Phasmophobia is one of the biggest success stories in multiplayer horror games. To this day, it's still wildly popular, with players finding the investigative and paranormal gameplay loop fun and engaging. Almost 6 years since its early access launch in 2020, it’s ready to launch into its 1.0 version in 2027. Once a solo dev effort by CEO Daniel Knight, he expanded Kinetic Studios to grow the game with future content and updates.
To save time, Phasmophobia was built with stock assets from the Unity Asset Store. But over the past several years, the development team has been continually replacing them with new original assets to give Phasmophobia its own visual identity before the 1.0 launch.
At Summer Game Fest 2026, we sat down and spoke with art director Corey Dixon about preparing for version 1.0 and how the game’s sudden success impacted development.
For more, check out the best new horror games we saw at Summer Game Fest.
The development team showed me a sneak peek of their upcoming rework of one of the maps, 13 Willow Street, which features a single one-story home for players to explore. The newly implemented art assets include adding more lore to the home, such as portraying the family as cat lovers. The home is littered with cat photos, some of which are the real life cats of some of the developers!
Dixon said that so far, the current map reworks, such as 6 Tanglewood Drive and both Bleasdale and Grafton Farmhouses, have been positively received by the Phasmophobia community. “Our equipment and map reworks have always been massively praised for the level of quality they bring to the game,” he explained.
“There’s usually a little bit of apprehension at first because the community is so used to playing within our legacy maps, but the overall consensus is that reworks breathe new life into the game, from adding new hiding spots to just making everything that little bit more immersive.”
Although not every single update was a hit. Last month, Phasmophobia launched the Player Character Update, which lets players customize their characters with options like clothing, hair color, and cosmetics. But it also brought along weird animation jank with limbs and objects overlapping. The team has since apologized for the less-than-stellar update and has vowed to continue fixing the game.
“Its launch showed us there’s still work to do in that area,” Dixon said. “Our goal will always be to deliver the highest-quality experience possible, and this time we didn’t hit that standard.”
The development team is also redesigning the ghosts to give them more distinct visual identities. Right now, they look more like zombies than your typical ghost. I was shown several of the new redesigns, including ghosts modeled after the kinds of deaths their human forms experienced. For example, a ghost that drowned would have wet hair, while a ghost that burned to death would be on fire. This would give each ghost its own unique backstory.
With each ghost design, the team thought they could further separate the visual design from the scares. The process involved picking themes and pushing them as far as possible without the designs looking too cliche or monster-like. “It allowed us to really push the theme for each one and ensure they had a lot of individuality,” Dixon said.
While Phasmophobia’s previous 2026 roadmap included launching into 1.0, it’s been revised to 2027, as the team continues to focus on quality and speed. Other improvements include more immersive audio, such as spatial sound, environmental enhancements, and updated weather systems.
With the 1.0 version, Kinetic Games is also looking to launch the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which will bring even more new players into the fold. “Dan was a one-man band when he launched Phasmophobia, but its instant success changed that very quickly,” Dixon explained. “The sheer number of fans was beyond anything we expected, but it’s been a blessing. We can now develop our own ideas, listen to feedback, and strike a balance between what the community wants and our own creative vision.”
The 13 Willow Street map rework will launch for free on July 21, and Phasmophobia 1.0 is set to release in the second half of 2027.
