Designing Silent Hill cost its original art director his love life: 'I never had any girlfriends, coz I had no time for it'

James looking in a mirror — (Image credit: Konami)

Masahiro Ito is the legendary artist who worked on the original Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3 as art director—designing monsters in some of the most visually striking horror games of all time. But success comes at a price.

During a little Q&A, Ito discussed his busy schedule back in the day, when he was majoring in graphic design, studying oil painting on the side, and learning 3D modeling and animation alongside developing the first Silent Hill. "However, I could [model]/build all of the creatures and all of the animations of them from Silent Hill 2," Ito says. "I also thought of all of the plans of Pyramid Head's cutscenes and built them by myself. Practice makes perfect."

While all of this work has clearly paid off—Ito has no shortage of fans—there are some drawbacks. "As a side note, all the time I was attending my art university or was developing Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, and a cancelled title, I never had any girlfriends," Ito says. "Coz I had no time for it. I never thought I was a genius, but I was terribly competitive. The only way to beat geniuses is to give yourself up entirely to what you wanna accomplish."

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.