Private Psychic is a narrative investigation game about weird ghosts and the fear of the future.
Play as Maple, a Psychic launching her own paranormal detective agency, but who is so afraid of the future that she can't predict it anymore (which is a real problem for a psychic...).
You’ll have to solve a variety of paranormal cases from haunted kitchen appliances all the way to souls trapped in another plane of existence while navigating the scariest thing of all: becoming an adult.
Maple is a Young Woman, fresh out of psychic college, who is trying to start her psychic agency in a new town to help people with their paranormal problems.
Starting this new chapter in her life is both very exciting and very scary. So scary in fact that her prediction powers seem to be disturbed by her fears and doubts to the point that she can only see the worst possible outcomes among the possible futures…
The game will be all about her first cases where she will be trying to establish herself as the go to town’s psychic while navigating the reality of the working world.
The game takes place in Behwearf, a small college town with a lot of paranormal activity. Paranormal entities hide, possess, manipulate and attack humans, and create powerful illusions.
Thankfully, psychics are very real in this world, they even have university degrees!
With this game, we explore the fears that come with starting out in adult life and the fear of the future in general. The story parallels what we, and most people, have felt while starting a new chapter in their life, but in a fun and heightened manner.
The game is a sequence of cases that are all a reflection on the fear of change. What comes next when you graduate, when you lose your job, or even… when you die?
Each case also plays with various kinds of horror. Gothic horror, digital horror and cosmic horror all have their representation there.
The game mixes visual-novel-like dialogues with free-roaming environments in which paranormal investigations take place.
In each investigation, the player has to take pictures of clues that can be used to interrogate characters and to be used as proof.
The clues can then be used to identify the paranormal entity at hand thanks to a bestiary that will teach us how to deal with it.
Each investigation has multiple endings, depending on what you choose and how you play. Dialogues are a big part of that, and you will have to carefully navigate complex situations with strange paranormal entities, so each dialogue will be surprising and will require diplomacy and tact.
Maple is helped in her adventure by POLTR, a poltergeist that lives in her phone and acts as an operative system. She can channel her psychic powers through him to use various abilities that can help her in her investigations.
The camera app gives access to various psychic filters that can reveal information invisible to the naked eye. There's three different filters that will be unlocked throughout the game:
The Paranormal Filter, that reveals paranormal elements. It allows us to find supernatural entities and phenomena hidden in the world.
The Past Filter, that allows us to see some past events that left a strong emotional charge.
And the Lie Filter, that allows us to see some hidden truth hidden behind deceiving appearances.
We can take pictures of things revealed by the filter that are then added to the picture gallery.
Those pictures can then be shown during dialogues to ask characters about them or to act as proof.
The Spookypedia is a paranormal encyclopedia that acts as a bestiary. It gathers information about all the possible entities that you might encounter in the game.
But there’s quite a lot of articles, and reading them all can be tedious. When dealing with a paranormal entity that you want to identify, the tag system proves to be really helpful.
You just have to investigate by using filters and talking to witnesses to know what three tags match the characteristics of the entity and drastically reduce the number of articles.
The content of the articles allows you to clearly identify what you’re dealing with and gives you tips with how to deal with it.
The Card reading app allows us to learn more about how a targeted human character likes to be talked to.
But first, you have to create an empathic link with them, and since Maple is a really food oriented person, to her it means learning about what they like to eat. Once you’ve found their three favourite tastes you’ll be able to go on with the card reading.
The three cards you’ll draw represent a type of approach that they either like (right side up) or dislike (upside down).
Our game is fully hand drawn and hand crafted (well… stylus drawn and stylus crafted, but you need your hand to use a stylus). Every detail is (perhaps too much) thought on to make a lively and mysterious universe, packed with hidden ghosts and spirits to lose yourself in. Come with both eyes open, and even a third one if you can!
