Silent Hill: The Short Message

Silent Hill fans have long treated the titular town as essential to the franchise. But the latest game may prove that's not true.

You shouldn't bring a gun to a therapy session.

Glasgow-based developer Screen Burn has been around for over a decade, and Silent Hill: Townfall is the studio's highest-profile game to date. The studio has produced a few cult-classics over the years like Stories Untold and Observation, but with its Silent Hill spin-off, the team has described being handed the keys to Konami's premier survival-horror franchise as a "confidence builder." Silent Hill Townfall was announced during Konami's dedicated 2022 livestream for the series, which also saw the announcement of the games Silent Hill f and Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake. According to Si

Screen Burn's Jon McKellan and Konami's Motoi Okamoto gave Polygon a glimpse behind the process of making the fictional St. Amelia a reality.

Silent Hill: Townfall being in first-person definitely sparked the thought of what P.T. could have been, because my time with Townfall showed that the more intimate interaction with the environment can bring you closer to both the story it's trying to tell and the gameplay elements that give rise to such dread. I came in thinking Townfall would be just another direction the series could explore, and came away eager for whatever comes after the end of my preview demo.