Co-op ghost hunting/found footage horror/cheesy documentary simulator Phasmophobia has rolled out a fat new content update today, alongside the announcement that the solo developer behind Kinetic Games has hired on two new hands to help manage the runaway success Phasmophobia has found. The early access release was a hit last year, consistently sitting in Steam’s top-sellers list and enjoying big Twitch viewership for several months.
The new update adds a map, the cramped and closet-less Willow Street House, and two new ghosts. The Yokai is a grumpy ghost that dislikes when players talk, which can cause it to go hunting much earlier in the mission than other ghosts. The Hantu is an upredictable thing that moves faster in cold rooms, but slower in warm ones, so keeping the power on is vital to preserving your chances of escape. The spawn rate on these new ghosts will be tripled until the next update so it’s easier to jump back in and see them.
Additionally, the game’s dreaded Dirty Water objective is back—well, kind of. The objective is a Phasmophobia in-joke because it was so hard to complete, not because photographing a nasty-looking sink is hard, but because the ghost so rarely did its job and filled a sink with muck. Dirty Water was removed as an objective in March, and has now been added back in as a daily challenge rather than a proper objective.
The new additions at Kinetic Games are a programmer and an artist, each now working on the game alongside the original developer. Last year, Phasmophobia’s solo developer said he was reconsidering his Early Access timeline in the face of the game’s success.
Rich found that even though horror games don’t scare him, it was an unforgettable experience. He called Phasmophobia “the best ghost game ever made.”
You can find Phasmophobia on Steam and read the full update notes there.