We had the honor of being able to interview Pierre, founder of Playmestudiodevelopers of the promising The simulation. A game they play with a renowned production company in the film industry, such as Blumhouse Studio, which created Blumhouse Games to fund independent horror projects in the video game space. The game was first announced during Blumhouse Games’ presentation at Summer Game Fest 2024.
Without further ado, let’s begin the interview. But not before thanking Pedro and his independent studio for their enthusiasm in offering us more details on their horror title, with mechanics that seem very original.
What is the origin of Playmestudio? What experience do you have in the world of video games?
Playmestudio was born in 2017, after spending several years training and working in 3D art, animation and visual effects in the fields of cinema and advertising. My intention was to create a video game development studio capable of evolving the medium and surprising players with innovative mechanics, ideas and visuals. Our idea has always been to combine interactivity and cinematography, and on this basis, to look for ways to challenge the minds of players.
Based on our experience and previous projects, we have always focused on telling our own original stories. Our first video game was ‘The signifier‘, a psychological horror and thriller game, set in a near-future science fiction. It is available on PC (Steam) and VR (Meta Quest 2 and 3), and was released by the publishing company Raw Fury.
What are your inspirations for The Simulation? They can come from other video games, books, movies…
We can’t reveal much, but the inspirations of The simulation They don’t necessarily come only from video games. Movies like The Exorcistthe cinematography of Tarkovskyart in independent films like “Humans“ or the artistic direction of “Seven“…And of course games like “silent Hill» and some classics like «I have no mouth and I have to scream» are all incredible inspirations. The simulation It’s a fairly varied game that has moments with different atmospheres. But there is a general guideline that pays obsessive attention to detail and artistic direction, where the setting speaks and has a unique personality.
What kind of horror will The Simulation be about? It seems to be a project that is very focused on psychological aspects.
To swindle The simulationWe want to expand and deepen the type of horror we’ve already worked on in our previous game,’The signifier‘. Even though it’s a horror, it probably won’t be a traditional horror. Our goal was to create a “philosophical” type of horror, creating the kind of tension and atmospheric fear that many people enjoy. We’re looking to not only increase the players’ adrenaline by anticipating a monster’s attack, but also to immerse them deeply in the game world, playing with their minds and leaving them on the edge of their seats for what might happen, for the fate of the characters and the meaning of the things they see and experience. You could say it’s a more “Lynchian” horror.
In the teaser shown at Summer Game Fest, we could see a mix of design between realism and pixelart. Will the entire adventure play with both types of design? It seems like a very interesting idea.
There’s not much we can reveal at this point, but we can say that “The simulation‘will be an immersive narrative experience. In it, you will explore not only a realistic world, but also several mysterious video games, each with its own style. In fact, in the trailer we show one of the experiences, where realism is uniquely mixed with pixel art.
Due to the title’s visual style, which mixes realism and pixelart, and some images that we have been able to see, it seems that in The Simulation we will be playing a video game within another video game. Is this really the case?
We can’t give many details at this time, but to give more context,The simulation“You play as a retired video game developer who has been hired to investigate a crime. As proof, several new video games will be revealed. By revealing mysterious gameplay, you will cross the fourth wall of each of these worlds. You will thus discover terrifying truths that transcend your own realities.
What genre(s) (apart from horror) does The Simulation belong to exactly? The SGF teaser seems to show several genres combined in one game. Could you give us a brief description of the title?
At its base, The simulation is a narrative horror game, with puzzle mechanics, and a unique basic mechanicabout which we will give more details soon. Thanks to this new mechanical proposal and by taking elements from other genres, we hope that players can be surprised by unexpected challenges.
The horror genre was a great foundation for this exploration because it’s a genre that’s very open to innovation. Whether it’s exploring unusual themes, game mechanics, or strange characters… it’s a genre that’s open to different points of view. In a way, horror allows for more because it’s a “challenge” from the beginning.
What is it like, as an independent studio, to work with a renowned production company like Blumhouse Games? Do you have complete creative freedom?
Although we are a small independent studio working all over the world, we have a lot of creative ambition. And we think that the collaboration with Blumhouse is perfect to take this proposal to its maximum potential. We hope that this collaboration will go well and will allow us to go much further than what we had initially dreamed.
Fortunately, we have complete creative freedom to work on ‘The simulation‘. However, we are always very open to any feedback and recommendations we can receive from Blumhouse Games, as they are undoubtedly a strong partner, with great knowledge of the medium and the market, and who sets the standard as an international horror game producer.
How have gamers in general reacted to the announcement of The Simulation? What seems to be attracting the most attention and what is attracting the least attention?
Announcing our collaboration with Blumhouse Games as publisher of ‘The simulation“has generated very positive reactions, both from those who have followed us since our previous title”,The signifier‘, as well as new players from around the world. We believe that horror fans were eager to discover what games would be in Blumhouse Games’ first catalog, and they were surprised by the level of quality and variety of proposals, which are born from creativity and independent talent.
We have also received very good feedback from the Chilean and Latin American gaming audience, as they were surprised to see in the first catalog of the games division of a horror production company of the magnitude of Blumhouse, an extremely ambitious video game being developed by a local workshop.
As a Chilean independent studio, was it difficult to work with a production company like Blumhouse Games?
Indeed, getting to where we are today, collaborating with a production company like Blumhouse Games, has been a real adventure for us, full of challenges, learning and several years of effort. We are very happy to have gotten to this point and to be able to devote ourselves entirely to a creative project whose potential we deeply believe in. Likewise, we understand that the announcement of this collaboration with Blumhouse Games marks an important step not only for us, but also for video game developers in Chile and Latin America. We hope to help open new doors for video games produced in the region.
What recommendations could you give to small studios in LATAM and Europe to start getting noticed?
If we had to give a recommendation to Latin American and Spanish studios that are starting out or that are still small and have not managed to achieve their goals, it would be that it is important to have a creative strategy and understand that each publisher is looking for something different. By creative strategy, I mean that games can be developed in several ways. For example, you can follow and mix trends (this is what many publishers are looking for), a style that would consist of seeing what people “want”, what they play, and doing something along those lines. Trying to bring an extra grain to something that already exists and that has clear sales metrics for the publisher.
Many studies believe this to be the case, but they forget that video games are an art and not just a service.and therefore, a well-developed, honest, original concept that is confirmed (with a good demo), can also be very attractive. Sometimes, the public, like in the music, film or fashion industry, thinks they want one thing, but when they receive something new, they welcome it with open arms and they did not know they wanted it. This creative strategy consists of experimenting and executing to perfection, at different scales. Sometimes a simple, well-polished original concept can be much more engaging than a huge RPG that has all the elements that people want. I think it’s important to find that balance.
We come to the end of the interview with a good taste in our mouths about The Simulation.
This interview, now over, has undoubtedly left us with a good taste in our mouths concerning The simulation. Playmestudio seems to know what they’re doing, and they have the backing of one of the biggest horror production companies, which now has a dedicated video game publisher. Plus, for any developers starting their first or early project, you have some valuable advice that you can apply to your work. We at Xbox Area are eager to see how the project progresses, and of course, we’ll cover any news about it as it comes.
I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember, so you could say I enjoy talking about them a little.
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