Introducing Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror on PS Vita

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Introducing Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror on PS Vita

Hello to everyone who plays games! We must first introduce ourselves. We are Glitchy Pixel, a small development group from Colombia, South America. We really love to make games! Glitchy Pixel is composed of 50% Diana Pacheco (artist, designer) and 50% Italo Capasso (programmer).

Poltergeist on PS Vita

We are writing to to tell you about our game Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror, and also to write about the challenge of developing games in Latin America.

Poltergeist is a puzzle game. Your objective is to scare the tenants that live in a haunted manor with the help of certain powers at your disposal. That’s right! You can now call it payback time for all those other games where you were the scared one!

But be careful, it will not be easy. In each level, you’ll have a limited amount of powers and objects to use to scare the tenants. Possessions, spectres, and portals are just a sample of the powers you can use. You must be clever and not waste away your powers, or you will lose.

Poltergeist is more of a calm puzzle game, than an endless, action type of game. But we hope you can feel like geniuses each time you manage to solve a level. In Poltergeist, you’ll witness the history of the manor across a variety of eras. You will scare people from the 30’s, the 80s, even in an office! The basic idea is to create nice environments of the different periods of time from the past century. You will take advantage of the objects of each era, and you will face different bosses, each one representative of their time period.

Poltergeist on PS VitaPoltergeist on PS Vita

We’ve been working on Poltergeist since November of 2011. It started from a very small prototype that barely worked. From that moment we’ve worked at every opportunity we can so we can build a great game that everyone can enjoy.

From a Latin American point of view, the idea of creating video games seemed to be an impossible one a few years ago. But now, the world is increasingly interconnected, and with the rise in technology, and increased digital distribution systems, it has become a reality. Now there are opportunities that we from Latin America are able to take.

Poltergeist had its first great breakthrough when it won the Square Enix Latin American Game Contest 2012 with a 20 level prototype. The current game has about 60 levels. At that point, we discovered that not only does Poltergeist have great potential as a game, but also that in Latin America, there is a lot of talent and passion, willing to work in the video game industry.

Poltergeist on PS Vita

We plan to bring Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror to PS Vita this October. This was a long process that took lots of dedication, effort, and many long nights. Developers in Latin America are just beginning a big journey order to become big player in the video game development world. For the moment, we think that we’ve had a good start so far.

We hope you’ll enjoy Poltergeist when it launches.

-Italo Capasso & Diana Pacheco

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36 Comments

6 Author Replies

  • Sounds pretty sweet! I’ll be keeping my eye on this.

    Does the game have any replayability once you beat the 60 levels? Like are there multiple ways to tackle each level that may improve a score? Or is there some sort of endless or procedurally generated mode?

    • Hello!
      Thanks a lot for commenting n_n

      At this moment no we don’t have some sort of score mechanic. (although usually levels have multiple solutions n_n). In the future we want to implement an “endless mode” featuring random generated levels. But that would be in a free patch later on :).

  • I’m going to buy this game for 4 reasons:
    1st. That photo of Diana Pacheco and Italo Capasso
    2nd. I like the name of the game.
    3rd. I want to support Latin american developers (I’m from Ecuador)
    4th. It seems like like a cute little puzzle game with better gameplay than Haunted House.

  • Neat concept.
    Look forward to hearing and seeing more.

    And October should be a perfect fit.

  • Now add a regular everyday storyline for the family and multiple outcomes for a good / bad ghost.

    Even more possibilities emerge if the family members are changed / temperament.

    Anyway,
    G.L.

  • I really like the style and concept here, and deeply respect that you two had enough passion to make this a reality. I hope you guys see a lot of success with this and look forward to giving this one a play or two.

  • This looks exactly like the Genesis game “The Haunting”

  • Nice :) I like this kind lf games

  • What an inspring backstory. Thanks for sharing it with us. I look forward to your game!

  • This reminds me of the old EA game, Haunting. As such, now you have my interest piqued!

