Interview: Konami Envisions Silent Hill Like a Premium TV Series With Various Game Formats

Silent Hill’s recent revival has allowed very different development teams to reinterpret the psychological horror series through new countries, characters, mechanics, and perspectives. Rather than connecting every project through a shared storyline, Konami has concentrated on preserving the atmosphere, ambiguity, and deeply personal narratives that define Silent Hill while giving each studio room to establish its own creative identity.

That approach is especially visible in Silent Hill: Townfall, the first full-length entry in the series designed entirely around a first-person perspective. Developed by Screen Burn and released on September 24 for PlayStation 5 and PC, Townfall moves the horror to an isolated Scottish island in 1996, where Simon Ordell must explore an unsettling coastal community, interpret unstable signals through a handheld CRTV, solve story-driven puzzles, and decide when to fight or evade its creatures. Just like Silent Hill 2 Remake and Silent Hill f, it's been well-received.

In this interview, Silent Hill Series Producer Motoi Okamoto and Townfall Director and Writer Jon McKellan explain why Konami avoids imposing a rigid franchise bible on its collaborators, how the series can function more like a collection of premium television stories, and why first-person design allowed Screen Burn to make the town itself the game’s central character. 

SILENT HILL: Townfall is set in Scotland in 1996, which immediately gives it a different texture from the series’ more familiar imagery. How did that setting shape the art direction, environment design, atmosphere, and sense of isolation?

Jon McKellan, Silent Hill: Townfall Director and Writer at Screen Burn: The time and place are integral to the experience, and outside of the decision to go first-person with this game, I think they were probably the most important aspects that shaped production. Referencing real coastal towns in Scotland helped us understand how they are shaped—how streets flow into each other, how they radiate outwards from the oldest structures, such as the harbour, and the gradual change in architecture from old to modern.

Setting the game on an island added to the sense of isolation—there’s no escaping your problems, and you can’t just drive away! It allows Simon’s journey to mirror that of the townsfolk: they can’t run away either, and have to face the problems they encounter head-on.

Screen Burn’s previous work has often used technology, interfaces, signals, and fragmented storytelling in very deliberate ways. How did that design language evolve for Townfall, especially when working inside Silent Hill’s tradition of psychological horror, ambiguity, and unreliable perception?

Jon McKellan: The “retro” tech has been part of our DNA since the beginning of Screen Burn, and for me personally, even before that! I think there’s something unpredictable and uncertain about the fuzziness and noise that exist in those old signals compared to the modern day, where everything feels binary. For horror, it’s a perfect match, and there’s a subjectivity to the experience. When squinting to make sense of an image in static, different people might recognize different things, and it’s shaped by their own psyche. It’s just perfect to me, and works really well with the sometimes ambiguous storytelling that permeates Silent Hill as a series.

We wanted to take the “radio static = enemy” concept from previous Silent Hill games further, given our style of storytelling and aesthetics, and that led to the CRTV becoming a core mechanic for the entire game. It allows us to bring in new gameplay elements, but also to tell the story in some different ways, and again lean into that uncertainty. With something like an audio log, it’s often written as though someone is leaving you a message. With the CRTV, the signals can feel disjointed and surreal—like they are trying to tell you something, but it’s not always obvious what.

Townfall is the first Silent Hill psychological horror entry built fully around a first-person perspective. What did first-person allow the team to do differently in terms of fear, intimacy, environmental storytelling, combat, puzzles, and player vulnerability?

Jon McKellan: There were a couple of things we wanted to do that you can only really do in first person, and the CRTV was the main one. Unless we wanted to render that mechanic as a HUD element, which could feel a little too sci-fi, or constantly switch from third to first person and back every time you used it, it would never work well in anything but first person.

Even more important, however, was the sense of space and atmosphere, and making the town the star of the show. In third person, you have to build your environments with a kind of broken scale: doorways have to be larger, room heights much taller than you’d expect, and so on, all to allow the third-person camera to fit comfortably and rotate around the character without bashing into every doorframe or prop in the world. It really changes how you build things and how accurately you can depict the world, especially if you are using “authenticity” as a north star in development.

The result of that decision was that we also got to be much closer to the world itself. In third-person games, when searching cupboards and drawers in a house, you are really just following interact prompts and pressing X when you are told to. You don’t really take in the contents of that drawer, for example. In Townfall, we made searching homes feel much more realistic, and had the player almost subconsciously learn a little about the people who lived there by doing so. It adds so much personality to what is a really standard gameplay mechanic of picking up objects!

The game emphasizes story-driven puzzles that reveal narrative through setup and solutions, rather than only through cinematics. How do you design puzzles that feel mechanically satisfying while also carrying emotional or thematic meaning?

Jon McKellan: It all starts with story for us. The puzzle has to communicate something about the situation or the protagonist’s state of mind before we even begin designing the gameplay inside that puzzle. The Patient chapter is a great example of this, as it’s a puzzle, but not really. It’s really just putting you in someone’s shoes, with no prior knowledge, and asking you to solve the things they have to solve on a daily basis, under pressure.

