Article/Silent Hill 1 Team Interview

Team interview from Gamer's Republic 08.

> The idea came from the corporate side, which thought they should make a horror game. They asked Mr. Toyama is he was interested in working on the project. At this time he didn’t know that much about horror, so he started his homework looking at what sort of horror people enjoyed, and found that modern horror was getting the most acceptance, and from there created the theme and storyline. He found out that most people enjoyed situation horror where you’d find yourself in a real-world type setting, but for some reason it’s different – real dark or real foggy. He wanted to build on these feelings by creating a “normal” American town, and create the horror image from there and build on it.
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> How large is the team working on Silent Hill?
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> At the largest point there were 20 people on this project, but the actual group that worked on the framework of the game was 7 to 10 people; the rest were designer assistants.
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> Is there any particular audience you had in mind for Silent Hill?
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> Stop with the trick questions, you know what audience we’re going after! [laughter] Putting aside the first BioHazard (Resident Evil), Biohazard 2 went very Hollywood-like, very action oriented. Instead of a horror game, it felt more like an action movie. With Silent Hill, we tried to go back to the roots of what horror is supposed to be about; we want to make you scared on the instinctive level.
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> So, do you envison people playing this game with the lights off?
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> No, we were kind of hoping to make it scary enough you would want to play Silent Hill during the daytime with all your lights on! [laughter]
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> How much gameplay does Silent Hill have?
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> This depends on how good people are at solving the puzzles, but it’s looking like 6 to 8 hours if you know exactly where to go and what to do. It should take a first-time player up to twice this length. There are also hidden secrets and bonuses when you beat the game, inspiring replay value.
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> Are there any other major characters in Silent Hill? Do you ever control any of them?
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> There are seven other main characters in the game, and while we can’t tell you much about them yet, let’s just say youll meet them many times throughout the game and discover their interesting backgrounds. No, you’ll never control anyone else.
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> Will there be different endings?
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> There will be one underlying story throughout the whole game, but there will be multiple endings: the good ending, the bad ending, and, if it comes down to it, dying and finishing off the game with another ending… sort of.
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> Have there been any difficulties with putting Silent Hill on the playstation, especially with the dynamic camera angles?
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> We had a few problems, mainly because there is no Z-buffering in the hardware itself, and when you start playing with the camera angles, the priorities change. In a normal action game, that isn’t a problem, because you don’t have to worry about the atmosphere too much. But in making a horror game, we wanted to make sure that atmosphere is preserved throughout the whole game – and that’s where the major problems came in with the camera angles.
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> Speaking of those camera angles, where did you get the idea to make them that dynamic? Are there any certain film directors you admire?
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> Not really. There’s nothing we’ve seen that’s really like this. Think of it as “Toyama-style”. When we were working on the concept of modern horror, we were trying to figure out how to give the game an “unabalanced-world” feeling. These camera angles seemed to fit best, as it gave the game a cinematic style.
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> This game seems to be very dependent on the flashlight? Can you ever lose it?
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> We were playing around with the flashlight in early versions of the game, thinking about letting you drop or lose it, but then we discovered it’s almost impossible to play Silent Hill without it; you would get lost in the dark. So, the flashlight itself cannot be taken away, but it still acts as a very dynamic part of the game. Many areas in Silent Hill are very dark, but that’s not to say you won’t want to turn it off in certain circumstances; the enemies have eyes and ears…
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> How many different weapons and items are in the game at this time?
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> When it comes down to it, there are very few weapons and items, because we want to keep the “real world” feeling. You might be able to find a shotgun or a handgun from a police officer, but that’s about it. You won’t find any Uzis lying on the ground.
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> Also, about the items, are you planning on incorporating their placement with the “Realistic” vision of the game? Will health items, for example, be in places you’d normally find them (first aid kits and such) or will they be scarrted around on the ground in random areaS?
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> We are planning on placing items where you’d expect to find them, but you must remember, this is a game… so they will be spread around liberally, as opposed to having specific spots where you have to travel to find. If you do that, the game becomes more of a mission to find items, and that’s not what we want the atmosphere of the game to reflect.
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> Can we expect random elements in the game? Will monsters always be in the same starting positions? Will items ever be in different locations?
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> AS a general rule, the game will be balanced the whole way through, so you can essentially expect the positions to always stay the same; there won’t be many random things that change every time you play. However, we will retain a few random elements to help give Silent Hill replay value.
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> Speaking of the enemies in Silent Hill, are you planning to give them any kind of basic AI? Will they adapt to your playing abilities? Are there any variables?
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> We have certainly thought about the balancing aspects, but we haven’t thought about it from the enemy perspective – rather more in the item area. We are planning on giving the player more ammo and such if he’s having trouble in the game.
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> Any plans to have Silent Hill utilize the Pocket Station?
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> For this product, no.
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> Even though I think we all know the answer, but just to get an official response: this version of Silent Hill is different than the one we saw at E3. Can you tell us why the changes were made? Was it to please the American market, or for the Japanese market as well?
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> The creatures of the game… are a difficult issue. We want to provide the consumers with a sense of horror, but not revulsion. There are images associated with horror that this company does not want to be associated with. This is a sensitive issue at any time, but more so recently… [Ed’s note: the version we saw at E3 had enemies that looked like skinned children. These have been changed into small demons.]
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> How far along is Silent Hill?
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> It is very hard to say what percentage the game is done. The base part is together and now it’s just up to them to put it together and flesh it out. If you had to put a number on it: 70 percent.
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> When can we actually expect to play Silent Hill?
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> We are planning to have the game ready by spring. The main thing is, we don’t want to have this project rushed. Silent Hill is very important to Konami, and we want it to be perfect. For the American release date, look for an announcement at E3.
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> ABOUT THE CG
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> Is the game broken up by FMV scenes?
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> There is about 10 minutes of rendered CG which includes the opening and ending. We won’t tell you the exact amount of cut scenes, but let’s just say they’re spread liberally throughout the game. Of course, there are many other major storyline events that are displayed in game graphics, and nearly all of these have voices (in English) to accompany them.
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> Is it true that all this CG was done by one person?
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> Yes!
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> Could you give us the average time it takes to render a minute of CG, from design to final product?
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> [Laughter] Um, I’ll let you do the math on this one: One second of rendering time takes 3 to 4 hours, but if you take the time it takes for the actual design, much longer. Let’s just say I haven’t slept much since I started work here…
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> When was that?
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> I joined the company three years ago, but didn’t start with the game until a year later, so that gives you an idea.
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> What kind of software/hardware was used for creating the CG?
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> The CG was created using Softimage 3D, and when I first started working on this project all I had was a single (Silicon Graphics) Indy 5000. Of course, after the company saw the amount of work I was doing, they bought me a much faster machine.
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