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Allison Road Cancels Kickstarter, Snags Publisher

First-person horror

The cancellation of Silent Hills becomes more distressing every time a new piece of information emerges. Guillermo del Toro's tweet stating that horror manga maestro Junji Ito would have collaborated on the game was a cruel blow and anyone who has encountered his work will understand why. When I first looked at Allison Road [official site], I hoped it would live up to the legacy of PT, the playable teaser for Silent Hills that caused such a stir. Now, the Kickstarter has been cancelled before reaching its target but that's because Worms developer (and indie publisher) Team17 have stepped in.

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"We are delighted to announce that we will be joining Team17's highly successful games label," say developers Lilith. The news came as the crowdfunding campaign sat at £145,959 of a £250,000 goal. Lilith provided further details of what this would mean for the project, as well as explaining why they're happy to be part of the Team17 stable.

"If you don’t know who Team17 are, they are most known for their Worms franchise, however, they run a fully independent games label. For us it’s an incredible opportunity to be part of a label that looks after not only such a massive gaming franchise, but also supports developers like Playtonic,Mouldy Toof and many others.

"Working with Team17 will give us the chance to make our game unhindered creatively, but at the same time will give us the resources, support and experience that only a 25 year old studio can give."

Recently, Team17's publishing arm has worked with the developers of top-down retro prison sim The Escapists and frantic die 'em up Penarium among others. There's no word yet as to whether this will mean a change to the initially proposed release window (end of 2016) or the planned playable demo for backers. Lilith do say that they'll look for ways to involve backers in some way.

They've recently been showing off some of the areas beyond the house, stating that when you're inside you'll want to escape and when you're outside you'll want to get back inside. Creepy woods seem to be the order of the day rather than the spooky suburbs I expected but I think reality might have shifted somewhat.

Allison Road is almost certainly happening, which is exciting news. For those, like me, who were hoping for something new to look forward to on the horror front and thought Silent Hills might be a suitable fit, there's a quote we can turn to.

"There was a hole here. It's gone now."

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