Video Games
Demo Launching July 30 for Horror Visual Novel ‘Thorner’ [Trailer]
Eager to dive into Snoring Dog Games’ follow-up to their first game The Flayed Man with Thorner? You’re in luck, as the devteam has announced that Thorner will be getting a Steam demo on July 30. And to celebrate, they’ve released a new trailer, which drops a few tidbits of what to expect with the demo.
Along with the quality pixel art, the Thorner demo will feature 10-15 minutes of “terror, dread and suspense”, with three possible endings based on your psychometrics. The full game will expand upon this, with the ending you receive being based on the choices you make regarding Colin’s thoughts, words, and actions.
The demo will also feature an atmospheric soundtrack, with demo-exclusive tracks. And of course, the demo sports plenty of weird, grotesque nature-based horror “that will make you think twice about going for a walk in the woods.”
In Thorner, you are Colin Snead, a military veteran. Haunted by your time in the service, you flee to the Scottish wilderness attempting to leave your past behind. However, you will find that spilled blood is not easily forgiven, and you are not alone. The land knows what you did. The land judges. Thorner awaits.
Kinetic Games has followed through with the 13 Willow Street map rework for Phasmophobia today, which is free across all platforms. Accompanying the map rework is the first of two major quality-of-life updates bringing hundreds of bug fixes and helping refine the gameplay experience.
Ghost hunters can prepare for a refreshed investigation experience with the reworked Willow map, adding a host of new paranormal interactions, objects, and hiding spaces. As with the most recent overhaul to 6 Tanglewood Drive, Willow retains an almost identical layout but features redesigned rooms, including a reconfigured basement layout, bringing the gameplay experience up to the team’s current development standards.
The reworked rooms include an art studio, home gym and entertainment room, replacing the bedroom, garage and basement previously featured in the haunted house. Alongside these visual updates, curious players will be able to uncover new lore hidden throughout Willow, piecing together a story waiting to be discovered.
“As part of the 13 Willow Street rework we’re continuing our approach to storytelling in Phasmophobia and developing the game’s narrative,” said Anastatia Dukakis, Senior Narrative Designer at Kinetic Games. “It’s always exciting to see the community make new discoveries together and we love seeing everyone share their theories and thoughts on the lore behind in-game locations.”
Players will also be tasked to correctly identify (and survive) 50 ghosts as part of map’s challenge, awarding the Sun Seeker ID set upon completion. Players can also unlock the Cool Cat ID card and badge for the first week after launch, by watching 2 hours of Phasmophobia streams.
Meanwhile, the major update accompanying the map rework is inspired by community feedback following the Player Character Update, and reflects Kinetic Games’ ongoing commitment to delivering the level of quality players expect before Phasmophobia leaves Early Access.
The update introduces a range of changes helping to refine the gameplay experience with refreshed animations allowing for smoother and quicker movements, and changes to evidence collection for a more seamless experience, and ghost hunters might also face a new presence lurking in the shadows…
New keybinds have also been added with players now able to use 1,2,3 and 4 for changing inventory slots alongside wider accessibility tweaks. For an overview of all the fixes landing in-game, you can check out the blog post here.
Phasmophobia is available in Early Access on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2, and the Xbox Series.