Hey Pointians,
It's time to welcome visitors from the other side!
Feeling daunted by all things haunted? Us too! That's why today we're investigating what exactly is going on over at the Lifeless Estate, delving into some of the finer details to find out what School Spirits is all about. We sat down to chat with Design Director Ben Huskins and Designer Harry Puttock about all the different scares you can expect in our latest DLC. Grab a cushion to hide behind as it could get spooky, let's dive in!
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[h2]Heya! We're all excited and full of anticipation for the new DLC, tell us a little about what people can expect.[/h2]
Harry: In School Spirits you'll start a campus at Lifeless Estate, where the late heiress is sick of her self-invited guests, the Hellhole gang, ruining her afterlife with their questionable manners and constant depravity. You need to kick out the party crashers and calm the place down a bit, so she can rest in peace and finally enjoy her inheritance. That's the idea, anyway.
Husky: Sadly, the Lady Lifeless is no longer with us (and yet, is still with us), her eternal rest interrupted by all sorts of menacing presences! So she's looking for some assistance. Luckily, you're around to lend a hand. As the campus administrator, you'll be cracking down and dealing with menacing presences, trying to re-invigorate the place. The Lady is very glad to finally have an invited guest on her grounds (if they could just ignore all the strange smells around the place).
[h2]The Lifeless Estate sounds terrifying, tell us about the level and the types of students to expect.[/h2]
Husky: It's so atmospheric, I really like the level, it's so different from what we've done before and has a really creepy vibe.
Harry: It's pretty spooky. I think that's fair to say... Specifically, though, people can expect a couple of new courses! School Spirits is a course for spirits across the County that are no longer as alive as they used to be. They're Free Spirits, and nothing to be afraid of, just benevolent souls looking to brush up about the eternity ahead. Paranormal Detection has students learning the cradle-to-grave process of poltergeist-pest removal, uncovering ghosts and getting to grips with the latest "ghost duster" technology.
Husky: Free Spirits from all over Two Point County are looking to enrol at the Lifeless Estate! Even though they've moved on, they still want to learn, studying School Spirits to pick up all kinds of afterlife skills. Some of them have probably been around for a while, decades and decades, so what they want to do is get up to speed with all of the latest things that people do. Looking at the curriculum, they're doing things like Science Lab or Computer Lab - because some of them weren't around to learn and be up-to-date with things.
[h2]Free Spirits looking to enrol in further education is definitely out there, what was the inspiration behind heading towards the paranormal?[/h2]
Harry: We wanted to add another departure from the norm, if you can in fact call it that, of Two Point County academia. We thought that something supernatural, or mythical in some way, would be a welcome addition to our collection of courses and settings.
Of course, there was also the incentive to bring back ghosts from Two Point Hospital. They were a big part of that game, and we've had a lot of fun ideas on how to incorporate them into campus. Janitors were trained to deal with ghosts in Hospital, and we thought it would be fun to explore the origins of ghost capture training, and how people might learn to do that in an academic setting.
[h2]What new gameplay elements are there?[/h2]
Husky: There's a lot of cool stuff in this DLC, we've added a lot of new features that are all kinda ghost-related. We intentionally thought, let's try and make the gameplay feel quite different to the main game, and add a bunch of new gameplay features and cool new visual stuff.
Harry: Ghosts are back, back from the dead, and ready to be the eternal drag we've come to know and shove into Ectovats (foreboding!).
[h2]How might the player encounter ghosts?[/h2]
Husky: They can pop up in Detection classes (where students will be (obviously) detecting ghosts!). There's one slight downside to their study, however. Once detected, ghosts can reveal themselves. Students will be using the Media-o-Matic machine contraptions to listen out for the Estate's "guests", and (understandably) once disturbed these malevolent spirits will go around causing a bit of trouble.
Harry: Floating around the place, ghosts will bother your students and be an all-around intangible pain. You can train janitors in Ghost Capture and do... just that, capture ghosts! Ghosts will also occasionally hide in the fabric of the campus, haunting one of your rooms and undermining all of its usual academic goodness.
Husky: When a room is haunted, bad things happen. There are little signs that a room is haunted, and the interesting thing is there are different types of haunting. Depending on the type of ghost that haunts the room, it has different effects on the people in there. So you might have a haunting that makes people unhappy or reduces their learning rate, or makes them hungry. It might make them tired, that kind of thing. There are little signs that a room is haunted, and those signs gradually build up over time.
Harry: Fortunately, Janitors qualified in Ghost Capture are trained to de-haunt rooms and remove the ghost responsible. So, if you notice a room behaving paranormal-ly, you know the people to call. Cough. Once you've captured a ghost, its life force can be stored - and refrigerated - in an Ectovat device, before being enjoyed by a student, for all manner of netherworld-ly benefits. Mmhmm (it's best not to think about it).
Husky: I don't know if people remember Ectovats from Two Point Hospital, they were a reward for one of The Superbugs, and now, they're back! They're quite useful in this DLC, as all of the menacing presences you capture across the estate might as well be made useful.
[h2]Unlocking new plots works differently in School Spirits, how will players expand their Campus?[/h2]
Husky: There's a bit more going on with plots in the DLC, you can't just go around buying them. You'll notice these weird holes in the ground across the Estate, and from these mysterious holes, something utterly terrifying might emerge. You'll have to wait and see what tackling these menacing presences will look like.
Harry: There are possessed plots, full of evil spirits who have claimed parts of the grounds for themselves. The Janitors' Union won't deal with anything that horrible, so you may as well see if your Paranormal Detection students are up to the task. You'll need to develop their course, and complete damage bonus objectives to weaken the evil spirits, if you're going to be successful in Expulsion Ceremonies, banish the Hellhole gang and consistently expand your campus.
[h2]Expulsion Ceremonies: not something you'd expect working in Campus construction. Got any tips for beating the bosses?[/h2]
Harry: Exorcise smarter, not harder. When you're expanding your campus and looking at new plots, be sure to notice the damage bonus criteria for the evil spirit living there. It'll be much less horrible removing evil spirits if you're able to complete those objectives. I promise. Oh, and train your Janitors in Ghost Capture! Though they don't help with Expulsion Ceremonies themselves, you'll have a much better chance if your students aren't already worn down from jump scares and haunted rooms.
Husky: When you set up an Expulsion Ceremony, it will pull pretty much all of your Paranormal Detection students over to the plot; it's a mass event! To start with, you'll only have about ten students, but you can imagine what the Ceremony could entail later in the level.
Your students deal damage to the Henchmen, so the more students you have, the more damage they can do, and also, the higher the (academic) level of students, the more damage, alongside your damage bonuses. Also, it's worth thinking about when during the academic year you decide the Expulsion Ceremony will happen. When thinking about scheduling it, you might consider things like waiting until later in the year, so you have time to improve your student's grades, or whether to wait until the next academic year, so more students enrol. There's quite a step up in the health of the Henchmen you find possessing a plot, so watch out.
[h2]What's your personal favourite or highlight from playing the DLC?[/h2]
Husky: Check out the carpet in the Detection Office, it's lovely, I would love it in my house.
Harry: Lifeless Estate is an especially beautiful level, I hope people enjoy the atmosphere. Honourable mention goes out to our new addition to challenge mode; "Gradeyard Shift" is set at Lifeless Estate, and it's a really different way to experience the setting. It asks the important question: how many ghosts can a janitor catch, if a janitor can catch ghosts?
Two Point Campus: School Spirits releases on 15th March 2023, for £5.49/$5.99/€5.99. You can pre-purchase now for a 10% discount!
