Working on such a huge franchise, the collaboration was carried out with the utmost secrecy. Nilsson nods: вЂњIt was probably my favourite part of the whole thing, because you donвЂ™t normally get to see that stuff while itвЂ™s still in development.вЂќ вЂњWe had a super-short clip of the new movie, where we could see unfinished effects and the new ghosts,вЂќ Chevrier says. The team based their work on the upcoming film Ghostbusters: Afterlife. So it almost became like a fishing game, in a way.вЂќ Reduce the energy enough, and you could more easily pull them into a trap.ДЄt first, players would have to manually throw out traps вЂ“ but the team quickly realised they could create a more fluid time-attack experience by having it happen automatically. вЂњThe idea was that the ghost would have a bar that would go down when youвЂ™re pulling in the opposite direction. TheyвЂ™d need to have ghosts flying around unawares, then in a behaviour phase where theyвЂ™re aware and are avoiding being caught вЂ“ before a вЂcatch phaseвЂ™, where theyвЂ™re locked in a struggle with the Proton Beam. вЂњThereвЂ™s the iconic scene with Slimer in the hotel ballroom,вЂќ Franke says, вЂњand I was like, okay, this is the scene we want to emulate.вЂќ The team spent time watching and referencing the original Ghostbusters movie, breaking down the behaviours of the ghosts and how the heroes interacted with them. But you could not feel the beam вЂ“ so there was a lot of iteration where we tried to make the ghost move in a way that feels like youвЂ™ve got them in your proton stream, and you try to fight against them.вЂќ вЂњIt was more like they were jumping and you had to catch them when they appeared.

вЂњYou could really quickly catch the ghosts,вЂќ he says. The first version that Chevrier had been working on featured fast and furious ghostbusting. Before you do anything else, youвЂ™ve got to get that catching of the ghosts to feel right.вЂќ вЂњTo me, that felt like the most important thing: we need to make the player feel like a member of the Ghostbusters team. вЂњWe asked ourselves, вЂWhat is the core experience of being a Ghostbusters team member?вЂ™вЂќ Franke says. Media Molecule lead designer Richard Franke then came aboard to direct and help the team make some of the game-defining decisions (as well as do a bit of environment modelling, which MmвЂ™s Dreams specialist Martin Nebelong would polish with lighting and effects). The game would have to last 60 seconds, as the cast of Sony PicturesвЂ™ Ghostbusters: Afterlife would be setting their own scores that fans could try to beat.Д¬hevrier laid down the basics of the controls, including creating a version of the iconic Ghostbusters proton beam that the player could fire in first-person view, and set up much of the underlying Logic for the destructive environments. A short brief had already been put together by Mm and Sony Pictures. I think it was the first call with Gem where she told me it was a Ghostbusters project, and I was really excited.вЂќД¬hevrier would be working on gameplay design, and Nilsson on animations. Then when Gem told me what the project was and what I would be doing, I got really excited and hopped on.вЂќ Chevrier nods. вЂњLike, what is this?вЂќ Nilsson found himself thinking.

Images of slimer from ghostbusters