  • I really like the picture you two posted and the story about the game to with it. The nostalgia I get from looking at the screen shots of this game won me over.

  • Hi guys!

    You can count on my support from day one. I’m from Peru, and even though one of the reasons I plan to buy your game is to support developers from my region, I really like the concept and screenshots, so I’m mainly buying because it just looks like a great game. And also because you are supporting Vita, which is by far my most played console and my favorite handheld of all time.

    Looking forward to Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror.

    Exitos y saludos desde Peru!

  • Wow, congratulations on making this game! Im pretty happy for you two, and i dont even know you!

  • As a few already said, this looks way too much like The Haunting: Starring Polter-guy I played several years ago on the genesis. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. As much as I like the idea of this, I find it hard to believe this shares such a strong similarity (layout and concept alike) that it’s it’s creators are seemingly oblivious to the original. Sure, there are a lot of similar games out there (like nearly every military shooter these days), but it’s just something I noticed.I guess it just kind of irks me that this post makes it sound like a revolutionary idea, whereas it’s been done about 2o years ago. But hey, whatever lol. Good luck.

    • Hello! Thanks a lot for commenting

      I know this will sound weird, but nope we had no idea of Polterguy until about midway in development (We never even had a Genesis/Megadrive around here in our childhoods).

      There are in fact, about four/five games with the same concept (that we know of) in about 20 years of games. We checked them to see if we inadvertently copied a mechanic or idea, and we don’t think our game works like Polterguy. We believe our mechanics are different enough to stand out on its own.

      I guess its inevitable to get the comparison, but then there’s nothing we can really do about it, other than saying its not “just a clone/copy of Polterguy”, or Haunt the house. We never intended it to be that way, you can take our word on that n_n.

  • definitely reminds me of The Haunting, and the PlayStation Mobile game Haunt the House. I liked both of those, so I’m interested to hear how this game differentiates itself (better story, level editor/sharing, GLBT characters, etc) from its obvious inspirations.

  • Looking forward to trying it. Especially since my kids are adopted from Colombia, so I would love to support talented developers from there! Plus, it’s always fun to scare the fleshies!

  • This looks really nice. While I see the similarities with Haunt the House, it’s not like there’s a deluge of these sorts of games available.

    Great work and best of luck! : )

  • People need to stop crying about Sony not supporting the ps vita I see alot of games coming out.

  • Yes! I loved “Haunting: Starring Polterguy,” on the Sega Genesis (I still own my copy). I’ve been wanting another similar to that for years. This will be a day 1 purchase for me. Looking forward to getting my hands on it next month. :)

    Any chance we could see a physical release? Or will this be PSN download only?

    • Hello! Thanks for your comment!
      As for now, we only digital releases in mind. Being just one gal and one guy, it would be kinda hard to make physical copies… but you never now it might happen ;).

  • looks good but I’m getting tired of seeing indies make pixel games, this game would be so much better if it had real life graphics, why do most game companies take a good idea an not make it as good as it should be, ps4 an vita can handle better graphics than this pixel bs, one game that would have been better is don’t starve, cool concept but not as fun as it would have been if the camera was behind the guy an if it was cartoony graphics or like how the makers of call of duty refuse or just plain ignore the people like me who beg for them to make a zombies only game on vita an ps4, they can make a crappy cell phone one but not what people want

  • also very good for just 2 people but I’m still not happy about so many pixel games coming out, i guess gta5 will be the only thing ill play until no man’s sky comes out or a new resident evil on ps4

  • sorry last thing, i wish this idiot i was talking to on psn saw this since he thinks all game companies are lazy an that he him self could do a better job in less time, what an idiot

  • Sounds like the perfect thing to play this October :). Looking forward to trying it out.

