UPDATE: It might have been that Suda and Swery were a little presumptuous in their livestream, as Devolver Digital has responded to the duo’s claim of meeting with them to discuss the game:
Gonna need @SUDA_51 and @Swery65 to pitch us this mysterious game we’re supposedly publishing.
Name a time and place, gentlemen. https://t.co/duvQWVj1CO
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) October 23, 2019
When weird tastes get together, great stuff happens. That’s at least what Japanese devs Suda51 and Swery65 are hoping for, as the duo have announced a new horror game during an IGN Japan livestream.
The duo had previously gotten together last year to hash out a plan, but due to the discussion eventually devolving into them getting drunk, the plan was never quite fleshed out until now.
According to Suda, he came up with the title of the game, Hotel Barcelona, in a half-hour brainstorm before the livestream, because he would like the game to be set in Barcelona. Later on during the livestream, however, he said that it could also be set in a place like Tokyo, South Africa, or Venezuela.
As for just what the game’s content would be, the duo want to make it “light and easy to play”. Something that can be downloaded and picked up on mobile, the Switch, Stadia, and so on. While the story still needs to be fleshed out, the idea is that a magazine writer is visiting the aforementioned new hotel, where the horror starts.
Suda mentioned Siren as a type of horror game he likes, where the narrative is pieced together by playing from the perspectives of various characters. In Hotel Barcelona, you would see different rooms, where “each one which represents a different person, or a different dimension, or a different look at what happens in this period of time.” In fact, Suda texted Siren creator Keiichiro Toyama during the livestream, asking if he wanted in on the project. By the end of the livestream, Toyama had agreed to come on board.
Swery65 in turn mentioned that players would be able to follow different “timelines” that are pieced together. Swery65 seems to contradict himself by saying that while he himself is not into pure horror, he is into something more about “suspense, about uncertainty and nervousness.” He later on said that he likes splatter horror, and mentioned that the game’s second half could turn into that.
And just in case you’re curious if these guys are still drunk, the duo confirmed that they’ve already spoken to Devolver Digital about publishing the game, which gave them a rough estimate budget of 100 million yen (which amounts to approximately $1 million USD).
You can check out the rest of the livestream above for more goodies, but the duo hope to come up with concepts and a logo at an event happening next week.
