SNATCHER Developer/publisher Konami Format Mega CD Release 1994
INTERNATIONAL TRACK & FIELD Developer/publisher Konami Format PS1 Release 1996
SILENT HILL Developer Team Silent Publisher Konami Format PS1 Release 1999
FORBIDDEN SIREN Developer Project Siren Publisher SCE Format PS2 Release 2003
FORBIDDEN SIREN 2 Developer Japan Studio Publisher SCE Format PS2 Release 2006
GRAVITY RUSH Developer Japan Studio Publisher SCE Format Vita Release 2012
SLITTERHEAD Developer Bokeh Publisher TBA Format TBA Release TBA
78WSNATCHER
There might be no single videogame director more keenly associated with Japanese horror than Keiichiro Toyama. His directorial debut, the fogchoked Silent Hill, introduced a cloying, small-town-gone-bad aesthetic that remains urgent and immediately recognisable today. And while the Siren series – designed by Toyama once he had recovered from the ordeal of making Silent Hill – is less widely known in the west, in Japan the games remain fiercely beloved cult classics. It’s a legacy on which he’s continuing to build with his next project, Slitterhead, currently in the final stages of development, albeit a rather unlikely one for a designer who, by his own admission, has “always been a bit apprehensive about horror”.
Born in 1970 in the city of Miyakonojo, in the southern part of Kyushu, Toyama grew up in the mountainous countryside – the sort of rambling, sparsely populated rural location to which he has been drawn repeatedly in his games. His parents owned a general store that sold everyday goods such as vegetables and rice – “nothing to do with art or technology”. So when he encountered his first arcade game at the age of six, it felt like a momentous occasion. “I felt astounded when I first saw these games,” he recalls. “I can’t quite put it into words, but it was
