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Jed Shepherd, who co-wrote the Zoom-themed horror movie Host for Shudder last year, is now branching out into games, with the announcement of the FMV-style game Ghosts. The game will reunite most of the cast of Host, with a paranormal antagonist called The Long Lady designed by Sirenhead creator Trevor Henderson and brought to life by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
The game follows a crew of ghost hunters (featuring Host stars Emma Louise Webb, Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Radina Drandova, and Caroline Ward) exploring “the most haunted location in London,” with the player taking the role of the broadcast producer. With a number of different live feeds coming in, the player must decide what goes to air, making decisions that will hurt or help the show–and potentially the cast itself. The game will involve looking after the safety of the cast, while also making sure the show is entertaining.
Shepherd has cited FMV games like Night Trap, Phantasmagoria, and Double Switch as inspiration, but is looking to set Ghosts apart through the implementation of “real time” functionality. Under this system, players will have to log on to play the game at 10pm, and leaving the computer for a break of any sort will result in the cast meeting quite gruesome ends.
While the concept is interesting, it’s yet to be seen how it will play out in practice. It looks like there will be a way to work around the restrictive timing however, with the game’s Kickstarter mentioning an “unlockable pre-watershed version where you can breathe and save your progress,” available before 10pm.
The creators are looking to raise about $227,000 for the game on Kickstarter, after partnering with indie studio Visible Games and publisher Limited Run Games to bring Ghosts to life. At the time of writing around $46,000 has been pledged, with 29 days to go.
Ghosts is targeting a release date of February 22 in 2022 on PlayStation consoles, Nintendo Switch, and PC, but the campaign says the release date could change depending on how the fundraising goes.
