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Phasmophobia's custom difficulty update goes live this month, making ghost-hunting more approachable

Developer of Phasmophobia, Kinetic Games, is no stranger to updates and keeping players in the loop regarding them. The ghost-hunting game has been in Early Access for almost two years now, and it continues to get better each month as Kinetic liaises with its community.

That said, Kinetic has listened once more to the thoughts and feedback of players and will soon be introducing a Custom Difficulty update to Phasmophobia.

The previous roadmap shared for Phasmophobia didn't go so swimmingly, but not so much so that players were in turmoil over it. Kinetic says in their latest development preview via Steam, "Things didn't exactly go to plan! Originally the VR overhaul was planned to release earlier than April, allowing us to get knee-deep into Custom Difficulty's development. As it took longer, we pushed Custom back a couple of months and gave the community three smaller patches of content to fill the gap in content."

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Phasmophobia custom difficulty coming this month on its updated roadmap




Phasmophobia developer Kinetic Games has released an updated roadmap outlining its development plans for the remainder of 2022 into 2023. It has also revealed that the game's long-awaited custom difficulties are coming this month alongside a big update...
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Development preview #6 Roadmap v2 | 05/09/22

Welcome back ghost hunters and truck dwellers, we've got some news for you!

We thought we'd spend a short moment recapping how development has gone over 2022, and give you an updated version of the roadmap we released earlier this year.



The original 2022 roadmap

As you can see, things didn't exactly go to plan!

Originally the VR overhaul was planned to release earlier than April, allowing us to get knee-deep into Custom Difficulty's development. As it took longer, we pushed Custom back a couple of months and gave the community three smaller patches of content to fill the gap in content.

The new updated roadmap

This roadmap now more accurately represents what we achieved this year, and what we plan to do moving forwards. We want to be transparent and realistic in our plans to make sure we don't have to delay things in the future or force mini updates to fill gaps.

Development doesn't always go exactly to plan, so in this new roadmap, we're allowing a bit of extra room for things going wrong. If things go well, that just means we can be ahead of schedule and push updates earlier.




That's right, the Custom difficulty update is coming this month, and it's a big one. We've squeezed in loads of extra things and even a few new [REDACTED] for you to enjoy, all will be revealed when the update trailer drops very soon.




As you can see, the Progression update is still split into parts, and most of it has been pushed back into 2023. However, some of the original 'part one' has been moved into its own, larger update, the URP upgrade, including a huge weather effects overhaul, new lighting, and more.

The Progression updates will be the biggest programming and art overhaul that Phasmophobia will ever receive, with many systems, models, and animations getting completely reworked or created from scratch. Hopefully, by us splitting this into several smaller updates, this allows you to experience new things slowly over time, instead of having to wait six or more months for one massive patch.




After progression is finished, we'll get onto the last part of Phasmophobia that needs reworking. Horror 2.0. We'll be replacing all of the ghost models and adding a plethora of new effects, events, sounds, and interactions to scare you out of your skin.

But what about new locations and reworks? Fear not, locations will be created and reworked alongside these other updates, and we'll be able to release them with other content, or on their own, as soon as they are finished.

We hope that this preview has shed some light on our development plans, and we'd like to apologize for our misjudgment in the original roadmap.

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
[h3]The Kinetic Games Team [/h3]

Development Preview #5 | 25/07/22

Welcome back we've got some news for you!

As we're nearing our testing phase, this will probably be the final preview before the Custom Difficulty update is released!

Any information and images are Work In Progress (WIP) and may change drastically before releasing



We've had a tonne of questions on what settings will be available to customize your games, so we thought we'd shed a little light on what's to come!

Every single setting that you can change in Custom Difficulty is tied to a reward multiplier. This means you could recreate Nightmare difficulty, and only change a couple of settings, to get similar rewards!

We've tried to make every setting's multiplier fair, based on the advantage or disadvantage it may bring to your investigation.

Do you want the ghost to be slower and the player to be faster? Sure thing, but you'll get fewer rewards!

Fancy making the ghost a speed demon and disable player sprinting? Go for it! And you'll get extra rewards for doing so!

A quick peek at the Player settings you can change



Custom is all about choice, and in the future, we may add more settings to push the boundaries even further.

Want more cursed possessions? Want to choose which ones? How about none?



We've even added presets to get you started!

You can load up any of the default difficulties as a starting point, or you can make something from scratch. Also, you can save up to three of your custom settings as presets for future use!

We can't wait to see what games the community comes up with, and the carnage that will come from it.



Finally, we'll be setting a special challenge with an in-game reward, for those brave enough, with the launch of the Custom Difficulty update. More details on that soon!




Unlike it's predecessor, Sunny Meadows is crammed full of things to make it feel used, abandoned, and messy.

The hallways are far from empty, they're scattered with the remains of what used to be; beds, moved bookshelves, rubble, and chairs. Not only does this create more visual diversity, but it also makes those tense chase sequences more stressful, as you have to find the path between these new obstacles.



Even the hospital wing has dividers, beds, and wheelchairs blocking your path...



Sunny Meadows has several different sections, each with their own theme and assets. Some areas are designed to be completely different, like the yard or chapel, to make each investigation feel unique.

Dont get caught out in the open while searching for orbs...



What other secrets does this abandoned asylum hold?



That's it for Development Preview #5. We'll catch you with some more teasers soon!

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
[h3]The Kinetic Games Team [/h3]

Truck Overhaul | Hotfix v0.6.3.1

  • Spanish can now use Windows voice recognition
  • Brazilian Portuguese can no longer use Windows voice recognition


If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
[h3]The Kinetic Games Team [/h3]