Dead End Job

About this game

Dead End Job sends you into a madcap, Ren & Stimpy-esque world to bust up ghosts. It’s a procedurally generated, couch co-op, twin-stick shooter that straps a vacuum pack to your back, and puts a plasma blaster in your hand. For you, it’s just another day in the office.

• Exorcise restaurants, offices and other buildings.
  
• Use a plasma blaster, your trusty vacuum pack and a whole range of supernatural items.
  
• Save your mentor's soul or she'll spend eternity as a spook (voted “Least Preferred Fate” in Ghost Hunter Monthly).
  
• So many ghosts.
  
• A madcap story written by IGF nominee Xalavier Nelson Jr
  
• Drop in/drop out couch co-op, as your mentor appears to lend a hand!
  
• Stunning cartoon-quality artwork inspired by 90’s favourites like Ren & Stimpy.
  
• Actually, maybe too many ghosts?
  
• Featuring original music by the award-winning Will Morton (Grand Theft Auto series).
  
• Twitch and Mixer integration allows viewers to help or hinder the streamer.
  
• Seriously, can someone please get rid of all of these ghosts?

Please note that Dead End Job supports mouse & keyboard controls for single player, but couch co-op requires at least one player to use a controller.

Familiar Haunts

You take on the role of Hector Plasm, a worker at Ghoul-B-Gone – ‘the Number One experts in paranormal pest control’ – as you’re tasked with heading to haunted offices, restaurants, and other everyday buildings before freeing them of unwanted guests. One minute you're sucking up specters, the next you're sucking up to your bosses, chasing that promotion.
Have you got what it takes to be the best at putting pests to rest?

Don’t Suck… Well, Actually Do

Exercise that fighting spirit, since every specter you snag and every resident you rescue is added to your client’s bill at the end of the job. Haunted by the ghost of your mentor, quite literally, you must learn the ropes and to save her soul before she’s forced to spend eternity as a spook (voted “Least Preferred Fate” in Ghost Hunter Monthly).

Kindred Spirits

Play alone or bust ghosts with a buddy in drop in / drop out co-op that works seamlessly within the main adventure. Plus you can play to an audience with Twitch and Mixer interactivity that allows viewers to help or hinder your assault on the afterlife.

Ghost Writer

Do you love 90's cartoons? Yeah, so do we, and we grew up on their stretchy squishy gross-out laughs. Our love for them spills over into the game like so much ectoplasm. See every nose hair in wacky, vibrant art that brings everyday items to life as screwball spooks to suck up. To top it off, the entire adventure is backed by music from the award-winning Will Morton (Grand Theft Auto series).

Latest news

• Announcements·28 Oct 2021Official

  Mark Hamill To Host ‘Thunderful World’ Digital Showcase on November 10th

  {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37569367/892bc383a39eb0b46c5b4b09af85c4f9f1be9298.jpg Hey friends, we have some awesome news, which we can finally share with you today: We - that's Thunderful Games - welcome all of you to the premiere of our very first digital games showcase ‘Thunderful World’! ːsteamhappyː Find out more in the following press release: Gothenburg, Sweden - October 28th, 2021 - International developer and publisher Thunderful Games, creator of the multi-award winning and multi-million selling SteamWorld franchise, is welcoming everyone to a new digital games showcase, ‘Thunderful World’. The event will be taking place on November 10th at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm GMT / 8pm CET, hosted by Hollywood and pop culture icon Mark Hamill. Tune in to the livestream on Twitch, YouTube and the thunderful.world website. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37569367/8a01bc9ec10d1ba6e674354314fd34accd1fbb51.png Tune in to see Mark delight us with a ton of exciting new game reveals and announcements from Thunderful. The event will deliver updates on exciting upcoming titles including the surprise indie hit of Summer Game Fest, Planet of Lana. There will also be more news on Thunderful titles like Firegirl, Cursed to Golf, Source of Madness, Tinkertown and White Shadows. Alongside Mark’s headline hosting role, the event will also feature appearances from Thunderful Group CEO Brjánn Sigurgeirsson, Corporate Vice President at Xbox Sarah Bond, plus a few other surprise industry partners. Thunderful is proud to be partnering with Xbox and The MIX for Thunderful World. To sign up for the event and be the first to know all the important information ahead of the show on November 10th, head over to thunderful.world. As your one stop shop for all things Thunderful World, the website will be updated with new announcements and reveals as the event unfolds. Stay tuned and tune in on Nov 10th - see you all in the event! Your Thunderful Games-Team https://store.steampowered.com/app/827610/Dead_End_Job/
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• Announcements·27 Oct 2020Official

  Spooky new content: Get ready to fight the "Seven Deadly Sins"!

