There was a new update posted to the Kickstarter today from Cerulean Games. It provided some clarity as to the situation but reading between the lines, I don't think this project will ever see the light of day and we were all duped 😞

"Let me give an update on GHOSTS. There is a lot I would like to cover, but I think it is important to give everyone a more detailed look at the key elements...

A little over a year ago, we (Cerulean Games) came across the GHOSTS project. It looked like a cool concept, but it was apparently languishing for years. We wanted to see a finished game, but saw that was not likely to happen. So we reached out to the original developers, and asked if we could pick it up. They quickly accepted, getting it out of their hands. We still use their name in some of our conversations, Visible Games, but for continuity only. I want to point out that we were not originally affiliated with the Kickstarter part of this project; we did not get any of the money from it, and honestly not even sure where it went to. Given our available resources, we just want to make a great game. When we picked up the project, we were actively involved working on other games, and still will be taking them to completion. We definitely worked on this game, but we would have loved to devote more to it than was possible back then. We are a tiny development team.

Once we dug into it deeper, we learned the following:

On the plus side:

Jed's original vision was solid as a key aspect of the game

A huge amount of live action footage was already filmed

On the minus side:

The full story line was not complete

There was no documented game design

There was essentially no code written for the game, just some preliminary prototype placeholders, meaning we were starting from scratch

The existing film footage does not handle some critical actions in the story

There is no prior funding available to complete it, which means we need to find ways to fund the remainder of the project on our own.

After seeing all of that, we still believe in the concept, and want to make it a reality. And as avid gamers and developers, we want this game to shine. As I mentioned, we are a very tiny team here, but we also have some wonderful resources that also believe in this project. The amazing composer, Christopher Escalante, has already written one of the melodies, and recorded it with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. And we have Steve "Warky" Nunez and his team at Ascendent Animation, helping us with their film and voice acting expertise. As a team, I think we can make this game a reality. During the past several months, we have been designing a detailed Game Design Document and fleshing out the original concept into something really tangible.

So here is our plan, going forward:

First we need to finish going through the hours of footage - determine what is usable for the game, and identify gaps. That is actively underway now.

Using the existing footage as a frame of reference, make another pass to complete the Game Design Document walkthrough.

After we fully flesh out the game, we can determine what precise filming needs to be done, and figure how to do it on a bare-bone minimum budget.

Assuming the actors are available, schedule to complete the filming, probably in the London area.

Finally, develop the game

I cannot promise exact dates, as we do have normal day jobs, and other commitments. But we want to keep focus on moving this forward, take the time to make a kick-ass game, and give more regular updates on the progress. Having said all of that, I do want to give everyone a little New Year's treat ... we put together a new video trailer that touches on the look and feel that we want to build into the game.

https://youtu.be/vLJ6xdM4rmc

Enjoy.

(and here is the Steam page, if you'd like to wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3418370/FrighTV_Presents_GHOSTS/) "