Barlow let slip in a wee tweet this week: He clarified that this is not ‘Project A███████’, the mysterious game which seems like it’ll be named Project Ambrosio. So what is it? “[W]e have a game we’re looking to make which is very much ‘what was special about [Shattered Memories]?’ ‘how would you take that further now?’” Barlow told IGN. “Like Outer World’s take on Fallout, or Bloodstained’s take on Castlevania, etc. So it’s not a Konami or branded Silent Hill thing.” I was going to say “Aha! He means Outer Wilds!” but nope, tripped myself up once again. IGN say Barlow added that it’d be a third-person game which also draw upon lessons learned from making Her Story, Telling Lies, and Project A. Shattered Memories was a reimagining of the first Silent Hill, with a new framing around some familiar places, characters, and story points, the fighting replaced with fleeing, otherworldly rust turned to ice, and a Shyamalanian twist whammed on top. I prefer the original, but Shattered Memories certainly has fans. Any unbranded spiritual successor would probably be better off without jerks like me drawing comparisons like, y’know, the one I just drew. But to be fully clear, this isn’t a concrete game Half Mermaid have announced they’re definitely making, it’s one his studio are looking into doing after their current game. What is Ambrosio anyway? Dunno! A secret for now. I wouldn’t be surprised by voyeurism, though. Barlow’s been talking around about it, and last week blogged about scene cuts. “With Project A███████ we are thinking about cuts,” he said. “Especially the really magical ones that follow a story’s arterial connections to leap through space and time. How we might skip from 1968, Italy to 1971, NYC to 1999, Los Angeles. When served up in a movie, a cut can be a wonderful prompt to the imagination. In a game, handing over the power of the cut to the player is to give them a magical power. Teleportation, transmutation, time travel. All the possibilities of the cut.” SMASH CUT TO: Alice making a cup of tea.
