Stefan Durmek is a producer and designer on Ghost Theory, an upcoming supernatural horror game from developer Dreadlocks that became the latest crowdfunding success this week when its Kickstarter reached its £50,000 ($71,178 USD) goal. He also gets me. It normally takes a few conversations for someone to figure me out, but for Durmek, it took one longwinded late-night email from me asking if his game is anything like Ghostbusters.
It’s not, obviously. So please, enjoy this brief Q&A in which a crazy goon harasses a game developer about an incredibly promising indie horror game that needs to hurry up and get here already.
BD: How would you quickly describe Ghost Theory to someone who’s unfamiliar with the game in a way that’d get them excited about it?
Ghost Theory is a single-player, first-person horror game. A university opens up a secret program of modern paranormal research and they put you in charge of the investigations. You travel to the most haunted places on Earth to gather evidence about hauntings. Each of the locations is a sandbox rather than a ‘corridor’.
BD: Continuing that thought — I might’ve once said your game is about “living the life of a clairvoyant, globetrotting Ghostbuster.” How accurate is that?
When you say ‘Ghostbuster,’ people tend to imagine someone with a proton pack and ghost traps. And that’s not what Ghost Theory is about. That’s why we call Barbara, our heroine, a ‘ghost hunter’ (actually, some paranormal experts actually get upset with the term ghost hunter, so ‘Paranormal Investigator’ would be even more accurate).
In Ghost Theory, you don’t have any guns to fire at apparitions. Even though this is a horror game, don’t expect ghosts to be jumping out at you from the shadows for no reason. In fact, most of them won’t respond to your presence at all unless you make them. It’s your job to find out how to draw them out – it’s the only way you will meet your mission objectives.
BD: Have you or your team experienced any activity of the paranormal persuasion while making this game?
We have experienced some really strange happenings since we started to work on the concept. But I wouldn’t call them paranormal. More like strange coincidences. We don’t all agree on their significance – I’d rather just leave it at that.
BD: Where does Dreadlocks stand on ghosts? Do you believe? Do you want to believe?
Speaking for Dreadlocks – some of us truly do; others are sceptics. But we all have one thing in common: we are genuinely fascinated by the unknown, by unexplained mysteries, by spooky stories, by horror movies and games, and we’re determined to make this project the most authentic ghost hunting experience ever!
Speaking just for myself – I am more of a sceptic, which I think is a good thing for the design of this game. I will need to do my best to make the gameplay believable and enjoyable to other sceptics, not just believers. I am not saying I’m convinced the paranormal doesn’t exist. The paranormal is a phenomenon, and that only means we (as in science) don’t know much about it. It’s kind of like playing games. A game is a phenomenon too and I absolutely love the idea that I will spend my life trying to understand its nature.
BD: Have any of the haunted places you’ve researched for Ghost Theory stood out for being more unnerving or terrifying than the rest? Do you have a favorite location?
There is a large ghost hunting community all over the world. We are dedicating a member of the studio to get in touch with experienced ghost hunters who can help us with the location scannings. Soon we’ll be able to just send a piece of equipment to a hunter located near a site we want and then just wait for the results. This whole process is still in its early stage of development. But it looks like it should work.
The last place we visited ourselves was a haunted castle, Houska, here in Czech Republic. It is a pretty creepy place. The castle’s administrators allowed us to crawl around it from the basements up to its attic. If we licence this place, it’ll definitely be one of our favourites. Personally, I can’t wait to start working on Poveglia Island.
Editor’s Note: We featured Poveglia Island in the very first entry in our ongoing “Creepy Places” series. You can find the latest batch of spooky locales over here.
BD: Quick! A thirsty specter is about to drink your life essence – what do you do? Fight, or flight? And if it’s the former, what weapon would you use to vanquish the foul spirit? There’s no wrong answer here (I mean, there definite is, but I’m sure your answer will rock), like Fatal Frame’s Camera Obscura, or maybe you’d prefer a Proton Pack? A priest and a dash of salt, perhaps?
Editor’s Note II: The Notening: I meant what Durmek would do in this situation, but it sounds like I just really want there to be guns in this game. I don’t, I promise, and I could’ve edited this question out of the interview, but that I would’ve meant getting rid of his response, and that’s my favorite part of this whole interview.
There are no weapons, you crazy goon – there’s no shooting or fighting involved in the core concept of Ghost Theory. Your goal will be to collect samples and evidence of paranormal phenomena and then bring it back to university, where your scientists can study it. You’ll have a lot of equipment common to today’s paranormal investigators: an EMF meter, Full-spectrum camera, UV Lamp, Pendulum etc.
There are a ton of ghost hunting gadgets on the market today. The list of those we’re going to use in Ghost Theory is still not finalized. We’re also going to come up with some new, hi-tech gadget inventions that your scientist will craft for you in the later stages of the game. This way you will be able to dig deeper than today’s real gadgets would allow.
BD: No pressure, but this last one’s important. What’s the best ghost in all of video games?
Each member of Dreadlocks have a different favorite spook. There’s Slimer, Aiden from Beyond: Two Souls…. a long list, really. But in the end, we’ve collectively settled on… the PacMan ghosts, “Blinky”, “Pinky”, “Inky” and “Clyde.” Haha!
Big thanks to Durmek and Dreadlocks for taking the time to A some of my Q’s. Ghost Theory doesn’t have a release date yet, but when it does arrive, it’ll come to PC, Mac, Linux, PS4 and Xbox One. You can follow the game on Kickstarter.
