First reported by Japanese site GameWatch and translated by Automaton, Silent Hill producer Motoi Okamoto revealed a surprising demand placed on Silent Hill f’s scenario (or story) team: Read a ton of books.
Okamoto spoke in a lecture at Japan’s CEDEC 2026—that’s “CESA Developer’s Conference” longwise, or “Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association Developer’s Conference” extra longwise.
In his talk, “The Art of Producing Silent Hill,” Okamoto said that he believes being well-read is an important trait for videogame producers to cultivate, and that reading the entire body of work by any game writer he collaborated with was a matter of “basic respect.”
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But that drive for literacy doesn’t just stop with Okamoto. In the interest of having strong “input” for the developers, Okamoto said that, “within the team, we put pressure on each other, especially among the scenario writers, to read at least 100 to 200 books a year.”
That’s a lotta books, man. I’ve been working on my reading habit, and I’ll be happy if I crack 20 this year, with a bullish forecast for a two-a-month pace in 2027. I’m usually circumspect of workplace quotas or “KPIs” (key performance indicators), but this is one I can get behind. Books are good for you.
I really caught on Okamoto’s mention of “input:” Having a base of artistic inspiration outside videogames is something I’ve heard many other veteran developers stress. Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer recently spoke about being influenced by fine art, cinema, and theater in a video on his YouTube channel.
Last year, Final Fantasy composer Nobuou Uematsu lamented the stagnation he saw in game music, which he partly attributed to new composers overly relying on other videogame music for inspiration.
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