In just one year since its launch, P.T.—a short but haunting "playable teaser"—has gained a sort of cult status among video game fans. It's a snippet of possibility, a flicker of potential for a Hideo Kojima-directed Silent Hill game we now know will certainly never exist (read my reflections on the series here).
The game is set in a single atmospheric hallway that loops, twisting the player's sense of reality (this excellent P.T. critique will give you the idea). I thought P.T. was so scary that I had to hand the controller off to someone else to finish. But when our friend played through it, none of the experiences I'd had occurred for him; it's opaque and capricious, and has launched dozens of wild fan theories.
Since the cancellation of Silent Hills, P.T. is no longer available on the PlayStation Store. But if you never got to see it for yourself, Calgary-based aspiring game developer Farhan Qureshi has meticulously modeled and recreated P.T's hallway using the low-impact Unity tool. It's an amazing technical achievement, and a chance for some edition of that iconic space to exist in a fashion everyone can visit.
Actual "PuniTy" screenshot
"I started this project for a 3D modelling workshop I'm teaching for a game developer group here in Calgary," he writes. "At first I just wanted to make the P.T. hallway, then started adding sounds and…other things out of obsession. In total I've spent about 104 hours over four weeks making this, and I'm happy / burnt out enough to stop here."
His attention to detail and sound makes it feel almost exactly like you're playing the original game. For those who are interested in tools themselves, Qureshi, who hopes to find a job in game development, has an extensive post on how he replicated the hallway here.
Download "PuniTy" for free here.
