Abandoned Director explains tweet takedowns and why the prologue is a completely separate game
Hasan Kahraman, director of controversial indie game Abandoned, has reiterated that it hasn’t been canceled and said more content is coming this year – including the game’s prologue, which will be a paid standalone project.
Speaking to IGN’s Destin Legarie, Kahraman explained that the recent decision to delete a number of tweets related to the game’s future plans was a mistaken attempt to keep information about the game relevant and up-to-date — but rumors instead resulted in the Still Mysterious Horror Game being cancelled.
“I didn’t see that coming,” he explained. “I didn’t think the community would react like that. Basically the tweets got deleted because some of the concept changed and I thought maybe it would be a better idea to just delete the tweet and then tweet more relevant information – which wasn’t a good idea actually. I’ve now learned to just keep them. Even if the information or the concept has changed, just keep the older information because eventually people will see for themselves what the difference is and then see what is more current.
Kahraman’s Studio Blue Box was forced to do this make a statement said the game is still in development and apologized for the long silence on new information. The team said it “underestimated our development roadmap” and delayed the unveiling and release of the promised prologue.
However, Kahraman says the prologue is planned for later this year and explained a little more to IGN about it. He made it clear that it will be a paid standalone game, not just a demo. It comes with a full set of PlayStation trophies, including a platinum trophy – and it’s made to fund the main game:
“The prologue is not a demo. People always say it’s a demo. It’s not a demo. It’s actually a standalone game, right? It has a price, it’s a reasonable price. It’s not really much. But the proceeds from the prologue are actually used to fund the development of Abandoned, right? So we’re actually funding the game ourselves with the proceeds from the prologue. So we want to release the prologue first.”
Kahraman also explained more about what the prologue will be as a playable product: “It’s not early access, but it’s more like a … It’s actually more of an opportunity for players to be introduced to the story of the gameplay because it’s.” is different. It’s our version of the statement “This is what we think a realistic survival shooter should be like.” It’s actually a good way to showcase the game’s graphics. I’m not claiming to be an AAA developer, but what we do is that we spend time making sure the environment looks realistic and that it’s actually… With the power of Unreal Engine 5, that we’re actually doing something deliver something close to real life, right?”
Alongside the prologue, Kahraman said the team plans to add new content to Abandoned’s long-dormant Realtime Experience app throughout 2022, and that “sometime after the prologue, we’ll start adding more footage and more trailers incrementally.” publish the base game.”
Kahraman, perhaps understandably, didn’t say exactly when this new content would arrive at this point, explaining that he’s faced with a dilemma over how to reveal the game.
“The reason people haven’t seen the game yet, no development of the game yet, is simple, and to put it in one word, I’m scared. I won’t lie. The reason I’m scared is because it’s a personal job. It’s personal. I don’t work for Ubisoft. I don’t work for a AAA publisher who tells me what to do, who basically tells me what game to make. It’s a personal thing. And development progress maybe not everyone will understand because players don’t see, don’t understand what “in development” means. The players don’t care.
“The players are only interested in what they see in that moment. And I’m between those two choices, where do I get either […] decide to actually show development [now], sharing the progress, development progress of Abandoned with the world – and between deciding if I should wait just to do a proper reveal. I’m still between choices because when I do the first scenario, I’m scared that people will… It’s just scary. That’s just basically what I’m trying to say. I’m confused if I’ll ever show development footage of the game, it’s a matter of presentation how you present it to the world. And that’s where I’m looking. If I can present it well, then maybe I’ll post it on Twitter, yes.”
Kahraman and Blue Box have given deadlines thanks to fierce suggestions that the studio was a front for a new Silent Hill game. There was even an internet conspiracy that Kahraman wasn’t a real person, forcing himself to post a video to prove his own existence. Missed trailer launches and other marketing blunders have only added to doubts about Blue Box and Abandoned.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Keep following him Twitter. Do you have a tip for us? Would you like to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
https://www.ign.com/articles/abandoned-interview-prologue-standalone-not-cancelled Abandoned Director explains tweet takedowns and why the prologue is a completely separate game
