Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

GameShark have posted up a new interview with Tomm Hulett, producer of the up-and-coming and eagerly-anticipated Silent Hill Shattered Memories. After months of speculation about the game’s mysterious in-game psychological profiling, Hulett answers some questions (albeit vaguely on occasion) about this new approach to survival horror.

“You shouldn’t think of [the psych profiling] like one decision affecting something else,” Hulett says. “This isn’t about helping a young prince in the past and then inheriting his kingdom when you come of age or anything like that. The game watches everything you do, and learns what kind of person you are. Past games taught us that Silent Hill reflects the inner mind of each person – so that’s what the psych profile does. This time Silent Hill is looking back at you, rather than James Sunderland, Walter Sullivan, etc. In demos you’ve seen that hallway with a sign at one end pointing toward the exit (left) and the restrooms (right). Well Silent Hill knows which way you turn, and if you go right, which restroom you go into.”

That’s quite a claim from a game that starts with a brief questionnaire during a chat with your friendly psychiatrist. Do you role-sex during sex? Do you make friends easily? Have you ever been unfaithful? And rather have your answers dictate a static pathway through the game from very early on, instead you’ll find that the seemingly inconsequential decisions you make as a player will dramatically change the landscape of the Silent Hill you’re trapped within … from the appearance of the creatures that pursue you to the behaviour of the other characters around you.

I know. Impressive … well, on paper, in any case.

For more of the interview, and information on the release date and bonus pre-order giftage, join me after the cut.

But what about horror in general? What does Shattered Memories have that other survival horror games don’t?

“When horror games were feeling things out, there was a wide range of “feelings,” just like in horror films,” Hulett explains. “You had your dumb zombie flicks, your slower burn horror, your slasher flicks, etc. Well, as I said, I think the focus now is on action. The games stopped being scary (because of their conventions) and so they changed from scary games into gorefests modeled after zombie movies (marines with big guns shoot slow, ugly monsters). There are some exceptions, of course, but there aren’t many horror games that let the atmosphere work on you and cause that unease that was a big part of the first Silent Hill games.”

“This project came more from realizing that within the “Survival Horror Framework” there isn’t anywhere to go. The reason a lot of titles are now focusing on action rather than psychological horror is because that formula stopped being scary. You can’t scare someone with the same thing four times. This genre more than a lot of others has “set rules” that the games seem to think they have to follow. For Shattered Memories we stepped back and thought, if we didn’t know we had to do all these things… what would we do instead? What would a “horror game” look like today if the genre never existed? That game is Shattered Memories.”

Convinced? I am. The release date has been pushed back a few days to 3 November (although it’s still presently listed as October 30 in the UK) but don’t let that put you off. If you’re in the States and pre-order with GameStop now, you’ll qualify for a free Silent Hill soundtrack featuring work from the awesome composer and series producer Akira Yamaoka. Unlike other promotions which have featured the original soundtrack to each game, this is instead a compilation CD featuring the best eighteen tracks from across the series.

I hope that the original OST will also hit shelves at some point, although to me the whole thing’s kinda moot, anyway; those of us outside the US have yet to see sight of any pre-order goodies. Sob.