Silent Hill Composer Akira Yamaoka Helming New Project

Speaking to Gamasutra at a recent game event, Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka revealed that he is supervising and producing a new project at Konami, as well as working on its music, which is about 60 percent complete so far. "I can't say much about it yet, but it should be announced soon, probably," said Yamaoka rather cryptically. But he did also reveal that he is in charge of "Planning and also producing - and overall supervision" of the unannounced title, indicating that his has a pivotal role in the game's direction. This is the first time that the veteran composer, who has been working at Konami since 1993, has moved up to directing a game. Yamaoka most recently completed the Silent Hill 5 soundtrack, stating that though the game will use Dolby surround sound, it will not be making other significant sonic breakthroughs. Though not necessarily related to the new project in question, Yamaoka then spoke about the future of adaptive sound in games, and in what direction he'd like to take it. "There’s nothing to say that we need to just have static state changes all the time," he began. "There’s no limit. You really should be able to make the sound respond to the players’ actions or movements. It's not just like 'battle music start,' or 'ambient music start' and then crossfades…" He continued: "I think it’s really important to go beyond that. I keep thinking I’d like to have the games and the graphics really and truly agree with each other. But it’s still a game. I don’t really want to make it virtual, I don’t want to emulate reality."