  {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/3608a1394a92b9494fe3a467762c9e9acfbc7992.jpg Hey there, Lock and load and get ready for the brand new "Seven Deadly Sins" update spooking from today on in Dead End Job! Grab your plasma blaster and your trusty vacuum pack and fight the seven deadly sins in blasting battles and unleash new powerful perks and incredible items. Check out: 8 new enemies! 7 new perks! 7 new pickups! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/8d5c56c91d3a828179918918a10b8df61e09722a.gif Thank you all very much for your ongoing feedback and support! Cheers! Tony https://store.steampowered.com/app/827610
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• Patch Notes·25 Feb 2020Official

  Fresh Update brings Fixes and Items!

  {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/43a75bbb2294a2abf688acd6cfdd4a474d605ee6.jpg Hey there, it’s Tony from Ant Workshop again! We've prepared the first update to Dead End Job which fixes several issues you've brought up since the launch of the game. Our goal is to provide the best possible experience so all feedback is appreciated! This update has a bunch of improvements and fixes: The Music Man achievement triggers correctly Linux players can watch the intro sequence now Fixed being able to double trigger promotions Fixed the Knife Knight from turtling a lot in certain circumstances You can adjust the sensitivity of aim assist, and it defaults to off You have to option to replay tutorial messages, in case you forget how to bust ghosts Some really boring minor tweaks to some kitchen furniture To stop the patch just being a load of dull bugfixes we've also added 10 new items to the game in what we're calling the "Snacks & Attacks" update! This is a bunch of new stuff to eat and blast ghosts with, like a Chocolate Biscuit, Boxing Gloves and Toy Gun. But hey, I don't want to spoil too much here so update the game and find out for yourself. ːsteamhappyː Thank you all very much for your ongoing feedback and support! Cheers! Tony https://store.steampowered.com/app/827610
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• Announcements·13 Dec 2019Official

  Hate ghosts? Dead End Job's bustin out today!

  {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/08f0210d37af2677e9a66fdef2de9bd5f0d7d4ac.png Hey there, it’s Tony from Ant Workshop again! I have some pretty bad news for all you ghosts out there (but great news for everybody else): Dead End Job is available on Steam right here and right now! ːsteamhappyː Take on the role of Hector Plasm and get yourself into a madcap, Ren & Stimpy-esque world to bust up ghosts. Dead End Job is a procedurally generated, couch co-op, twin-stick shooter that straps a vacuum pack to your back and puts a plasma blaster in your hand! Wanna see some ghost blastin' action? Take a look on top of the Steam page and watch Colesy Twitch|Twitter] playing Dead End Job LIVE. Or get on eye (or two) an our brand new Launch trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-O0F5Ic59M See you all on your first day at Ghoul-B-Gone! Cheers! Tony https://store.steampowered.com/app/827610
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• Announcements·9 Dec 2019Official

  Makin' A Dead End Job 06: "May the Powerup be with you!"

  {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/08f0210d37af2677e9a66fdef2de9bd5f0d7d4ac.png Hello dear reader, and welcome to the last weekly developer article. I wanted to spend this update writing about the ways that you can make your life easier in Dead End Job, and some of the fun trinkets you can find lying around the locations you bust ghosts. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/753574fe056d9e8a18282640c47108dd81246cff.gif Just like in real life, the main way that you can make things easier for yourself is by getting promoted, and in Dead End Job this happens whenever you catch enough ghosts. Along with your new job title a promotion also brings the opportunity to pick one of three randomly chosen perks. We didn’t want to show players a big skill tree and allow them to have total choice over how their character build progresses, for two reasons. First, in that situation people will usually figure out an optimal configuration and a whole lot of options will get ignored from that point forward. And secondly, looking through all of the options and making the choices would slow the game down, whereas showing just three choices keeps things nice and snappy. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/ef927ac3b8755571c86175b262ae1848072374ab.jpg So this method encourages playing with different power ups, while still allowing you some choice over your build. Some perks also lock out others from being available - for example poison shots & cold shots can’t be chosen on the same build. We found that some combinations, like bouncy shots and multiple shots, were very funny but totally broke the game with how overpowered they were! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32437501/312c094a6164c11d1d9c3181320cdd08a9de6110.jpg Not all perks affect your guns, and some of my favourites affect the game in other ways. For example, Verbal Warning gets you a free pass from HR, so you get to keep all of your other perks if you happen to get demoted. This is a super useful one! King of Combo gives an increasing bonus for capturing ghosts within ...
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