With Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team Is Entering a New ‘Phase’ of Its Existence as a Horror Developer
Eight years after Bloober Team was officially known as a horror game developer, the studio is gearing up for another shift, and one that’s certainly less radical. We want our games to start competing with industry giants in horror and adjacent genres like Resident Evil, The Last of Us, and Hellblade, and we’re starting with the Silent Hill 2 remake.
Speaking to IGN at DICE Summit 2023, Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno says he wants to change the way stories are told. He wants to go beyond games that rely on simple mechanics commonly found in “walking simulator” games. Babieno admits that the term still attracts undeserved derision from viewers of the game.
Instead, he hopes Bloober will create a game at the level of other giants in the horror genre, with greater scope and more complex and complex gameplay mechanics. He wants Bloober to be known as the studio that defines the future of video game horror. Especially as we observe that more and more people are turning to horror in search of catharsis in the midst of increasingly chaotic and frightening real-world events.
“We still want to make meaningful games. We want to keep our DNA alive. [stories] About what’s important to us,” he says. “But it appeals to more people because of its full action rather than environmental storytelling. I think that’s why we chose Silent Hill.”
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Babieno asks if the studio’s remake of Silent Hill 2 means Bloober will replace Konami and continue the Silent Hill franchise with more titles in the future. Bloober said he was interested in, and “never say never”, but Bloober insists that for now his focus is on a secret project with Silent Hill 2 and Private Division. , he made a point of defending Konami a bit, noting that the publisher has received the ire of many audiences over the years following incidents such as: Hideo Kojima’s controversial departure and related reports inhumane work cultureand an overall decline in the number of releases in recent years, especially among the most beloved IPs.
“The people who are currently in charge of Konami Gaming can’t give you all the details, of course, but I think they understand how the game works,” says Bavieno. “They come from a company that has worked on many great projects and I am confident they are making great choices in choosing partners and choosing projects … and how people react to what happened. I understand you’re a little mad at Konami, they know what they’re doing, so give them time.
1-2-3-blobber
Babieno says that this shift in how horror is viewed Bloober Team effectively wants to start a new “phase” in a sort of studio life. He’s calling it “Bloober 3.0,” and while he won’t be throwing his party or making any big announcements when it launches, there’s a big shift in how Bloober Team makes Psycho-His horror games going forward. Quietly hoping to be seen.
Babieno first describes the idea of Bloober 3.0 by going back to when the Bloober team first believed they moved from “1.0” to “2.0”. He recalls making “every possible mistake” when the studio first started in his 2008.
“I micromanaged at first. I made a lot of mistakes with the choices I made on the project,” he says. “And in the beginning, we thought about our shareholders. They were investors in our company, so we tried to make them happy. We followed their needs.”
“We woke up in 2014 when we launched Basement Crawl, which was the worst game on PlayStation at the time. [making games], we need to focus on something we want to offer to gamers. ”
This is why Bloober Team is a big return to the original horror genre. It was formerly part of a studio called Nibris, which worked on a number of canceled Nintendo DS and Wii horror games. The studio considered changing the name to something “darker and more meaningful” as it transitioned its portfolio, but decided to keep the name Bloober Team in order to own its history and mistakes. selected.
There have also been cultural shifts, Babieno says, especially in his own way of working. Babieno, he says, made an effort to stop micromanaging the project or getting involved as a producer. He instead assumed a top-level leadership role where he provided overall guidance, provided resources, and sought to trust the team’s experts. He’s happy with how things are going so far, noting that the studio has a very low turnover rate and is furiously avoiding layoffs amid a surge in job cuts across the industry.
forever independent
Bloober’s recent history has involved a variety of publishing and IP partners, and it looks ripe for an acquisition. But Babieno has had many conversations with potential partners, and while a dedicated horror studio is a desirable prospect, Bloober is adamant that Bloober isn’t the studio he’s interested in acquiring.Member of Bloober Team Other than that, he wants to remain independent because he doesn’t want studios to define the kind of games they make.
“If we have someone [acquires us]and perhaps one day they will make a decision. [different] project”, and I don’t want to. I think people from Poland and other big studios abroad want to be part of the creative process. So my goal is to be independent. We have updated our strategic options and have decided to go independent as a company. ”
For Babieno, Bloober 3.0 is a long-term vision of the future. Psycho He conceived and created a horror game internally, focused on giving a lot of people a buzz and defining the future of the genre. And most importantly, we want to make games that make players ponder what they’ve been through long after they’ve put down their controllers.
“Our idea is to make games that influence you to understand more about yourself, not necessarily about our characters, not necessarily about the universe we’re creating,” he said. says, “The choices the game offers make me think, ‘I [a certain kind of] Man? Why did I make this choice and not the other? Is there something wrong with me? The moral conflict found in the best games is never done by a human being more than once. [in their real lives]. Usually not. However, playing games gives you the opportunity to check yourself, so you can understand yourself and others better.
Interviewee responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.
