that's all kudos and credits to them - but it only has me questioning "why" the developers are hiding from and being so dismissive of their thousands-and-thousands of players who clearly enjoy their game. If we can take these metrics to other platforms like Twitch, I feel that such a huge audience would be an easy profit and morale boost for everyone involved but instead you have these developers who have inconsistently named files (some of the initial pictures shared on Discord have a very "telling" name on what the game is) and when they are busy censoring and scrubbing away information they have shared in the past.

Yeah, these things are pretty much the reasons, why i wait for it to actually get better and more unique. Using Unity assets isn't bad by default (and Phasmo can pretty much prove that by now), but the devs should at least put some effort in on top of using them and once it gets popular, it should start with polishing the game properly.

[Tuin™]

Yeah i played ghost watchers and it's a terrible game it feels scripted they hardly changed the assets they bought.

If you start the game you hear random sounds for no reason if you stand in the door way you see the ghost spawning on the walls etc it like a haunted house from the fair.

You can throw all you stuff near the front door and you will get all the info you need while you hide in the van.

Any phasmo player will see how bad this game is.

Worse is even all those streamers with their fake jumpscares. I've played this ghostwatcher game and it's really really bad.

[Benjamin]

I'm pretty sure both use premade assets, and they use similar mechanics (none of which are particularly original). It's pretty clear it was inspired by Phasmo but there's nothing wrong with that.

Tuin™ の投稿を引用：

Yeah i played ghost watchers and it's a terrible game it feels scripted they hardly changed the assets they bought.

If you start the game you hear random sounds for no reason if you stand in the door way you see the ghost spawning on the walls etc it like a haunted house from the fair.

You can throw all you stuff near the front door and you will get all the info you need while you hide in the van.

Any phasmo player will see how bad this game is.

Worse is even all those streamers with their fake jumpscares. I've played this ghostwatcher game and it's really really bad.

It's rated "very positive" on the store page with over 3,700 reviews so I'll take their word for it over some fanboy.

[VanillaLucia]

Benjamin の投稿を引用：

It's rated "very positive" on the store page with over 3,700 reviews so I'll take their word for it over some fanboy.

The problem with the reviews as well is that it's so astronomically high compared to other games in this genre (compare it with games like Ghost Exorcism Inc, Obsideo, Forewarned, Ghost Exile, Remnant Records, and so on). Compared to their previous games, the developers behind Ghost Watchers apparently had an "overnight" success where there was absolutely very little marketing if anything for their game and their first day alone exploded with hundreds and hundreds of overwhelmingly "this is better than phas" reviews.

There's nothing quite wrong about being inspired by something like Phasmophobia but I only have questions as to why this particular game is so successful when all the other games I mentioned are nowhere near as successful but also have smaller developer teams with more passion and creativity in their ideas than this mysterious ten-to-thirty people team of developers that is busy hiding from their players/community who seem to really love their game.

[Maya-Neko]

Benjamin の投稿を引用：

I'm pretty sure both use premade assets, and they use similar mechanics (none of which are particularly original). It's pretty clear it was inspired by Phasmo but there's nothing wrong with that.

Tuin™ の投稿を引用：

Yeah i played ghost watchers and it's a terrible game it feels scripted they hardly changed the assets they bought.

If you start the game you hear random sounds for no reason if you stand in the door way you see the ghost spawning on the walls etc it like a haunted house from the fair.

You can throw all you stuff near the front door and you will get all the info you need while you hide in the van.

Any phasmo player will see how bad this game is.

Worse is even all those streamers with their fake jumpscares. I've played this ghostwatcher game and it's really really bad.

It's rated "very positive" on the store page with over 3,700 reviews so I'll take their word for it over some fanboy.

Just take a look at this in depth look of the game and tell me, that it looks as promising as Phasmo or other games of this genre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-wW8H29AdM

Obviously there's nothing wrong in using Unity assets as you start out, just to minimize the risk in case the game flops, but just plainly using the demo maps without even editing anything in it with the customization tools provided by the unity engine or asset packs pretty much speaks for itself. I can only imagine, that most of the players wrote their reviews regarding of what they expect from the game rather than in which state it is right now.

I firstly i also thought, that it could be a great game due to what the first trailer promised, but the gameplay can't really keep up with it. In the end it looks like they just tried to earn as much money with as little amount of effort as possible, before this whole bubble starts to pop.

[Tuin™]

yes this ghost watcher game is one of the worst games with positive reviews i've ever seen it's like people don't see the major flaws.

It's not like i'm intentionally hating the game either when i bought i really thought this thinking it might be cool but then the truth sank in after 4 hours and after a few patches i never touched it again. And i'm just baffled people like this game

Like there is no point in going around the house either i always just killed the ghost near the front door it's no joke. And the scares just happen randomly around the house. You notice this when you are in the van. If you press the light switches really fast they always break. It's all random based but in the bad way.

It's like the ghost spawns on the wall every 1.5 minutes, the ghost walks through the hallway every 3 minutes.

If people don't see this they are beyond help honestly.

In the end the A.I. of the ghost sets the whole stage of the game and that's where phasmo is king. And i'm not a fanboy either with my 30 hours in phasmo. I just see things the way they are. Ghost exiles is my next fav after phasmo atm it's really good and does unique things. And the ai is good as well.