Allison Road is a survival horror game currently in production by Lilith, a London based studio. If the trailer doesn’t make you jump even a little, especially at the idea of playing in VR where even a well-made atmosphere can be overwhelmingly scary, we have news for you. You’re not human.
Set in a quiet street in the suburbs of Manchester, you find yourself sitting on the couch without a clue how you go there. It’s an intimate house with a well-renovated extension on the back to incorporate a winter garden, making it bright and airy in the day time. Everything is perfect, save a thin coat of grime on the walls and bits of trash on the ground. Oh yeah. And there’s a dead girl walking around and scaring the bejesus out of you.
Sound at all familiar? It should.
Christian Kesler, the lead developer on the project, says that one of his influences for the game was the Playable Teaser (PT) demo for the Silent Hills PS4 game, a title directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro that has since been cancelled by Konami after Kojima left the company.
“PT was a big influence in terms of atmosphere and visual quality for sure. However, I think that’s where the similarities end I’m afraid. Allison Road is definitely a game in its own right, with its own story/universe and vibe,” Kesler told GamesRadar.
Allison Road also takes stylistic cues from games like the Resident Evil series, Silent Hill 2 (2001), and Dead Space (2008), but reflects more of the ‘exploration simulator’ feeling that the highly acclaimed title Gone Home created, a game that puts special emphasis on looking through objects and smaller clues to drive the narrative.
Whether or not that giant meat cleaver will come into play, Kesler told MovilePilot this:
“Combat will be a minor focus in the game. It’ll be more of a question of self defense rather than actively going out to hunt, so to speak. The thing we are definitely trying to achieve with Allison Road is a real sense that you are in a real place. In your place. For all the design choices in the game we asked ourselves, for example: ‘Okay, what would I do if I had an intruder in the house?’ Would I equip my double-barrel shotgun? Not very likely, since I don’t own one. Meat cleaver? Yeah, possibly.”
The game was greenlit on Steam in under 48 hours, and although still in its crowdfunding phase via it’s Kickstarter campaign, Allison Road is aiming for a total of 5-6 hours of gameplay. Slated for a late 2016 release of their PC game (VR-compatible), it’s also set to release as a digital download for Mac, Linux, XboxOne, and PS4.
Support ‘Allison Road’ Kickstarter
Kesler maintains that “while we can’t confirm it at the moment (simply because we didn’t have any hands-on time with it yet), we’d very much love to make Allison Road available for Playstation VR. We will definitely look into it!”
With a base funding goal of £250,000 ($380,000), the 6-person team is on a shoestring budget to develop everything from taylor-made audio assets to more parts of the game set outside of the house, the scope of which will largely depend on the amount of funding the project can drum up this next month.
Basic Funding Tiers
- Pledge £15 or more (~ $24 USD | €21 EUR) —DIGITAL COPY PC|Mac|Linux. A code to download the STEAM version of Allison Road + get your name in a special backer’s section on our website. + BECOME THE HUNTER (Kickstarter-Backer-only game)
- Pledge £20 or more (~ $32 USD | €28 EUR) — DIGITAL COPY CONSOLE. A code to download Allison Road on PS4 or XboxOne + get your name in a special backer’s section on our website. + BECOME THE HUNTER
- Pledge £30 or more (~ $47 USD | €42 EUR) — DIGITAL DELUXE. The full digital package! STEAM OR CONSOLE DIGITAL EDITION OF ALLISON ROAD. A code to download Allison Road for PC|Mac|Linux, PS4 or XboxOne + Digital Soundtrack + Digital ‘The Making-Of Allison Road’ E-book + In-game credit + BECOME THE HUNTER
- Pledge £70 or more (~ $108 USD | €96 EUR) —ALLISON ROAD BOXED A CUSTOM DESIGNED, Kickstarter EXCLUSIVE, physical PC edition of Allison Road + Physical Soundtrack on CD + Physical Allison Road Art Booklet + ‘Making-of Allison Road’ E-book + Digital PC ‘Lucid Dream’ experience