Following the abrupt end of Allison Road's development, publisher Team17 explains the reasons behind the game's cancellation without really explaining a thing.
Earlier this month, horror fans received news that Allison Road, the P.T. (Silent Hills) inspired horror game, was being cancelled and that a statement on the subject would be released shortly thereafter. Later, the game's official Facebook page posted this message:
After a long consideration between Team17 and ourselves, we have reached a mutual agreement to end our collaboration on publishing Allison Road under Team17’s Games label.
Sometimes things pan out differently than expected as game development and publishing have so many layers of complexity... We’d like to especially thank everyone for their support through-out, it has and will always be appreciated!
The game's developer, Lilith Ltd., is correct in pointing out the complexities of game development. As with any game, there was clearly a lot going on behind the scenes for Allison Road -- likely more than the average gamer would understand or even be interested in -- but a modicum of details would have provided some comfort to those eagerly awaiting the game.
A short time after this, publisher Team17 made good on its promise by releasing a statement to VG 24/7. However, anyone looking for answers behind the game's cancellation will find none.
After a long consideration between Lilith owner Chris Kesler and ourselves, we have reached a mutual agreement to end our collaboration on publishing Allison Road under Team17’s Games label.
We love the concept and value Chris talent highly, but sometime things pan out differently than expected as game development and publishing have so many layers of complexity. The whole team here wish all the best to Chris on his current and future projects for which, before being a business partner, we are also a fan.
Whatever happened, it was par for the course for Allison Road's development, which began as roughly as it ended. Following the cancellation of Konami's Silent Hills, horror fans found solace in an indie game being developed by Lilith Ltd. that was similar in both look and tone to the cancelled game. Despite this new interest, Allison Road was unable to reach its funding goals through its Kickstarter campaign, but was saved by publisher Team17 for a time.
Perhaps it was a butting of heads between developer and publisher, perhaps it was something within the game itself, or maybe Allison Road was just doomed from the start, as one of our own writers believes. Regardless, so ends another potential haunted house horror game with nary an explanation.
Nevertheless, fans of the genre should not lose hope just yet. E3 2016 just ended and there are plenty of horror games on the horizon. In fact, we chose a few that we believed to be the best horror games at the convention. On that list we have Resident Evil 7, Capcom's next entry into the popular series, which sports an eerily familiar style. It also just so happens that the game's producer loved P.T. So, while there's proof that Allison Road may be dead, the genre is still very much alive -- or better yet, undead.