It will be inspired by the subgenre ‘game of death’.
Keiichiro Toyama – Silent Hill creator and director, Siren, Gravity Rush and more – sparked his new studio’s next horror project, sharing some tantalizing hints and some appropriately unnerving concept art in a new developer video.
Toyama, you may recall, left SCE Japan Studio (where he worked for over 20 years) in late 2020, announcing his new company, Bokeh Game Studio, at the same time.
Bokeh is also home to several other former students of SCE Japan Studio – including Gravity Rush chief designer Junya Okura and Kazunobu Sato, who worked on The Last Guardian and Puppeteer – and the team’s first project will see Toyama returning to his roots of terror.
Focus – Keiichiro Toyama.
Toyama shares some insights into this as-yet-unnamed project in a newly released promotional video for Bokeh, explaining: “My view of horror is everyday life being shaken. Instead of showing scary things, you should question our position, make us challenge the fact that we live peacefully … I would like that to be the theme of my next game. “
However, instead of focusing on pure terror, Toyama says he wants to keep elements of the genre while making participants “feel excited about playing”. To that end, he is drawing inspiration from the popular subgenre ‘game of death’, which he usually reads and likes.
“These works tend to add entertainment to somewhat brutal worlds,” he explains. “You have these normal people driven into irrational situations. They are on edge emotionally, while dealing with action or drama. It influenced me and I think it will appear in my next game.”
That’s all the information that Toyama is apparently willing to share at the moment, but the video covers a number of other topics, while also offering a series of striking concept art images, ranging from strange insect-like creatures inhabiting human flesh to faces frighteningly fragmented other oscillating horrors. In other words, it’s worth checking out if you want some initial tips on where Toyama’s imagination can take you – and us – next.