Fans of the memorable Silent Hills teaser P.T. can relive the experience via a fan remake released this week from indie developer Farhan Qureshi.
Qureshi’s remake simulates the first few segments of P.T.‘s gameplay, dropping players at the end of a looping hallway that gradually deteriorates with the passage of time.
P.T. emerged in August last year with little fanfare and with seemingly no major developer or publisher behind its release. The free downloadable title for the PlayStation 4 presented a short survival horror scenario from a first-person perspective, and its mysteries captivated players for weeks afterward.
By following an obscure and still largely unknown set of specific steps, players could complete P.T. and learn that the experience was a teaser for Silent Hills, an upcoming project from film director Guillermo del Toro and Metal Gear Solid series director Hideo Kojima. A new take on Konami’s Silent Hill survival horror franchise, Silent Hills was to star actor Norman Reedus in a leading role.
Earlier this year, Konami announced that it had halted the Silent Hills project. P.T. was subsequently removed from the PlayStation Store, and cannot be redownloaded once players erase it from their PS4 hard drives.
The game’s mystique and lack of availability inspired the creation of Qureshi’s remake, which he developed using the Unity game engine. Though the remake is a work in progress, Qureshi devoted 104 hours over 4 weeks to ensuring an accurate recreation of what many Silent Hill fans were never able to experience for themselves.
“I started this project for a 3D modelling workshop I’m planning to teach in September,” Qureshi explained. “Originally I wanted to create an apartment scene for its simplicity, variety, and familiarity, but I wanted something more game-focused as the workshop is being targetted at the Calgary Game Developers. I ended up choosing the PT hallway as it’s an interior scene fairly close to an apartment, and the simplicity, variety, and familiarity still exist. Plus it’s no longer available to download, but I can make it live on in some fashion by doing this.”
Qureshi’s P.T. remake, titled PuniTy, is available as a free download via his website.
