January 2003

Interview with Andy Severn

We got the chance to interview Andy Severn, the producer of Ghost Master, to find out more information regarding the upcoming strategy game.

 

ghostmaster.net: For those who are unfamiliar with the title, how would you sum up Ghost Master in a sentence? Andy: It's time you got your own back; for far too long the player has been the victim and now it's YOUR turn to do the scaring - because scaring is fun!

ghostmaster.net: We've heard about Ghost Master for a while now - how long has the game been in development for? Andy: It must be about three years now. We've come a long way from it's humble beginnings and the road has been long and hard, but now Ghost Master is a finely tuned lean mean game and it's looking brilliant.

ghostmaster.net: What kind of the locations can you do the 'haunting' in? Andy: Quite diverse really. We start the game in a university sorority house, where your task is to scare the towel-clad young girls out of the house. Later on we move to the police station to wreak havoc, then the hospital, lunatic asylum (I'm looking forward to that one!), spooky cabin in the woods. It's not just boring haunted houses in this game, you know.

ghostmaster.net: What makes Ghost Master different to the other 'sim' games on the market? Andy: Obviously, for a start, you can affect and manipulate the people in the game. Rather than just watching a dolls house, you have a mission to complete, puzzles to solve ghosts to collect and over 120 spooky powers to wield.

ghostmaster.net: What type of ghosts can we expect to see in the game? Andy: Well, we've got 47 haunters in the game ranging from simple gremlins, sheet-ghosts, through to headless horsemen and the mighty Darkling. Some, like Terroreyes are very weird consisting of just a floating brain with eyes... reminds me strangely of a snail.

ghostmaster.net: Where did the idea come from, what are the influences? Andy: Ghost Master came from the simple idea of taking the standard 'fighting scary monsters' approach and turning it on its head. The designer of the game was also looking at the wave of reality TV shows that had become popular and wishing that he could somehow scare and manipulate those 'dweebs' as he puts it. From those two simple ideas Ghost Master was born.

ghostmaster.net: Were there any elements of the game which you decided not to include in the final version? Andy: Oh, plenty! This has been a game that has had so many ideas. You know you're on to a good thing when the ideas flow like a raging torrent. We've had to cut a lot of good stuff from the wish-list in order to get this game out. Thinks like Make your own horror movies, There's a whole secret section of the game that we had to cut for time reasons... maybe it'll appear later, so I won't go in to any details! We've deliberately not put any violence or death in to the game in order to keep it suitable for a wider audience - and to keep up the humour aspect.

ghostmaster.net: Have you any plans to release any add-ons or additional downloads for the game? Andy: So many plans, so little time. Yes, there's loads of material we'd love to put into add-ons, even a sequel. There's a plan to do an add-on pack later in the year, and if we get time, we'll put in a few hidden extra haunters - no promises though.     Thanks Andy, for giving us a clearer image as to what Ghost Master will be like. It certainly sounds like it will be an excellent game!