Interesting stuff in bold. Its good nevertheless.
Silent Hill Interview: Something Wicked this Way Comes
Jessica Chobot speaks with Konami's Akira Yamaoka about Silent Hill's past, present, and future.
by Jessica Chobot
February 8, 2006 - While all games elicit some sort of emotional response from the player, it's a select few that intertwine themselves directly with a gamer's psyche in an effort to get to the core of their innermost fears. Mention the town Silent Hill and images of hazy, abandoned streets riddled with demons and classrooms filled with ghostly children come to mind.
Fans follow the deeply disturbing yet profound storylines so intently that their devotion borders on zealotry. Play one game for fifteen minutes, and you'll quickly see why. Graphically, the series is an artistic gem and a shining example on how "dark" can also be beautiful. Horrendous demons are unlike anything in the "normal" world and yet look so undeniably human that it forces the player to question the moral actions of their character. Plot threads weave heroes and victims together within the morose history of the town and yet are so tenuous that one hardly notices them until the entire group is looked at as a whole.
It's the whisp of a paper thin veil that, for a few moments, flutters out of the way just enough to allow the protagonists of Silent Hill to unintentionally stumble into Hell which captures the imagination of gamers the world over.
Recently, I had a chance to interview Konami's Akira Yamaoka, long time producer and composer on the series, about Silent Hill's past, present and future.
Insider: Silent Hill has quite an extensive and intricate back story, even the most insignificant items are found to be rife with meaning... can you give me a little of the history of Silent Hill? Where did the development team get their inspiration from? How did the series receive its name?
Akira Yamaoka: We wanted to create a horror game very unique from the existing video games at the time and that is how Silent Hill was born. We were inspired by the type of horror as seen in works of Steven King or David Lynch.
While there are several episodes about how we came up with this title, the general idea was to try and think of a "likely" name for a town in the rural parts of America
Insider: Each game hints at a different location in which SH is located (Michigan, New England, California, etc..), where is the "official" location of Silent Hill?
Akira Yamaoka: There is no exact location for Silent Hill. We visited several parts of America to do research for the development so I would say that Silent Hill would be a mixture of towns in America
Insider: Is the cult/religion within Silent Hill based on a specific cult/religion found in the "real world"?
Akira Yamaoka: This is all fiction. It is more of a delusion that the characters of Silent Hill created themselves.
Insider: Many have spoken about the psychological aspects of Silent Hill. Everything from misguided madness to drug induced hallucinations to self-inflicted masochism. How significant was the role that the science of psychology played within the series development?
Akira Yamaoka: The script writer has read a lot of Dostoevsky. He was reading sophisticated books from "Crime and Punishment" to easier psychological books published for the general public. Actually, what were written in these books were issues that we face in everyday life.
Anger, sadness, horror that we face everyday was explained in a more academic manner.
I believe that it will be difficult for the players to understand if we try to implement psychological science in full depth, so it did not have a big influence to the actual development of the game. However, the works of Dostoevsky has helped to express the human emotions from a depth psychology aspect in the game.
Insider: White Claudia (along with the drug: PTV- a derivative of White Claudia) has a distinctive role within all four Silent Hills (a local plant with powerful hallucinogenic effects)...What connection does the drug have to the characters within the Silent Hill world? Is the entire town a hallucination? Is everyone in SH really on one massively bad trip?
Akira Yamaoka: This is a very good point! We stayed away from "drugs" due to this being a video game, but we tried to implement a feel of a world based on delusion. Silent Hill is a town where "sadness" gathers. If an individual has sadness, they will have a "bad trip" in this town. So the characters that appear in Silent Hill all have"sadness" within them.
Insider: Out of the four games we have now, SH 2 seems to be the one that is the most "independent" of the series, while SH 1, 3 & 4 seem to all follow a common storyline. Why is that? Will future versions of the game tie SH 2 more significantly in with the rest of the series?
Akira Yamaoka: Yes, SH 2 has a different taste. The theme itself was changed deliberately. Please keep a close eye on the progression of the SH series and maybe you will find the answer to this question some day soon!
Insider: With all the main characters in the series (thus far) being male, what inspired the designers for SH 3 to create a female protagonist (Heather Mason)? Will future visitations to SH bring us more female lead roles?
Akira Yamaoka: We tried to expand the atmosphere and fidelity. We wanted our players to feel a feminine type of "fear" or emotion that a female character will more likely encounter.
Insider: In Japan, a Silent Hill play novel was released-any intention on translating it and bringing it to the states?
Akira Yamaoka: We do not have plans at this time to bring that title to the U.S.
Insider: Will you be checking out the Silent Hill movie when it's released?
Akira Yamaoka: Yes, most definitely. Actually, I am working on the music for the film so I had to watch!
