P.T. draws maximum fear from minimal scope | Why I Love
Why I Love is a series of guest editorials on GamesIndustry.biz intended to showcase the ways in which game developers appreciate each other's work. This entry was contributed by Pete Wicher, audio director and lead writer at Jukai Studio. Jukai's new game Stray Souls launched this week on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Nine years ago, Sony unceremoniously launched a mysterious horror game on the PlayStation Store. Enigmatically titled P.T. It launched with little fanfare as a surprise "shadow drop" during a Sony press conference.
When the first person completed the game on stream a mere few hours after it launched, P.T. immediately went viral when the end credits revealed its true purpose: the whole thing was a promotion to announce a new Silent Hill game! To this day it remains one of the most ambitious and original ways to announce a game: through the use of another game! While Silent Hills was tragically canceled, P.T. remained ingrained in the public consciousness.
Though not envisioned as a standalone title on its own, it went on to arguably become one of the most inspirational pieces of interactive horror media for the following decade. P.T. will always hold a very special place in my heart because it changed my life forever, drawing me into the wild world of game development.
But first, a little background into what P.T. even is for the uninitiated. The game's setup was deceptively simple: viewed from a first-person perspective, you entered an early 90's suburban house's hallway where an old digital clock glowed at 11:59 pm for a midnight that will never come. Perpetually frozen in time, this corridor set the stage for an eerie horror adventure unlike any other.
The game, as it turned out, was one big escape
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