It feels like a puzzle because you have to figure things out, but really, you are getting to feel the pressure of the situation Zoe was in, and the uncertainty around providing answers puts you right in her mindset on that night too. If we can make the player feel something during a puzzle, rather than just feel clever for solving it, then I think we have something worth pursuing.

The game introduces combat and enemies into Screen Burn’s style of narrative horror, including threats that players may need to fight or evade. How did the team approach creature design, combat pacing, animation, sound, and encounter readability without losing the psychological tension that defines Silent Hill?

Jon McKellan: It’s a tough one, for sure! You are always walking the line between “is this obvious enough?” and “is this too obvious?” and we tried to stay on the understated side of things. We’ve seen some theories about what they represent, and quite often they are sort of the “first glance” interpretation, but there are a lot of subtleties people haven’t picked up on yet, and it’s exciting to see people slowly figure out the layers we’ve buried in there.

For the gameplay side of things, it was a long journey of trying to balance stealth and combat. Being completely underpowered and vulnerable for 12+ hours can be too much, and it was important to give the player a way to level the playing field sometimes. What has been fascinating to see, however, is that even when we hand people a pistol and ammo, they are often too frightened or cautious to use them! They can absolutely take some enemies off the table, but the atmosphere and risk are so intense that they keep hiding and sneaking.

Ultimately, the goal was to give the player options, and that meant combat and stealth were both a little looser than in a dedicated stealth-horror or dedicated action-horror game. Combat is a little more player-initiated, and that can change the pacing massively depending on the type of player. We felt that it was better to give players the freedom to survive their own way, rather than force aggressiveness or force stealth too often.

Can you walk us through the production pipeline for one major environment, puzzle sequence, or enemy encounter, from concept and narrative purpose to level design, art, audio, implementation, testing, and final polish?

Jon McKellan: We’re a very iterative studio at heart—we don’t really set out to design a section, build it, finish it, and move on. We constantly evaluate any section of the game in relation to its neighbouring chapters and the wider game, always zooming out to see how it fits in.

With the “Many Into One” chapter, which is the first “full” Otherworld level under the Medical Centre, it evolved several times. By that point in the game—spoilers!—we know that Simon was treated by Zoe after the accident, but we don’t know much about why or how. So this chapter was designed to illustrate what happened to the other patients that night, and how their deaths ended up benefiting Simon in a way, by using their blood to save him.

The puzzle itself, the Transfusion door, was one of the first pieces of the puzzle we designed as “the final interaction,” but everything before that was a gradual iteration on how players would find the blood bags and what they would need to go through to get them.

This is also the first time we introduce The Weight, the unkillable stalker enemy that hunts Simon during this process. As this thing bears down on you, you are learning about Zoe’s struggles to save the other patients and what they went through, while slowly realizing that their deaths benefited your survival overall. Everything at the chapter level carries relevance to the main storyline, and with every decision, we measure it against the wider story.

The art and audio are also layered in as we go. We’ll push forward some, test the ideas, revisit and remix, and so on. Sometimes a particular visual concept will creep in and make us revisit the design or story elements to support it, and vice versa. It’s a very organic process, for want of a better word, and leads us down some interesting paths that we wouldn’t have travelled if we had compartmentalized concept and production in more traditional ways.

The result is a chapter that balances moments of subtle storytelling in each patient’s room visuals, the more explicit audio recordings from Zoe, the deeper meanings from Simon and his encounter with The Weight, and the final metaphorical/literal door opening through the transfusion of blood into Ordell.

Silent Hill: Townfall is, similar to Silent Hill f, a self-contained story, but it also carries the weight of being part of one of horror’s most recognizable franchises. When the team first started shaping the game, how did you define what made this idea feel like Silent Hill while still allowing it to have its own identity? 

Motoi Okamoto, Silent Hill Series Producer at Konami: The most important thing in SILENT HILL is always the story. We wanted the narrative of SILENT HILL: Townfall to feel true to the series by delivering a psychological horror experience that takes players on a deeply personal journey, while also ensuring that the game had a distinct identity of its own.

One of the aspects I valued most was that the story approaches its themes through the relationship between individuals, corporations, and society as a whole. Previous SILENT HILL titles often focused primarily on a character's internal struggles, whereas SILENT HILL: Townfall takes a different approach by exploring how personal fears and guilt can be shaped by larger social forces.

We also introduced an ensemble-style narrative structure, allowing players to experience the story not only through Simon's perspective, but also through Zoe's and Richard's. I believe this creates a fresh storytelling experience for the series and offers a broader view of the world and its mysteries.

As for the puzzles and stealth gameplay, those have always been areas where the team at Screen Burn excels, so I never had significant concerns. In fact, SILENT HILL: Townfall features a number of puzzles that are closely tied to the narrative and designed to create a highly immersive experience. Zoe's surgery sequence is a good example, but there are many moments throughout the game where gameplay and storytelling are deeply interconnected in a way that is unique to SILENT HILL: Townfall.　

