{"id":409814,"date":"2022-02-25T17:28:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T14:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/bokeh-game-studio-founders-qa-video-part-one-slitterhead-inspirations-creatures-combat-and-more\/"},"modified":"2022-02-25T17:28:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T14:28:53","slug":"bokeh-game-studio-founders-qa-video-part-one-slitterhead-inspirations-creatures-combat-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bokeh-game-studio-founders-qa-video-part-one-slitterhead-inspirations-creatures-combat-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"#\r\n Bokeh Game Studio founders Q&A video part one \u2013 Slitterhead inspirations, creatures, combat, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#
\n Bokeh Game<\/a> Studio founders Q&A video part one \u2013 Slitterhead inspirations, creatures, combat, and more <\/strong>”
\nBokeh Game Studio has released the first part of a question-and-answers session with the founders, featuring CEO and creator Keiichiro Toyama, CTO and game director Junya Okura, and COO and producer Kazunobu Sato. <\/p>\n

In the interview, the creators discuss their inspirations for the December 2021-announced Slitterhead<\/em>, gameplay, inspirations, download<\/a>able content, indie life, creatures, combat, and more.<\/p>\n

Get the full interview video and transcript below. Part two will be available on March 4.<\/p>\n

What were your inspirations for the creation of Slitterhead?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keiichiro Toyama, Creative Director:<\/strong> \u201cA first aspect is the energy I felt from Hong Kong as a city. Another one comes from what we\u2019ve created in the past with Forbidden Siren<\/em>. I started to wonder what could happen if we reinterpreted that concept. These were my two big inspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you balance between horror and action gameplay? What is the main point of the game? What is the scale of the game\u2019s world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cMy first thought would be that the game doesn\u2019t fully enter the horror genre. It spans over multiple genres where horror is expressed. From there, I wanted to widen the player base who could access the game, including players who don\u2019t usually play horror games. I wanted a game that could be enjoyed for its action, yet whose concept doesn\u2019t solely revolve around killing enemies. It conflicts the mind, making the players reluctant to enter certain fights. I want to achieve both action and drama with this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will the game be third-person?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Junya Okura, Game Director:<\/strong> \u201cThe game will indeed be third-person. Do you have something to add to this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cWe had multiple choices to begin with. Ultimately, the team includes members who have worked with us on Gravity Rush<\/em>, so we wanted to leverage their skills, which is why we decided to pursue third-person action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Slitterhead<\/em> adopt multiple points of view like your previous games?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cThe question is somewhat abstract. Forbidden Siren<\/em> had the sight-jack mechanic, a literal way to go through another point of view. There were also multiple playable characters who brought their perspective to the story, so I feel there are multiple layers to this question. Nevertheless, I believe this is an aspect that I am comfortable with. I believe that I naturally tend to go towards that direction. It\u2019s also present in the game, so please look forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Slitterhead<\/em> become Bokeh Game Studio\u2019s first project? Will you try making experimental downloadable content like you did with Gravity Rush 2<\/em>\u2018s \u2018The Ark of Time\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cWe wanted to build our own studio and had some sort of a plan. There were other ideas. I had written down a few concepts. I had about four or five at first that I\u2019ve shown to these two and asked for their opinion. We narrowed it down to two or three and ultimately ended up with the base for Slitterhead<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kazunobu Sato, Producer:<\/strong> \u201cThis leads us to the answer to the next question as well. Scale-wise, Slitterhead<\/em> felt like the closest to what we had previously made so far, so the decision also took into account the fact that we were just building our studio. It\u2019s close to what we\u2019ve done before, but it\u2019s not the same. We\u2019re controlling our budget and narrowing it to a more compact scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about downloadable content?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cThe question refers to Gravity Rush<\/em> and one of its downloadable contents that had a standalone story. I believe that\u2019s what the question means by experimental. In the end, everything we make is experimental. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a way to make things more easily, that\u2019s the case now as well. Why do we end up always trying to make things we\u2019ve never done before. That\u2019s a hassle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okura:<\/strong> \u201cDon\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cHassle is not the word for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okura:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s just that there\u2019s no point in imitating something that\u2019s been already made. In the end we end up trying new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okura:<\/strong> \u201cIt starts up with us getting excited because it\u2019s new. We want to make strange things, in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cThat\u2019s why we can\u2019t really say anything about a downloadable content right now. We need to finish the main game first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on the main game and think sequel or downloadable content, but we first need to achieve a strong main game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cAdding on to this, back in the day these decisions needed to get approval from Sony. In our current state, if it\u2019s fun we can just go ahead and make it, so if the demand is big enough, it\u2019s easier for us to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the difference you feel in your work from working with big publishers and going indie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okura:<\/strong> \u201cWe can make anything by ourselves. Alternately, nothing moves if we don\u2019t make things. We\u2019re indeed free, but it involves self-responsibility. It\u2019s enjoyable though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cIn a sense, the difference is so big that I wouldn\u2019t know where to start. However, the process of creating a game doesn\u2019t change that much. Everything that revolves around that is different though. For this, it doesn\u2019t mean that working for a publisher is better. There\u2019s a difference in the decision process. Okura pointed out the responsibility aspect as well. Overall we have a different sense of speed which is fulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cAs we\u2019re now working with a minimal organizational structure, things move tremendously fast in how we take decisions. A difference is definitely that we can immedia<\/a>tely act the way we want to, however, I don\u2019t want to make it sound that it\u2019s all positive. There are difficult aspects or decisions to make, some for which you used to have someone else in the organization cover for you but that you now have to do yourself. It\u2019s a heavy responsibility that comes to counterbalance that freedom. Still, it\u2019s something that we enjoy at the moment. There are some similarities to some of the decisions we used to take when we were young. However, the scope of responsibilities is now much larger. Still, it feels both new and nostalgic in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are plenty of books in the studio\u2019s library. Did these books influence the team\u2019s previous works? Is there a specific concept to it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cI want to gather documents that inspire our work. I don\u2019t know how yet, but ultimately I want players to be able to visit this spot someday, so I also take this into account. However, there are also some books from my house\u2019s bookshelves. These days, I often bring books back to the studio, mostly comics, that influenced Slitterhead<\/em>. In that sense, I want people to be interested and look into them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In your \u201cA New Chapter\u201d video, the three of you discussed the good time sof making SIREN<\/em> and how you wanted to replicate them. How are you concretely working on that one year later?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cWe usually begin our games by going on a field research trip<\/a>. However, we unfortunately couldn\u2019t this time due to the pandemic. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

