Ready to Hide?

At PAX West this year, I got the pleasure of speaking with Morgen, one of the co-founders of Smol Games. They were showcasing their game, Hyde’s Haunt & Seek. This game is a spooky party game of mortals and ghosts where you’re placed in a haunted manor. You’re either trying to find the prized possession, or as a part of the pranking poltergeists trying to keep it for themselves. That’s right, playing as a ghost allows you to be focused on pulling pranks on the mortals. This creates fear energy in order to summon a scary clown to kill the seekers. As a seeker, your perspective is a bit different. You’re trying to find the prized possession while also fending off those ghostly gags with aid from a spectral flashlight. Being Smol Games’ first title, this was made by only three people, which showcases the true indie spirit of the development team. As a fan of horror games, I was quite excited to play the demo. I had the opportunity to play as the pranking poltergeist.

Face Your Fears

During my time playing Hyde’s Haunt & Seek, I found plenty of things to enjoy about the game. Starting off, being either the poltergeist or the seeker, you’re given different immersive experiences. The ghosts are shown a top-down perspective, whereas the seekers play in first person. As a ghost, after hiding the possession, you get to go around and mess with the seekers as they can’t see you but they can see what you’re doing. You can go flying through walls, make chairs spin, levitate objects with psychokinetic powers, and even possess a piano while running around. Sounds great, right?

All of this helps make your team spirit meter go up which is needed in order to power the haunt. Playing as the seeker, you get to go around and explore in order to try to find the possession while fending off the ghosts using a flashlight with various powers. Not only does it shine light but it allows you to use a blast pulse that scatters the ghosts’ energy powers, use it as a blacklight to illuminate traces, or even extract the ghosts from furniture using the exorcism beam, it’s not just your ordinary flashlight.

In order to be successful and win the game, as the ghost your goal is to fill the meter in order to start the haunt. Once started, you get locked in with everyone else and you want to try and possess certain objects in order to position them where they’re needed. During this time, the seeker will be trying to fend off the ghosts, or they can win by taking the prized possession to the safe room if found. In my case, I was able to fill the meter and complete what was needed in order to transform into the ghost clown, Peter, so that I could kill the seeker. Whether you like to be spooked or be the one to give the spooks, this game was quite fun to try out and was easy to pick up on since it was very intuitive.

Spook or be Spooked

Hyde’s Haunt & Seek gives its own unique take on spooky games allowing players to play alongside or against their friends in a team-based play with light competition. Straying away from similar titles such as Phasmophobia or Dead By Daylight, the game focuses more on the prized possession rather than being against each other. I enjoyed being able to purposely troll the other players, and it’s a fun new co-op game that I’m excited to see hit the market. It’s not quite out yet, as it’s still in development with no set release date. However, you can show your support for the game by following them or wishlisting it on Steam. You can also find gameplay of the game over on their Twitter account @Smol_Games as well as Steam. From what Morgen was telling me, they have a lot of new ideas and content they can’t wait to get out, but they won’t happen until the game’s full release. What do you say, ready to haunt or seek?