Silent Hill series art director Masahiro Ito may soon grace the world of horror video games once again. Following his contributions to Metal Gear Survive creature designs and most recently a collaboration with Word of Tanks, Ito-san announced that the next game that he’s working on features him as a “core member” of the team.
This tease comes to us in a tweet posted yesterday:
I’m working on a title as a core member. I hope the title won’t be cancelled.
— 伊藤暢達/Masahiro Ito (@adsk4) January 4, 2020
While the freelance artist did not confirm whether or not this new title is a horror game, he’s shown a lot of interest in working on a horror game on his Twitter account over the years. He’s created 3D horror environments as tests in Unreal and the like, and he’s been happy to reveal in-depth looks at some scenes from past Silent Hill games. Horror seems like a good bet.
But there’s one other thing about his tweet that caught my attention. While indie projects can easily fall through and become cancelled, it’s strange that Ito-san — one of the Silent Hill series’ most accessible creators to fans (or as some would say, a member of Team Silent) — would express this concern alongside the news that he’s finally working on a new video game. I can’t help but think that he’s intentionally referencing the famously cancelled Silent Hills — whether as a tongue in cheek joke or as a low key hint about what the project may be.
With Hideo Kojima maybe-maybe-not working on a new horror game, would it be too far fetched to hope that something otherworldly is brewing? Does Konami have a place in this? Time will tell.