Okura:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s been more than a decade since Forbidden Siren<\/em>. Still, it\u2019s not like we\u2019re in a \u2018New Game Plus\u2019 where we start with all the experience we\u2019ve acquired until now. There were some challenges that we\u2019ve faced back then. There definitely were as we tried new things on Siren. Right now, we\u2019re facing challenges all the same, as we try again to come up with something new. As a result, we\u2019re recreating that same feeling. Still, we\u2019re making efforts and we\u2019re having fun in multiple aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cIf we were to look for the same things that in the old days\u2026 Compared to before, we feel more pressure in doing a good job. We anticipate more in order not to waste resources. The budgets are very different than what they used to be. Many of us are not ready to jump the gun just for fun. We have families and responsibilities that come with that, meaning that we can\u2019t fail. There\u2019s a sense of responsibility that we have, still we start by exposing the fun things that we want to make. This is not formal, but now that we\u2019re here it\u2019s just saying what we want to do. There\u2019s that openness where everyone goes all in. It feels like before, although it doesn\u2019t make things easy. Still, that type of thing is similar to the past and I enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cWe still fight over things too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cRight, but we fight like adults now. We don\u2019t go screaming around how \u2018we hate that guy!\u2019, like we used to in our twenties. Right now it\u2019s more: \u2018Are you sure about that?\u2019 We tend to be more delicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cIt depends on people I guess\u2026 from the sidelines it looks the same though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cIt used to be wild\u2026 We would burst in meetings saying: \u2018I can\u2019t work with you anymore!\u2019 then going \u2018let\u2019s go get drunk\u2019 right after. We\u2019re not in these extremes anymore. Still, we say what we have to say in order to end up understanding each other. I like that we\u2019re still being straight on things.\u201d<\/p>\n