Silent Hill has been interpreted through different creative teams, countries, styles, and technical approaches over the years. From a franchise perspective, what makes a new Silent Hill project feel authentic even when it changes setting, perspective, mechanics, or structure? 

Motoi Okamoto: The single most important element that makes SILENT HILL what it is, is the story. At its core, SILENT HILL is a psychological horror. More specifically, it is about taking players on a journey deep into the human psyche and exploring the innermost parts of a character's mind. While players may feel as though they are exploring a mysterious and unsettling town, they are simultaneously wandering through the landscape of a person's psyche. I believe that duality is one of the defining aspects of the SILENT HILL experience.

Supporting the story are the visual style, the sound design, and the atmosphere of the setting. These elements are essential because they draw players deeper into the narrative and help immerse them in the psychological journey at its center.

Another important aspect of SILENT HILL is ambiguity in storytelling. The narrative should have a recognizable shape and meaning, while still feeling as though it is shrouded in fog. It should leave room for interpretation and encourage players to use their imagination. SILENT HILL fans have always enjoyed discussing the hidden layers of the story and debating what lies beneath the surface. 

Is there a lot of thought that goes into tying the various projects together, or is it more a sense of atmosphere, themes, and vibes that connect each individual game? 

Motoi Okamoto: Since the reboot of the series, each project has been entrusted to a different development team, and we have given those teams a significant degree of creative freedom. There may be occasional Easter eggs or references to past titles, particularly the first four games, but we generally avoid creating direct narrative connections to previous entries.

What ties the projects together is not a shared storyline, but rather a common atmosphere and tone. When redefining the SILENT HILL brand, my vision was to create something closer to a premium television series or streaming platform, where each title could explore different themes while still delivering a deep story and a psychological journey.

For example, SILENT HILL f explores themes related to women's lived experiences, while SILENT HILL: Townfall focuses on the relationship between the individual and society. 

The series has recently explored different formats, from remakes to new entries and shorter experimental projects. How do you think about balancing preservation of Silent Hill’s legacy with the need to let new teams bring unfamiliar ideas to the franchise

Motoi Okamoto: SILENT HILL has a remarkably strong legacy, and developers can engage with the depth of that legacy by playing and studying the previous titles, particularly the first four games. When it comes to preserving that legacy, I don't believe in handing development teams a thick bible filled with rules and instructions. Instead, I place great importance on having each team create its own bible through its own understanding and interpretation of SILENT HILL.

At the same time, new ideas are essential to keeping SILENT HILL fresh and vibrant, and attracting new audiences is extremely important. In that sense, I'm always drawn to elements that represent a "first" for the series.

For example, SILENT HILL f is the first game in the series to be set in Japan, while SILENT HILL: Townfall is the first full-length title in the series to adopt a first-person perspective. Some people may view new ideas as a risk, but I generally prefer to see them as opportunities. They allow us to evolve the series while staying true to what makes SILENT HILL unique.

For a new Silent Hill project, how much of the creative process is about defining rules for what the series should and should not be, and how much is about giving each development team room to discover its own version of psychological horror? 

Motoi Okamoto: In SILENT HILL, the most important thing to preserve is the story and the psychological journey at its core. What we should avoid is anything that undermines the atmosphere. The same applies to gameplay. Through past titles and player feedback, we have learned that certain approaches may be less effective than others. However, I also believe it is important to revisit ideas from a different perspective rather than dismiss them outright.

In fact, SILENT HILL f took on the challenge of placing greater emphasis on combat, an area that has traditionally not been a major focus of the series. I feel that this approach was accepted by many players and demonstrated that there is still room for the series to evolve.

More broadly, I do not want to turn these lessons into a rigid bible that restricts the creativity of development teams. Even if a particular idea did not work in the past, that does not necessarily mean the idea itself was flawed. Sometimes it is simply a matter of execution. The ingredients may be good even if the recipe was not.

By not imposing a strict bible from KONAMI's side and instead encouraging each development team to create its own understanding of SILENT HILL, we give them the freedom to bring new ideas and perspectives to the series. That creative freedom is an important part of how SILENT HILL continues to evolve.

Looking ahead, what do you hope Townfall demonstrates about the future of Silent Hill as a franchise, especially in terms of collaborating with outside studios, exploring new places and perspectives, and expanding what a Silent Hill story can look like? 

Motoi Okamoto: Looking ahead, we learned a great deal from our collaboration with Annapurna and our partnership with Screen Burn. This was the first time the three companies had worked together, and our relationship with Annapurna, which has extensive experience with narrative-driven and art-focused games, was extremely valuable.

I have no doubt that SILENT HILL: Townfall is a game that could only have been created through this combination of the three companies.

As we continue to expand SILENT HILL, we will continue to explore opportunities to work with new teams and introduce new perspectives to the series.

Jon McKellan, Silent Hill: Townfall Director and Writer at Screen Burn
Motoi Okamoto, Silent Hill Series Producer at Konami