Silent Hill and Slitterhead creator makes a recruitment call for his ‘new large-scale project’
Slitterhead brought Bokeh Game Studio to “the starting line”, Keiichiro Toyama says
Silent Hill and Slitterhead creator Keiichiro Toyama has called for developers to join his studio as it starts work on a “new large-scale project”.
After creating Silent Hill at Konami then joining Sony to create the Siren and Gravity Rush series, Toyama left Sony in 2020 and co-founded Bokeh Game Studio. The studio’s first game, Slitterhead, was released in 2024.
Now the studio is starting work on its second title, and Toyama has posted an open letter on Japanese recruitment site HRMOS calling for developers to join the team for “a new large-scale project”.
In the message, Toyama says Slitterhead brought the studio to “the starting line”, seemingly implying that its real work begins now.
“I’m Keiichiro Toyama, CEO of Bokeh Game Studio,” the statement reads (via machine translation). “Slitterhead, released in November 2024, was the first game we released. We faced the question: ‘Could we truly make a game by launching this studio, with this team, using this approach?’
“By confronting that question and shaping it into a single work, we finally feel we’ve reached the starting line.
“The core of Bokeh Game Studio’s approach to creation is very simple – be original. We won’t create something that anyone else could make. This doesn’t mean we seek to be bizarre – it means we never stop asking ‘why are we making this?’ and ‘why are we the ones making it?’ and constantly look for expressions that only we can achieve.
“We want to create alongside people who share this attitude who, even when faced with struggles and doubts, are still determined to ‘make something interesting’ and continue to challenge themselves creatively.”
Toyama warned prospective new recruits that the new game is still in the very early stages, where numerous ideas will eventually be scrapped, but noted that working this early in a game’s development can be rewarding.
“Currently, our entire studio is working on a new project,” he wrote. “It’s not an easy path because we’ll be going through trial and error from the initial stages. However, this lets us to deeply engage with the core of the work, where our choices and struggles will directly shape the game’s form.
“Being involved from this phase promises to be an experience beyond compare. We look forward to evolving this project further alongside you. We sincerely await your application.”
Last year Toyama confirmed to Famitsu that he was working on a new game project, and suggested that it wasn’t a sequel to Slitterhead.
Toyama told the publication that he felt that it wasn’t the right time to think about creating a sequel to the game, but added that he may still return to Slitterhead in the future. For the time being, Bokeh is working on a new project that involves the entirety of the studio, he said, and its ambitions to make multiple smaller games are on hold.
Slitterhead was self-published by Bokeh Game Studio, but in December 2025 the game’s Steam page changed its publisher to Spike Chunsoft. It’s not yet clear why.