What led you to take the \u201cIegozu\u201d creatures as a model for the game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cRight, this clearly comes as a base to build the game\u2019s foundation. How to put it\u2026 Simply put, I wanted a game where monsters could eat up humans. Still, I felt things you would often see like zombies or flesh-eating creatures wouldn\u2019t be fun, so I proceeded to research for other types of creatures. This is where I stumbled upon the \u2018Iegozu,\u2019 a creature that eats up brains. I didn\u2019t even know how to pronounce it first. Still, I found the idea of a brain-eating creature to be interesting. I took this as base inspiration to start working on the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

What type of combat will we see in the game? The trailer seemed to show some interesting components such as melee or firearms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okura:<\/strong> \u201cFor combat, there are elements that many players are already experienced with. However, as Toyama pointed out, there are multiple new aspects that we want to pursue. I agree in how we want to make something that wasn\u2019t made before. We want to make the players surprised upon discovering them. I want to include aspects that will feel completely new to the player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will you still make games with psychological deepness and odd plots like works by David Lynch? How do you plan to approach psychological horror in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> I want someday to do something with some classic psychological horror themes like I did with Silent Hill<\/em>. However, I\u2019d rather do that when working with really limited resources, such as budget or having to focus on one individual. Right now, we have staff with the ability to work on action. I want to leverage their skills to go in another direction. Still, I also want to make something more personal someday.\u201d<\/p>\n

I like horror games where not moving forward makes the situation even worse, with a somewhat unreasonable level of difficulty. Do you plan on creating that experience in Slitterhead<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Okura:<\/strong> \u201cHow to answer this one\u2026 As it\u2019s been mentioned, we also want to focus on entertainment rather than plain horror, so I don\u2019t think there will be parts so scary that the player can\u2019t go forward. Still, there is a terror aspect that I want to include even if the game lays more towards action. There are some slow and fast moments as well. I\u2019d like to include some horror elements in the slower parts, balancing with the frenzy action moments. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cI personally don\u2019t want to create horror by having an unreasonable level of difficulty. It\u2019s more about the conflict of the mind, whether one should or shouldn\u2019t do a certain action. This is more the theme that I want to be challenging this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Slitterhead<\/em> getting a physical release? To Keiichiro Toyama: I\u2019m curious to know if you played the Silent Hill<\/em> games that came out after the first one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cOf course we want to release the game on disc, ideally launch it with a collector\u2019s edition. Right, there\u2019s a special feeling that we have for physical formats. How about the games you played?\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cRight, Silent Hill<\/em>. I obviously played the first games. However, many games ended up being released, including on mobile. I can\u2019t say that I have played all of them. I have played the main games though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there anything from working on Gravity Rush<\/em> especially that inspired Slitterhead<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cRight, this game is in a way a compilation of all of my past experiences. We\u2019ve been openly talking about action. For this part, we\u2019re taking into account the feedback we\u2019ve received on Gravity Rush<\/em>. Other aspects, such as the action leveraging the height of buildings, are leveraging our know-how from Gravity Rush<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will the game have a sequel if it succeeds or will you pursue another original game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cWe have to succeed first\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cRight, I\u2019d like to think of that once we\u2019ve succeeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sato:<\/strong> \u201cStill, I believe that we\u2019ll end up prioritizing and what we will want to do at that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyama:<\/strong> \u201cThere are still many things that we want to do that are in the game. For some others we start saying from time to time that we\u2019ll add them in the sequel. Still, I believe the first game\u2019s impact is what\u2019s important, so I want to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“# Bokeh Game Studio founders Q&A video part one \u2013 Slitterhead inspirations, creatures, combat, and more ” Bokeh Game Studio has released the first part of a question-and-answers session with the founders, featuring CEO and creator Keiichiro Toyama, CTO and game director Junya Okura, and COO and producer Kazunobu Sato. In the interview, the creators…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":409815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Slitterhead-Interview_02-25-22.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}