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Developers Goichi ‘Suda51’ Suda and Hidetaka ‘Swery65’ Suehiro are collaborating to create a new horror game that follows the story across different dimensions and different timelines (via Gematsu).
Suda created the incredible successful hack and slash series No More Heroes, and founded Grasshopper Manufacture which boasts games such as The Silver Case, Flower, Sun, and Rain, and killer7 in its catalogue. Similarly, Suehiro built his own studio White Owls Inc. after directing Spy Fiction, Deadly Premonition and D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die. On the IGN Japan live stream today, they said that they’d originally decided to make a game together sometime last year, but forgot their ideas after getting too drunk.
Whether it was a case of picking up the clues left behind or if Suda and Suehiro took to the drawing board on a sensible Sunday night, they have now officially announced their collaboration. They’ve titled it ‘Hotel Barcelona’, and it will be a horror game that’s accessible for lots of players, like a mobile or Switch release. The premise is that a magazine writer is invited to check out (or check into?) a snazzy new hotel, but things are not all as they seem.
The rooms of the Hotel Barcelona would reveal and represent ‘a different person, or a different dimension, or a different look at what happens in this period of time.’ The timelines of the hotel are split, and the player will be able to follow different timelines that align as they progress through the game. Suehiro said he would want to explore ‘suspense, about uncertainty and nervousness’ in the game’s themes, whereas Suda would like to experiment with splatter horror. Something for everyone, it seems.
Hotel Barcelona will be published by Devolver Digital, and has been given a budget of 100 million yen or about $1 million. Referencing psychic horror Siren from developers SCE Japan Studio and Project Siren, their game would reveal the story through the eyes of multiple characters in the hotel, such as hotel staff and other visitors. Suda was even able to get Siren creator Keiichiro Toyama on board with the project, as he shot him a text during the live stream and got a thumbs-up before it ended.
We don’t know what platforms Hotel Barcelona will be targeting nor when it will release, and all of this is tentative because the game could change quite significantly over the course of its development. But, Suda and Suehiro will be revealing a little more about the project in the coming weeks.
