Phasmophilia

[l0v3rm4n69420]

Hear me out, and devs if you're reading this, this is a free cash money idea right here.

A sequel to Phasmo where you play as ghost exterminators instead of hunters.
Your goal is to identify and then exorcise the ghost.
Instead of creating a new map at the start it instead goes and pulls a map from a list of Phasmophobia games, including the equipment and cursed object locations and ghost room (ghost room may have changed if your difficulty is high, and it can be incorrect.)

Upon spawning, you get your journal updated to have all the information that was discovered in the phasmo run, including what ghost they thought it was (it can show multiple ghosts if in a multiplayer lobby and ppl selected different ghosts, and it will show whether it was correct or not, but not the correct type of ghost if it was incorrect) and the location of the last detected ghost (last location can only be confirmed by motion detector, salt, or similar equipment)

You have all of the ghost identifier equip from phasmo, and most of the optional stuff (salt, crucifixes ect) but with a few new equipment designed to kill or trap a ghost, however, things like cameras are not of much use as you do not gain money from photos (more on that later).

Ghosts need different combos of equipment to kill, and in higher difficulties it needs to be done in a specific order. killing the ghost gives you the same payday as identifying it correctly in Phasmo, you have several of the same optional objectives as Phasmo (mostly ones relating to hunts or ghost events) but also a few new ones.

You get all of your extra money from retrieval, it will save the state of all the equipment from the Phasmophobia game, and for every piece you bring back you are paid 10% of its price in the shop, you also get a flat 50$ per corpse and 25$ for a cursed object with at least 1 use remaining, and the bone, in addition your final reward is doubled if you can capture the ghost instead of killing it (slightly to far more difficult depending on difficulty and ghost type, for example Spirits are far easier to capture than a Demon).

You make more money in Phasmophilia because it is meant to be a more hectic game that Phasmophobia, with the ghost retaliating to capture or kill attempts with hunts or new aggressive ghost events (such as throwing objects and strangling players, as well as attempted possession or "accidents" like lights falling or doors slamming) more players will die, however unless everyone on the team dies, you only lose the equipment that was in the house, and even then if you complete the level successfully you get 25% of the lost equipment value back,

Thats about it, let me know what you think and if you would play it or not

[WolfLink0370]

I stopped reading after line 3... too illegible due to the lack of line breaks.

But also trying to pitch them doing a sequel with exorcisms is a hard no... regardless of the rest of what is said to be blunt.

Like seriously, the first game isn't even finished yet.

[underscores222]

Unfortunately, the devs have stated that they aren't interested in getting rid of the ghost.

A lot of ideas here are good thoughts, but in general saving the phasmo game state and then sending it to another game for map generation is going to be difficult. It's probably better to simulate the phasmo ghost hunters by randomly generating some equipment and bodies based on difficulty, etc.

In general, though, I wonder how compelling this sort of gameplay would be. Phasmo has a lot of replay value due to the "figure it out" nature of the game. Not only figure out the ghost, but also figure out how to figure out the ghost. Almost all of the ghost's special abilities are not stated and left to the player to learn, and harder modes mean you need to learn those behaviors.

In this game, what's there to discover? What keeps bringing people back to new games?

[l0v3rm4n69420]

Originally posted by underscores222:

Unfortunately, the devs have stated that they aren't interested in getting rid of the ghost.

A lot of ideas here are good thoughts, but in general saving the phasmo game state and then sending it to another game for map generation is going to be difficult. It's probably better to simulate the phasmo ghost hunters by randomly generating some equipment and bodies based on difficulty, etc.

In general, though, I wonder how compelling this sort of gameplay would be. Phasmo has a lot of replay value due to the "figure it out" nature of the game. Not only figure out the ghost, but also figure out how to figure out the ghost. Almost all of the ghost's special abilities are not stated and left to the player to learn, and harder modes mean you need to learn those behaviors.

In this game, what's there to discover? What keeps bringing people back to new games?