Silent Hill Interview: Something Wicked this Way Comes
Jessica Chobot speaks with Konami's Akira Yamaoka about Silent Hill's past, present, and future.
by Jessica Chobot
February 8, 2006 - While all games elicit some sort of emotional response from the player, it's a select few that intertwine themselves directly with a gamer's psyche in an effort to get to the core of their innermost fears. Mention the town Silent Hill and images of hazy, abandoned streets riddled with demons and classrooms filled with ghostly children come to mind.
Fans follow the deeply disturbing yet profound storylines so intently that their devotion borders on zealotry. Play one game for fifteen minutes, and you'll quickly see why. Graphically, the series is an artistic gem and a shining example on how "dark" can also be beautiful. Horrendous demons are unlike anything in the "normal" world and yet look so undeniably human that it forces the player to question the moral actions of their character. Plot threads weave heroes and victims together within the morose history of the town and yet are so tenuous that one hardly notices them until the entire group is looked at as a whole.
It's the whisp of a paper thin veil that, for a few moments, flutters out of the way just enough to allow the protagonists of Silent Hill to unintentionally stumble into Hell which captures the imagination of gamers the world over.
Recently, I had a chance to interview Konami's Akira Yamaoka, long time producer and composer on the series, about Silent Hill's past, present and future.
Insider: Silent Hill has quite an extensive and intricate back story, even the most insignificant items are found to be rife with meaning... can you give me a little of the history of Silent Hill? Where did the development team get their inspiration from? How did the series receive its name?
Akira Yamaoka: We wanted to create a horror game very unique from the existing video games at the time and that is how Silent Hill was born. We were inspired by the type of horror as seen in works of Steven King or David Lynch.
While there are several episodes about how we came up with this title, the general idea was to try and think of a "likely" name for a town in the rural parts of America
Insider: Each game hints at a different location in which SH is located (Michigan, New England, California, etc..), where is the "official" location of Silent Hill?
Akira Yamaoka: There is no exact location for Silent Hill. We visited several parts of America to do research for the development so I would say that Silent Hill would be a mixture of towns in America
Insider: Is the cult/religion within Silent Hill based on a specific cult/religion found in the "real world"?
Akira Yamaoka: This is all fiction. It is more of a delusion that the characters of Silent Hill created themselves.
Insider: Many have spoken about the psychological aspects of Silent Hill. Everything from misguided madness to drug induced hallucinations to self-inflicted masochism. How significant was the role that the science of psychology played within the series development?
Akira Yamaoka: The script writer has read a lot of Dostoevsky. He was reading sophisticated books from "Crime and Punishment" to easier psychological books published for the general public. Actually, what were written in these books were issues that we face in everyday life.
Anger, sadness, horror that we face everyday was explained in a more academic manner.
I believe that it will be difficult for the players to understand if we try to implement psychological science in full depth, so it did not have a big influence to the actual development of the game. However, the works of Dostoevsky has helped to express the human emotions from a depth psychology aspect in the game.
Insider: White Claudia (along with the drug: PTV- a derivative of White Claudia) has a distinctive role within all four Silent Hills (a local plant with powerful hallucinogenic effects)...What connection does the drug have to the characters within the Silent Hill world? Is the entire town a hallucination? Is everyone in SH really on one massively bad trip?
Akira Yamaoka: This is a very good point! We stayed away from "drugs" due to this being a video game, but we tried to implement a feel of a world based on delusion. Silent Hill is a town where "sadness" gathers. If an individual has sadness, they will have a "bad trip" in this town. So the characters that appear in Silent Hill all have"sadness" within them.
Insider: Out of the four games we have now, SH 2 seems to be the one that is the most "independent" of the series, while SH 1, 3 & 4 seem to all follow a common storyline. Why is that? Will future versions of the game tie SH 2 more significantly in with the rest of the series?
Akira Yamaoka: Yes, SH 2 has a different taste. The theme itself was changed deliberately. Please keep a close eye on the progression of the SH series and maybe you will find the answer to this question some day soon!
Insider: With all the main characters in the series (thus far) being male, what inspired the designers for SH 3 to create a female protagonist (Heather Mason)? Will future visitations to SH bring us more female lead roles?
Akira Yamaoka: We tried to expand the atmosphere and fidelity. We wanted our players to feel a feminine type of "fear" or emotion that a female character will more likely encounter.
Insider: In Japan, a Silent Hill play novel was released-any intention on translating it and bringing it to the states?
Akira Yamaoka: We do not have plans at this time to bring that title to the U.S.
Insider: Will you be checking out the Silent Hill movie when it's released?
Akira Yamaoka: Yes, most definitely. Actually, I am working on the music for the film so I had to watch!
