Kinetic Games might be okay with the term ‘Friendslop’, but I don’t know that I am. It’s a term that only began showing up this year, and it describes apparently low-effort co-op games that are only enjoyable because they facilitate a hangout with friends. The suggestion is that it’s your relationships that make the game fun and not the ‘slop’ itself, but this doesn’t give enough credit to the sheer amount of research and effort that goes into designing these people-first playgrounds. These games may not let you see your own reflection in the toilet bowl water. Still, there is a scientific and psychological element to making games that encourage cooperation without causing player frustration. Phasmophobia nailed this mix all the way back when it was first released in 2020, and it has been refining its formula ever since.
Phasmophobia adds its fourteenth map to its ghost hunting adventures on November 11, 2025. Nell’s Diner is the first commercial property to be added to the game, among the numerous residential homes and abandoned buildings, but that’s not its only new feature. I had the opportunity to spend an hour identifying ghosts in Nell’s Diner with the art director on Phasmophobia Corey Dixon. As I explored the new location, he was able to walk me through everything new the map offers players, and, as someone with minimal experience with the game, a hand with the supernatural investigation.
It’s one of the game’s smaller maps; designed in a loop so that you are unlikely to find yourself running into a dead end. Only a little larger than the starting map, Tanglewood, it’s easy to run away during a hunt, but not so simple to hide. As a commercial building, Nell’s Diner is outfitted with security cameras that you can monitor from the manager’s office. It’s the first time you can check what your friends – or the ghosts – are doing without retreating to the van. This allows for more tactical gameplay and more incentive to split up.
There is an emphasis on each room having a strong visual identity, so that even newer players can orient themselves as they explore. However, the most impressive aspect of the diner is just how many things you can fiddle with. If something feels like it should be interactable, it is. This includes noisy machines like the jukebox and arcade machines, each with its own soundtrack and light show. Not only does this mean that you can scare your friends by setting one off when emotions are high, but it gives many more interactable objects for the ghost to let its presence be known. The devil is in the details. Like with other maps, each interactable plays a different sound, but with this large number of interactables and unique noises, over time you’ll be able to easily locate the ghost when it wants to be found.
For long-time fans of Phasmophobia, there are hidden easter eggs all over the map both inside and outside the building that will have players closely examining everything right down to the bathroom graffiti. While it will pass plenty of players by, there are also little stories to be told through what both diners and staff have left behind after the ghost appeared. An old man hurries out, leaving his cane behind. Stacked dishes and a cloth show a table turner who made a run for it. Phasmophobia is still in early access, but it’s clear that Kinetic Games are putting its full heart into it; giving players all the tools they need to have fun.
Friends might be what makes ‘friendslop’, but you wouldn’t be having fun at all without the ‘slop’. Corey told me that the title isn’t negative to him. For him, ‘friendslop’ is just the way people indicate that a game is fun with their friends. It’s a nice way to look at it. However, Nell’s Diner has shown me how friendslop developers like Kinetic Games are pushing the quality of experience. Phasmophobia will probably never have hyper-realistic hair physics, but it will have a squirty cream dispenser that ghosts love to honk on, and that’s what players really want.
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