  • this looks awesome!

    i’ll pick this up day one

  • Hey! This game sounds amazing, I want to play it really bad… but I only have a PS3… I don´t supose you´ll be making it available for PS3…

  • @24 why don’t u try upgrading? ps4 is way better

  • @Italo Capasso Oh no worries. I just want to be clear: I don’t mean to come off as accusatory or anything for sure. Just at the first glance, it was really the first thing that entered my mind in a retrospective sort of way. I hear you though, it’s hard to not share similarities in a market that’s had the growth and history ours had. Much like a movie or book will have it’s share of similarities, it’s inevitable. It does look good though. I do admit I’ll find myself playing it with certainty when it comes around. Keep it up though.

  • Looking pretty good. Hopefully we can get a gameplay video before release. Good thing it is on the Vita, I feel it’s the right system for this kind of game.

    Good to see some fellow colombians making it to the PSN with a different concept (*cough* chavo kart *cough*).

    I assume by you faces you guys are rolos :p
    Anyway, greetings from Cali.

  • El concepto de este juego parece muy interesante. Muy diferente de lo que comúnmente hacia fuera en vez de huir de los fantasmas, los fantasmas que somos tenemos que asustar a los inquilinos de la casa solariega. Me gustan los juegos del género puzzle y espero que este se convierte en otro de mi preferidos.

    Puedo imaginar que debe ser muy difícil de producir juegos aquí en Suramérica por la falta de apoyo que vivimos. Sí, estoy aquí, para ser más expecifico Brasil, y sé cuán difícil es. Pero poco a poco con pequeños desevolvedores como usted y muchos otros, tenemos la visibilidad que tanto deseamos para nuestro continente y su potencial.

    Le deseo la mejor de las suertes, y espero que su juego es tan bueno como dices.
    Mi Vita espera con ansiedad.

    PS.: Me gusta su estilo Mr. Capasso. Muy elegante. =)
    Y espero que mi español no es tan malo.

    • Hola!

      Ah, muchas gracias (mas que todo a Diana que ella siempre es la que tiene el estilo n_n). Esperemos que poco a poco Suramerica se vaya volviendo poco a poco en una potencia de desarrollo de videojuegos :D.

      Saludos!
      PS: Tu Español está muy bien, de hecho lamento más bien no saber Portugués para responderte en tu idioma.

  • This is great!! I love my PS vita and love to see people from my country making games for it. I hope everything goes well and I will definitely support it.

  • Will be supporting our Latin American brothers when this launches. Looks great so far. Can’t wait to try it.

  • Nice, that game looks really cool, I also want to support latam developers, I just hope you don’t ruin your game with micro transactions inside the game.

    • Hello!

      Our game will never feature any microtransactions :).
      We may put up a free update in the long term, inclding stuff we wanted to incude, but couldn’t because of time constraints n_n.

  • It seems really awesome … Latinamerican developers rule?

  • This looks pretty amazing! So, a game with great puzzles, an opportunity to support an awesome pair of talented designers, plus another great addition to my Vita. Sounds like a win to me!

  • I too loved and still play Haunting on my Sega Genesis. I’ve been waiting decades for a spiritual successor, I can’t wait for this! How is the music? Number of musical pieces? Can we adjust the music/SFX balancing?

    • Hello!

      We have about 5 complete musical pieces, created by our pratners at burnis.co n_n. They helped us to create a musical piece that works acordding to each era you are in.

      You can adjust music/SFX/voices (fake voices ala sims style moreless) independently n_n

  • Thank you for your response, that’s great to hear! Also, is there anyway to zoom in and out while playing?

  • Entonces dirá a Diana que está haciendo un trabajo excelente. Artista y diseñador no podría ser diferente. =)

    Estoy seguro de que vamos a conseguir, tenemos mucho potencial para videojuegos aquí.

    No es un problema, ya que los idiomas son similares, a excepción de algunas pocas palabras.

    Me olvidé de pedir el último comentario, pero usted tiene una ventana de lanzamiento específica y el valor que se venderá?
    Han recibido la aprobación de Sony, la “Certificación PlayStation”, para publicar el juego en la PS Store? Sé que este es uno de los procesos que más demora antes del lanzamiento.

    Y gracias por responder. =)

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