Kurayami announced for PS3 (from the makers of Killer7)

[Titanio]

A "non-linear" adventure game inspired by the works of Franz Kafka.

http://www.jeux-france.com/news15418.html

Babelfish:

Suda Goichi, aka Suda 51, of the studio of Grasshopper development, at the origin of very strange Killer 7 left on GameCube and PlayStation 2, reveals its next title entitled Kurayami envisaged on PlayStation 3. This new play of action and non-linear adventure is inspired by open and the worrying and confused universe of the Czech writer Franz Kafka that Suda Goichi admires much. The player will be thus plunged in a village obscure which it will have to traverse with a torch to reach a castle and to discover his mysteries. Thanks to the power techniques of PlayStation 3, Suda Goichi intends to stress the graphic style (textures, drawings of the characters, decorations, etc.) of Kurayami so that the player can truly feel the darkness and darkness, the concept of the fear will play a very important part in the play. About thirty people work in this moment on this project, the title is intended mainly for a rather adult public. Here first Artworks de Kurayami.

Some artwork:

I love the style - more artwork at the link. Quite wonderful, Suda Goichi is making quite a name for himself

 

[NANOTEC]

The concept sounds pretty interesting.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Yeah, pretty interesting concept art.

 

[Titanio]

IGN reports on it here: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/702/702850p1.html

Just mentions that Kurayami means "Darkness", that it'll be a big theme in the game.

Speculation suggests that the game may particularly take inspiration from 'The Castle'.

 

[overclocked]

Its going to be like being in a "semi-psychosis" world if it follows the authors work i heard from a friend, dont know if its a good explanation.

Sounds almost like an "anti-ICO" theme, but very interesting indeed..

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

IGN reports on it here: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/702/702850p1.html

Just mentions that Kuriyama means "Darkness", that it'll be a big theme in the game.

Speculation suggests that the game may particularly take inspiration from 'The Castle'.

Ehmm... just a correction

暗闇 - くらやみ - kurayami - darkness, dark

 

[Titanio]

Whoops, that was just my misspelling of the title. I'll fix that now..thanks.

 

[one]

It turned out that Kurayami is actually not in development at this time according to the official web site of the developer.

http://www.grasshopper.co.jp/mt-static/archives/2006/04/edge5.html

It's just a presentation of a game idea by Suda published on the EDGE mag as one of feature articles to get attention of overseas publishers. No mention of platforms etc.

 

[Titanio]

Wow, Jeux-France dropped the ball on this one. I should have known something was up when Edge's website said:

"We also meet Grasshopper Manufacture head Suda51 to ask what's next after Killer 7, and get an exclusive view of Kurayami, his Kafka-inspired next-gen concept"

Hopefully this actually materialises now, the concept is very intriguing.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Bad translation I guess? Too bad though, was looking forward those concepts to come to life.

 

[NANOTEC]

Bad translation I guess? Too bad though, was looking forward those concepts to come to life.

Maybe they will but not necessarily for PS3... Grasshopper is also making games for Revolution.

 

[Titanio]

Well it's all swings and roundabouts..

Edge has posted the Grasshopper/Kurayami article online, and it is afterall quite clearly planned as a PS3 title. It simply remains very early, in the concept stage, and without a publisher.

http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2006/04/into_the_darkne_1.php

Excellent article, btw. Some quotes about Kurayami:

Which brings us to PS3 title Kurayami. "The game is inspired by Kafka, a writer I greatly admire," Goichi begins, apparently not intending to make that challenge any easier on himself. "I thought for a long time about how to adapt the environment in his books into a game - to represent the mystery perhaps by applying filters, or dividing them into various missions. When I considered the visuals, I immediately thought of darkness, and I imagined a hero within this night, with a light that would in a way symbolise his life.

"There are lots of toon-shaded titles on the market now, but when you look how the contrast of light and shadow is central in our mangas, even in comics from abroad, there are few games that use this sense of darkness. So I want to deliver a very specific, totally new pixel shader based on darkness: an artistic texture, mixed with various effects."

With around 30 staff and a stubbornly Japanese insistence on developing in-house code libraries and engines, Goichi admits the prospect of PS3 development is daunting, though he's confident in his studio and Sony's still-unfinished console. "We're capable of taking on technically and financially heavy development - at least, one game at a time. Sony has a vision that as a creator I wanted to respond to, and to deliver this very detailed drawing shader, we need the PS3's power. Our main focus at the moment is to make these illustrations run in realtime."

Much much more at the link.

 

[NANOTEC]

I just hope for Capcom's sake that the gameplay is up to snuff. Killer7 likely took a lot of money to make but it failed miserably.