Czech developers Dreadlocks, the company behind crowd funded RPG Dex, have launched their latest Kickstarter campaign for Ghost Theory, a VR focussed horror title that casts you as a clairvoyant paranormal investigator.
The latest horror title to take advantage of virtual reality’s inherently excellent ability to present horror experiences is Ghost Theory, a VR horror investigation title which casts you as Barbara, a clairvoyant investigator leading a team of people part of a university research program.
The title differs from many horror titles, the development team claim, as you’re not asked to dispatch zombies or other such activities associated with the genre. Instead Barbara is equipped with tools based on ‘real world’ paranormal investigator’s such as an EMF meter for detecting energy fluctuations and a camera, for those occasions you’re happy to stand there and snap jolly portraits of encroaching ghouls. And of course, our protagonist wears a skin tight jumpsuit – the trusted attire worn by the best in the field …
The core of the gameplay surrounds individual haunted locations which represent ‘open ended’ locations with their own back-story to discover as part of your investigations. The twist? They’re all based on real life haunted locations visited by the developers.
…we’ve also been doing extensive research on real haunted places and have already gathered an impressive list of suitable locations to feature in the game. We’ve been in talks with owners of private properties and convinced many of them to let us recreate their house and story, making Ghost Theory that much more authentic.
Interestingly, as well as capturing these real-life locations for use in realtime 3D within the game, the developers are also experimenting with realtime video capture, in order to project live performances in stereoscopic 3D into the action. You may remember a similar technique being used in Kite & Lightning’s excellent Senza Peso.
The title is not VR exclusive however, and indications of which VR headsets will be targeted for the projected September 2017 release date is not fixed, with the exception of the Oculus Rift. The team states “As for other headsets, we’ll of course try to support all the ones that are out by the time we release Ghost Theory.”
Pledge levels that allow you to own the game start at £14 ($20) rising to £5000, for which you’ll also earn the privilege of being captured for a guest appearance as one of the ghosts in the game.
With 29 days to go at the time of writing, the team have set a target of £100,000 (approx. $142k). We’ll keep an eye on the project as it’s certainly an interesting take on the genre, one well suited to VR as a platform.