Lilith LtdIf you were pissed about Konami pulling the plug on Silent Hills, then Allison Road could be setting itself up to fill the monstrosity-shaped void in your life.
Having recently pulled out of their planned Kickstarter campaign, development team Lilith Ltd have now partnered with publishers Team 17 – Worms, The Escapists, Alien Breed – to get the job done.
We got the chance to put some questions to Lilith’s head honcho, Chris Kesler, before the announcement was made, and picked his brain on the game’s comparison to Silent Hills and the future of horror games.
UNILAD: So for those who haven’t heard of the game, can you give us an overview of Allison Road?
Chris Kesler: The game is a narrative driven survival horror with VR support, and you basically wake up in a seemingly unfamiliar Manchester suburban house without any recollection of prior events. You have to find out where your family is and what exactly happened to them in the course of the game.
Facebook/ Lilith LtdLilith is a small team of devoted game devs. Who’s working on the project and where might we have seen their stuff before?
A lot of us have our background in movies across a multitude of disciplines, ranging from concept art, over matte painting to CG environments & production. You can see our work in films like Avengers, Hobbit and Prometheus for example. Gareth [Finn] our animator, has worked on games like Gabriel Knight before. In fact, he was the lead animator on Sins of the Fathers!
Check out a full list of the team here.
Allison Road is constantly being touted as the spiritual successor to Silent Hills, do you see it that way? You even made reference to P.T. in the game demo you put out, but also looked at games like Gone Home as inspiration. What do you think sets Allison Road apart?
Mm, no, I have to admit we don’t see it that way. We see Allison Road simply as a standalone horror title set in its own universe. We actually never called it the spiritual successor to anything. And while it’s great and humbling that people see it that way, there are obviously massive differences in budget.
We’re trying to make the best with what we’ve got so to speak. And yes, there was a reference to P.T. in the game. We loved playing P.T., so we thought we’d put a little homage in the video. Like a wink from fans to fans of the game so to speak. Some people didn’t get it, though.
Lilith LtdThe story mainly takes place in a couple of locations over the course of five days, can you delve any deeper into what people can expect to happen? Also, why Manchester?
Actually a sizeable chunk of the game is supposed to take place in locations outside of the house, but we haven’t shown any of these yet. We are planning to give a first look this week actually!
Manchester and the surrounding area offered the perfect setting for the story, but why exactly you will have to discover for yourself.
Since we spoke to Chris, images have emerged of a creepy forest setting, alongside the house featured in the gameplay demo.
Lilith ltdYou mention you’re looking to work with VR for Allison Road. What do you think on the medium in the future of horror games, and of the future of the horror genre in general?
Oh yes, definitely. Personally I’m a huge fan of VR. I think it’s the future in many ways. Have you ever tried a game in VR? Alien:Isolation for example, is fantastic; You feel like you are actually there. Really quite something.
I think it’ll take games in general to a whole new level. Super excited to see what will happen next year when all these headsets release commercially!
The original plan was to have Allison Road out on Windows PC by 2016 with Linux and Mac versions to follow shortly, nothing has been announced on the schedule now that Team 17 are involved.
Mark is the Gaming Editor for UNILAD. Having grown up a gaming addict, he’s been deeply entrenched in culture and spends time away from work playing as much as possible. Mark studied music at University and found a love for journalism through going to local gigs and writing about them for local and national publications.