Silent Hill: Ascension premieres tonight as spooky audience participation game

Time for some Halloween scares. In a collaboration between Genvid Entertainment and Konami Digital Entertainment, Silent Hill: Ascension will debut tonight at 6 pm Pacific time.

This unique interactive series is part of the Genvid Interactive Series lineup and it promises an immersive and terrifying experience where audience choices shape the fate of the characters and determine the canonical ending, said Jacob Navok, CEO of Genvid, in an interview with GamesBeat.

To kick off the spine-chilling event, Genvid Entertainment will host the Silent Hill: Ascension Premiere Pre-Show” at 4:30 pm PT. The pre-show, hosted by Greg Miller and Kinda Funny, will provide fans of the Silent Hill franchise with an opportunity to gather, engage with the series creators, and prepare for the series ahead. The pre-show can be accessed through the Silent Hill: Ascension app, Ascension.com, as well as Kinda Funny’s YouTube and Twitch channels.

In a preview video, Genvid said Silent Hill: Ascension is a thrilling new interactive series where you along with the rest of the community will impact the canon of Silent Hill. Silent Hill: Ascension follows characters from locations around the world tormented by new and terrifying Silent Hill monsters lurking in the shadows. These monsters threatened to consume people and their children as they’re drawn into the darkness by both recent murders and long suppressed guilt and fears. Who lives, who dies? You decide.”

The fate of these characters are in your hands and even the creators don’t know how the show will end, Navok said. The interactive series will go on for weeks. Navok thinks this will be the future of games and entertainment.

As such, it’s the first interactive series from Genvid that will be widely available on multiple platforms, in contrast to earlier games like The Walking Dead: Last Mile and Rival Peak that were available on Facebook. Genvid called these massive interactive live events, or MILEs, where the audience could determine the outcome of the story. Now it calls the show a Genvid Interactive Series.

This show has higher production values in terms of the art work and realism of the characters. Stephan Bugaj, chief creative officer of Genvid Entertainment, said in an interview that much of the new game was inspired by Telltale Games’ narrative-based story games. In fact, a number of former Telltale game developers were hired to work on the series. It also feels a bit like Until Dawn and other titles by Supermassive Games.

Viewers can install the Silent Hill: Ascension app on their mobile devices or access Ascension.com on desktop computers to sign up for a free account. Although the series officially begins at 6 pm PT, the first decision is already available, and it will have a direct impact on the initial scenes of the livestream, including the fate of one of the main characters, Rachel Hernandez.

Audiences will have the opportunity to participate in daily decisions that shape the narrative and determine the survival of the characters. Choices will be available for a minimum of 24 hours, ensuring that fans from around the world can participate at their convenience.

“Audiences will experience Silent Hill: Ascension for the first time tonight and we have no idea what choices they will make, or how it will end,” said Navok. “It’s a perfect time for Halloween where the audience will shape this one-of-a-kind horror series over the course of the next several months. What happens tonight will set the course of what’s to come for these new Silent Hill characters.”

The storyline of Silent Hill: Ascension revolves around the intertwined lives of two families in jeopardy. The series explores the struggles of Rachel Hernandez, a rising mystic acolyte, mother, and community leader, as she performs a ritual on Joy Cirelli, a new cult member seeking spiritual healing. As things take a horrific turn, the audience will be faced with the decision of how Rachel should proceed: a) Finish the oath, b) Run!, or c) Plead for mercy.

These are new characters in the Silent Hill universe, but they’re all plagued by psychological problems.

“We’ve put a lot of effort crafting the story of the Johansen and Hernandez families, working with Konami Digital Entertainment to expand the Silent Hill lore in intriguing ways,” said Bugaj. “Creating a story where collective audience choices will determine the canonical ending has never been done before.”

Following the premier, fans can return to the Silent Hill: Ascension app or Ascension.com to watch scenes on-demand, solve puzzles, and participate in story decisions. Daily live events at 6 pm PT will unveil new scenes and provide interactive adventure sequences that shape the long-term fate of the lead characters.

“Today is special because Silent Hill: Ascension is the first project in the resurrection of the Silent Hill franchise,” said Motoi Okamoto, producer of the Silent Hill series at Konami Digital Entertainment. “I am very proud of this project as the Silent Hill series producer and I am sure that you will love it.”

While the Silent Hill: Ascension experience is free, fans have the option to customize their appearance in the community chat, leaderboards, and even make cameo appearances within the show itself. A daily cameo contest will allow winners to see characters they create featured in cinematic sequences or interactive action scenes.

“On the PC, browser or phone — whatever you want to interact with — it’s up to you. When you first log into a session each day, you get a catch up,” Navok said. “This catch up is giving you the content that you need to make decisions for that day’s choices. On the morning of October 31, before our first live stream, this is going to give you an overview of the whole show. And it’s also going to lead into the first theme of the show, which is going to have a choice at the end of it.”

For early fans, Genvid is offering a limited-time Founder’s Pack for Silent Hill: Ascension. The Founder’s Pack includes exclusive profile customizations, a Season Pass for unlocking rewards and cosmetics, and is available at a discounted price until November 14 PT.

As the series unfolds, fans can stay updated on Genvid, Konami Digital Entertainment, Bad Robot Games, and Behaviour Interactive’s Silent Hill: Ascension by visiting Ascension.com and following their social media channels.

As the number of companies involved suggests, this is a pretty big production. Bad Robot Games, the game division of Hollywood director JJ Abrams, is making the characters for the game. And Behaviour Interactive’s team is creating much of the game itself, with direction from Genvid and Konami.