Visual Assault From ‘Hill’

At a time when video game violence is old hat, it becomes harder than ever to shock an audience.

But a shock is exactly what gamers get with “Silent Hill 2,” a sequel to the horror game published by Japanese publisher Konami Corp. in 1999 for the PlayStation console.

As with the first game, “Silent Hill 2” for PlayStation 2 is chock-full of disturbing visuals designed to get under the skin. The monsters are bizarre combinations of human body parts that writhe and convulse suggestively. Bondage is a popular visual theme.

These images sprout from the mind of 24-year-old Takayoshi Sato, who created the computer animations and provided artistic direction for both games from his drafting table in Konami’s U.S. office in Redwood City, Calif. Before joining Konami in 1996, Sato studied modern art and oil painting at Tama Art University in Tokyo.

His goal with “Silent Hill” was not only to create convincing visuals for the horror franchise but to create a visual medium that would be unique to video games.

Question: Where did you get fodder for “Silent Hill 2?”

Answer: We read novels and books, mainly Russian literature, American modern horror and Japanese literature. We gathered a lot of content from them. Before making the game, we created the story because we wanted to make the story more profound. Then, we designed the game play around the story. Many games start the other way around.

Q: What kind of story line and characters did you want to create?

A: It’s not a normal story. If people play the game, of course people will get terrified at first. But after they clear the game, we just wanted the player to feel that it was more than just a scary game. We wanted them to feel that they’ve made an emotional journey.

If the characters have real histories and real emotions, the player is more likely to identify with them. Each of our characters has a lot of emotion and a lot of history behind them. They’re greedy, and they have normal desires. Of course, they also have nasty secrets.

Q: What aesthetic were you going for?

A: Dusty. New carpets and new walls are beautiful, but they’re artificial. We used burned carpets and rusty walls to try to make a calm, chilling atmosphere. We also tried to create a lot of contrasts between light and dark to make the visuals more solid. We avoided strong saturated colors. We combined it with fog and darkness to make a calm, tranquil, gentle environment that is also strangely beautiful. It also had to feel like the real world, like a vaguely familiar place that could be in your own neighborhood.

Q: How did you go about creating the various rooms?

A: We took pictures of places around the United States and Japan and used them to make the background of the game. We took pictures of one co-worker’s house as a reference, which we put into the game. When he saw the game, he got angry because it was his house!

We wanted to make the background and atmosphere similar to your childhood memory. So we put in fragments of broken wine glasses, the corner of a table, a feeding bottle, things like that to give you glimpses of the past. When you get fearful, you can remember things only in fragments. We tried to show things but obscure them in the final composition with fog and darkness.

Q: The monsters seem to be made of female body parts that writhe in suggestive ways. What were you thinking?

A: We just focused on dead bodies and erotic images. Death is always in front of people. There is death in everyone’s future. Everybody has a reaction to dead bodies. Sex is another element. We were struggling to combine those essences: dead bodies and sex. Our monsters also have human characteristics. A lot are made of partial human parts. Sometimes they display weird motions. According to [movie director] James Cameron, humans recognize human body animation.

Q: Were you influenced by any artists, authors or directors?

A: Francis Bacon. Also old Renaissance paintings. And Andrew Wyeth. His pictures have great movement in their compositions. Most artists make movement by using the entire canvas. But he made movements in his picture using deformation of the human motif.

Q: How did you try to instill fear in players?

A: Our concept is always keep the players immersed. This is the key. We used lots of polygons to make our backgrounds. We spent a lot of time to make the fog. There are no light moments in the game. And nothing is fake. We also used the transistor radio; the static builds to a higher volume the closer you get to danger. There’s a heartbeat--the game pad will throb. You can feel it in your hands, and you hear it in the game. It gets faster and louder as you get closer to danger. But you don’t see the monsters until they are right there in front of you. We also used light effects, flashlights. So there is visual, audio, tactile feedback. The camera work is totally different from the first “Silent Hill.” Previously, we didn’t have interesting angles. This time, the camera will make it hard for you to see. It gives you a claustrophobic feel. Sometimes, the camera will be fixed, but it will also bob and shift very discreetly to give you a sense of vertigo.

Q: The sexual imagery and violence in this game are pretty graphic. Do you think this will be controversial?

A: This is not necessarily good for Konami’s image. But it’s not a bad thing for us as developers. “Silent Hill” should be the black sheep of Konami’s products. It’s making something different. We are creators. This is a good thing for artists to take risks. This game is violent. If that kind of violence and sex were removed completely, then we cannot make a profound, deep story. Making deep stories can require disturbing subject matter. I don’t usually make violent or sexual images. So this is a big opportunity and big risk.

Q: Did you have an artistic goal for this game?

A: I majored in contemporary art, so I am always thinking about cultural and philosophical implications. It’s like postmodern deconstructionism. I unpack their meaning on all levels and see how they all fit together. My goal is to do something unusual in the world of video games by using computer graphics as a medium. My goal is not just to make great visuals or great game play. These are a given. My goal is making an epic with this medium. Unlike film, games do not have a philosophy. This is a new medium, so there’s no artistic philosophy. I am trying to explore and forge new ground in this field. The game industry is not mature, but it’s growing up.

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Alex Pham covers the video game industry. She can be reached at alex.pham@latimes.com.