Bokeh Game Studio have released a new video centred on their upcoming Survival Horror title from Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama. Entitled “Focus”, the video features Bokeh’s COO and founder Kazunobu Sato talking about what the team has been working on, and the challenges involving the development of a new IP for a startup studio.
Before getting to the meat of the matter, Sato recalls his journey through game development, which culminated in his meeting with Toyama at Sony Computer Entertainment (where they worked on Siren). Fast forward to today, and the duo are working on the as-yet-untitled project.
Turning to the project, Sato admitted that when Toyama first told him about the project, Sato thought it was going to be terrible, but “in a good way”. He elaborated, saying that the game will require players to sacrifice in order to achieve their goals. It’s the “scale” of these sacrifices that make it “quite nasty”.
As such, Sato states that the game will “mess with the player’s mind” with its choices. It will challenge the player to second-guess their actions. “If we stick to that path, I believe that many players will enjoy the game.”
Interspersed throughout the video are motion-capture sessions, which hint that the game will include combat with swords and guns. Of course, that could all just be done for the video, just to mess with our heads. We’ll find out eventually.
The title is expected for a 2023 release on PC.