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If you feel like you don’t read enough books—which is entirely possible with the many other distractions clamouring for our collective attention—there are various ways to boost your literary consumption. Pick a book that really excites you, rather than something you feel you should read. Choose something short that you’re less likely to get bogged down in. Get a job working as a writer on the Silent Hill series.
That last one is, admittedly, harder to achieve than the others. But it’ll certainly get you reading more, at least according to the words of Silent Hill producer Motoi Okamoto. In a lecture held by Konami titled “The Art of Producing Silent Hill” (via Automaton Media) Okamoto and other Team Silent members discussed the game’s production, and significance reading played in its development.
Okamoto explained that, as a producer, it was vital for him to read extensively given the importance of narrative in a game like Silent Hill f. Moreover, it is especially important to read the works of a writer thoroughly when considering hiring them to work on a game—rather than relying on their reputation.
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Okamoto said this was a matter of “basic respect”, when hiring a writer. But it is also important for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the writer, as well as the nuances of their style. For example, Konami hired Japanese horror writer Ryukishi07 to work on Silent Hill f specifically because his work on the likes of Hirugashi When They Cry suggested a familiarity with the Silent Hill series.
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Further to this, Okamoto also encouraged other members of the studio to read as much as they possibly could. “Within the team, we put pressure on each other, especially among other scenario writers, to read at least 100 to 200 books a year.”
You might think much of this obvious, but in an age when reading is dramatically on the downslope, when AI summaries are taking a hammer to the skull of critical thinking, it is not beyond the realms of possibility for companies to coast on a passing familiarity with an artist or a body of work rather than engaging with and comprehending it properly, so it’s refreshing to hear a videogame producer evangelise the importance of reading.
It also clearly paid off in the case of Silent Hill f, as its story and approach to storytelling were one of the main sources of praise for Konami’s first new Silent Hill game in over a decade. It’ll be interesting to see what writers and books shape upcoming Silent Hill projects, given Okamoto has said the team wants to “keep experimenting” with the series.