The randomly generated equipment and bodies is a better idea, i didnt think of the coding difficulty for the save state,
The ghosts special abilities and features would still be there, just in a slightly different form. The challenge of discovering the ghost would still often be the same, including the process of finding the ghost room and keeping it under check. The replayability that you would lose in having the ghost be preidentified would slightly shift the focus away from the discovery aspect and more towards a Lethal Company-esqe combat, but even that could be changed by removing the ghost being correctly identified (or having it not be confirmed whether its correct or not)
Though at that point you might as well just add Exorcism as a DLC or update, as it wouldn't be a full game

[l0v3rm4n69420]

Originally posted by WolfLink0370:

I stopped reading after line 3... too illegible due to the lack of line breaks.

But also trying to pitch them doing a sequel with exorcisms is a hard no... regardless of the rest of what is said to be blunt.

Like seriously, the first game isn't even finished yet.

Whoops my bad, give me one sec

[Maya-Neko]

First off all, exorcism will not come.

Otherwise, the idea of items being scattered around is already done in Ghost Exorcism Inc and it's quite fun, so i wouldn't say no to that, though i would rather prefer to have a properly developed mode that is balanced to be fair (like in Ghost Exorcism Inc) rather than just a saved state of a previous game, which has a high chance to be quite boring, if it is already been solved.

[l0v3rm4n69420]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

First off all, exorcism will not come.

Otherwise, the idea of items being scattered around is already done in Ghost Exorcism Inc and it's quite fun, so i wouldn't say no to that, though i would rather prefer to have a properly developed mode that is balanced to be fair (like in Ghost Exorcism Inc) rather than just a saved state of a previous game, which has a high chance to be quite boring, if it is already been solved.

the idea i had for it already being solved was only on the lower difficulties, so that people figuring out the new equipment wouldn't also have to stress about identifying the ghost

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by l0v3rm4n69420:

the idea i had for it already being solved was only on the lower difficulties, so that people figuring out the new equipment wouldn't also have to stress about identifying the ghost

Though, what stops me from using that as an easy money exploit, especially as a beginner? Like this game is all about identifying the ghost, so if that's all done already, then there's nothing left to do anymore.

[l0v3rm4n69420]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Originally posted by l0v3rm4n69420:

the idea i had for it already being solved was only on the lower difficulties, so that people figuring out the new equipment wouldn't also have to stress about identifying the ghost

Though, what stops me from using that as an easy money exploit, especially as a beginner? Like this game is all about identifying the ghost, so if that's all done already, then there's nothing left to do anymore.

Their isnt money in identifying the ghost in Phasmophilia, you still have to exorcise/capture it. Phasmophilia is meant to have a different feel than Phobia, and its meant to cater to a different crowd. The people who don't like Phobia because its "too passive" or "I can't defend myself" would be more likely to enjoy most of the same gameplay, but with a more combat focused gameplay loop.

[Maya-Neko]

If it isn't based off of Phasmo gameplay, then i can't really say anything about it, as ideas often sound better on paper than they actually might be. So feel free to build a prototype around it and see, if it really works the way you think it does. (though if you dive into that, definitely rethink the "philia"-ending, because exorcising ghosts doesn't sound like you're friends/lovers with those ghosts at all)

Also we already have tons of games in this genre with a more combat focused/exorcism oriented gameplay loop, but as of now it seems they didn't find the formula that actually makes people swap over from Phasmo.

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

Oh. I thought this was gonna be about dating ghosts. Now I’m just disappointed.

[l0v3rm4n69420]

Originally posted by The Fountaineer 🖋:

Oh. I thought this was gonna be about dating ghosts. Now I’m just disappointed.

Thats not off the table...

[l0v3rm4n69420]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

If it isn't based off of Phasmo gameplay, then i can't really say anything about it, as ideas often sound better on paper than they actually might be. So feel free to build a prototype around it and see, if it really works the way you think it does. (though if you dive into that, definitely rethink the "philia"-ending, because exorcising ghosts doesn't sound like you're friends/lovers with those ghosts at all)

Also we already have tons of games in this genre with a more combat focused/exorcism oriented gameplay loop, but as of now it seems they didn't find the formula that actually makes people swap over from Phasmo.

You are right about the idea thing, and thats one of the reasons that i put this here, i like to get the communities feedback, especially with ideas such as this.
Unfortunately for a mod or working prototype, i am afflicted with a horrible ailment...
being Poor.
As for the -philia ending, i can see where you're coming from, this is one of my 2AM ideas that i think of for an hour while trying to sleep, and this is the first thing i came up with.