James GordanKeichiro Toyama, who worked on Silent Hill, (Forbidden) Siren and Gravity Rush, revealed more details about his next game.
Last year, Toyama left Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio to establish his own studio, Bokeh Game Studio. He is the CEO and creative director and in the following video he reveals more details about his next project and shows some artistic concepts for it. As a gamer, I’ve always loved games. I’ve been playing since I was a kid. Surprisingly, I never thought of making it my profession. I went to art school, which was around the time 3D games came out. The video game industry is increasingly interested in young people. At that moment I realized that I could think about becoming a designer. It surprised me, but it came naturally, he says of his passion for game development.
I founded Bokeh Game Studio to continue developing games in my style. Games have become increasingly important in recent years. The audience has grown, especially for companies like Sony, where I’ve been before. But instead of reaching the widest possible audience, my games somehow choose their own audience. They have these strange ideas, they definitely leave traces. I try to make IPs that fans can still enjoy ten or twenty years after release. Since I want to continue doing this under good conditions, I felt the need to have my own studio, said Toyama, who explained why he started his own business.
He also talked about his next title: As for our first game, I have a few tips for my work. What I recorded is pretty dark, very far from my recent songs. It’s like a return to the roots, like horror. My ideas were starting to go in that direction. Here, I’ll take my first title. But I don’t want a deep-seated horror story, I want to keep it on an entertaining note. By making sure the elements are not scary, I want the player to feel excited during the game.
My idea of horror is that everyday life is shattered. Instead of showing frightening things, it should challenge our position and make us question the fact that we are at peace. This is the kind of thinking I like to bring to my concepts. I want that to be the theme of my next game. I often read comics as a form of entertainment, lately there has been a trend towards the content death game. These works usually provide entertainment to somewhat violent worlds. I love these works and I read them often. Of course I chose that approach. These normal people are pushed into irrational situations. They are emotionally on edge, for action or drama. It touched me, and I think it will be featured in my next game.
One of the features of my games is the setting, the town or village we develop in, how the people get there, what their emotional state is. That’s how I approach games. This time, I was also inspired by the place, so I started there. I’m on the cards and trying different methods to create the parameters. One of the triggers was a trip I took in my spare time. My family and I were in this city in Asia. This dynamic was inherent in Asian cities, which retained a touch of exoticism combined with a sense of modernity. I began to imagine an environment that held this sense of evolution and the energy of people. I thought it was a good theme to include in my game, Toyama said.
He also explained why photography is important to him: The motivation behind photography is to find a way to capture the emotions I feel. In high school, I focused more on analog videography. I would chop up pieces of our daily lives. The photos look like a time machine with which one can go back in time to a certain point in time. I love the nostalgia they instill in you. I make sure to capture those moments, it makes me feel good. That’s why, even now, I always have my camera with me.
Making games is a group activity, we make them together in the workshop. I like it. But on the contrary, if I want to express the emotions I carry within me, I want to create a new work as part of my daily life, but that can be very difficult. Photography is the only way I can easily express my interpretation of the world. You can also feel the changing times. I realize how differently I saw the world just a few years ago. This is especially evident with colors. For me, it’s a way to cope with the world on my own. Photography is good for making games or other group activities like this my own axis, he added.
He is a true artist in the field of video and conceptual art. They will make you look odd, but you might get used to them at first glance.
Source : Gematsu
James Gordan