Silent Hill: Townfall has certainly managed to leave a mark on the horror genre since it dropped earlier this year.
Its take on the franchise’s formula is unique, giving nuance and subtle melancholy to Simon’s story with its examinations of corporate greed and apathy, and their effects on local populations. VGC reports on a recent panel with Screen Burn founder and game director Jonn McKellan at MCM London Comic Con that shed light on how Konami went to extraordinary lengths to keep the multiple Silent Hill projects in development separate from each other.
Speaking about Townfall being revealed alongside Silent Hill f, Ascension, and Silent Hill 2 remake, McKellan said that the team found out about the other games “when everyone else did”, and that Konami wouldn’t intervene too much on projects unless the overlap with another concurrently developing title was significant enough to warrant it. That’s a balanced approach that has clearly paid dividends for the two studios and us, the players, as Townfall recently celebrated its positive critical reception with an accolades trailer.
Given the franchise’s turbulent history in the years preceding its recent strong offerings, we’d say that Konami erred on the side of caution, and that it was probably prudent to do so given its effort to bring Silent Hill back to its former prominence in the psychological horror space in modern gaming.
