tomm-hulett
Latest
Tomm Hulett looks WayForward, and looks back on Silent Hill
Speaking to Joystiq, former Silent Hill producer Tomm Hulett has confirmed his move from Konami to developer WayForward. He also told us the nature of his new job."I'm a Director, which means I set the creative vision for the game, and then work with everyone else to make sure we surpass it!" Hulett said. "In layman's terms, I get paid to talk about games all day." As for the specific games he's talking about all day, or working on: "Ha! Nice try."
Silent Hill producer Hulett leaves Konami for WayForward
Tomm Hulett, producer of recent Silent Hill games as well as Rocket Knight, Contra 4 and more, has left Konami to work at Silent Hill: Book of Memories (and Shantae, Mighty Switch Force, Contra 4, et al.) developer WayForward Technologies. Hulett reported the job change on his LinkedIn profile; we have also obtained confirmation from WayForward representatives. We've reached out to Hulett for more information on his new position, somehow managing not to beg for a lifetime of WayForward Contra sequels in the process. Meanwhile, we'd like to direct you to our Book of Memories development timeline for a look at Hulett's past work.
Silent Hill: Downpour brings the old back to the new
As we saw back at E3, Silent Hill: Downpour evokes the feel of old Silent Hill games, by sending its protagonist Murphy into the familiar town, where he finds monsters, creepiness, and all sorts of dangerous puzzles. But producer Tomm Hulett says this version of the game isn't just about revisiting the setting of the old titles -- he's trying to collect some new fans as well. "Bringing Silent Hill into sort of a modern game, for old fans, mainstream, for new fans, whatever, it's interesting," he told us at a recent preview event. "Because you need to keep those classic elements but you need to make them interesting for people who are used to Dead Space or Red Dead." To that end, Downpour has a few systems in it designed to make sure that the new game not only lives up to the Silent Hill franchise, but allows newer players (and even those who just want a good scare) to experience all the frightening fun, too.%Gallery-142907%
Silent Hill: Book of Memories is really about a book of memories
In this video, Konami producer Tomm Hulett explains the premise of the PlayStation Vita's weird spin-off game, Silent Hill: Book of Memories. "You receive a strange book. When you open it, you see your entire life story written on those pages," he said. "All your memories." You can then rewrite your memories and alter reality. Apparently, judging by the gameplay, all the player-created characters then rewrite their lives as monster-filled nightmares -- with Hulett suggesting that even Pyramid Head shows up. In any other game, that would be weird, but it wouldn't be Silent Hill if the protagonist wasn't totally bonkers. Speaking of gameplay, the above video features the first (early) direct-feed gameplay footage.
Silent Hill HD Collection also heading to Xbox 360, Konami 'aiming' for simultaneous launch on both consoles
' Silent Hill: Downpour producer Tomm Hulett announced -- in video form -- during Konami's Gamescom press conference that the upcoming Silent Hill HD Collection would also be coming to Xbox 360. It was initially announced for PlayStation 3 only. According to Hulett, the HD Collection's Xbox 360 version is coming as a result of fan response to the originally announced exclusivity. Without giving a solid release date (the game is currently pegged for "September/October") Hulett noted that Konami is "aiming" to release Silent Hill HD Collection on both consoles simultaneously.
Rocket Knight returns to XBLA, PSN and Steam in early 2010
We wish for a million dollars! ... Well, after the return of classic adventure games -- and now Sparkster -- our magical roll of granted wishes was bound to come to an end. 1UP and Konami have revealed a brand new game for the powerfully propelled opossum, set to debut on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Steam in early 2010. The 2.5D sequel (not a remake!) comes 15 years after the last game, which is a period more wasteful than the gap between the original Star Trek TV series and the first feature film. Sorry, our nerd analogies flare up when we get excited. Rocket Knight (as the game is tentatively dubbed) is being developed by Climax, which previously worked with Konami producer Tomm Hulett on Silent Hill: Origins. The team is currently finishing up the promising Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. %Gallery-76146%
Interview: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories producer Tomm Hulett
When it was first revealed, we gave Silent Hill: Shattered Memories a bit of a cold shoulder. Gone was the established story that had first introduced us to the world's creepiest town, reinterpreted with altered characters and a new otherworld that ditched darkness and rust in favor of jutting glaciers and vaguely menacing snowflakes. Thankfully, our experience with the game at E3 revived our expectations, even if it was at the expense of whole memories.We later had the opportunity to speak to producer Tomm Hulett, who elaborated on why we should call Shattered Memories a re-imagining -- and not a remake:You're making Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and you're tying it to the first game. Harry Mason is back, but you're calling it a re-imagining, you're not saying "remake." Is that a bad word?Right, that's a curse word. [laughs] By re-imagining, like you said, we've got the premise of the first game: you're Harry Mason, you're looking for your daughter Cheryl. Beyond that we've changed and updated it, so it's an entirely new experience. If you've played the PlayStation game to death, you still have no idea what to expect for Shattered Memories. We did that because, on the Wii, maybe there's a lot of people who haven't played any Silent Hill games, so it wasn't really fair to say, "Here's the sequel to Homecoming, enjoy yourself." But then, returning fans, they've played the first game, they've played Origins, they've seen the movie, and they've played Silent Hill 3 and it all kind of revolves around the events of the first game. So they wouldn't really want to play a remake and so, by re-imagining it, there's new content -- if you've never played it before, of course, it's new to you -- but then, there's also this extra layer of new content if you're returning, because you get to experience all these things that are different from what you're expecting. And that really fits the theme of Silent Hill, which is this place where your reality is subjective and you don't know what to expect. We've built that into the game if you're a returning fan.
