Abandoned's director speaks out following cancellation rumours
"I'm scared. I'm not going to lie."
Following confusion over the project's future, the director of upcoming PS5 game Abandoned has spoken out about why developer Blue Box deleted various tweets about the game, the status of the game's prologue and his own "heartbreak" about the situation now surrounding the game's release.
Speaking to IGN, Hasan Kahraman of Blue Box Game Studios said the developer had removed older tweets about the game in a bid to keep information surrounding Abandoned up to date. "Basically, the tweets were deleted because some of the concept has changed, and I figured maybe just deleting the tweet and then tweeting more relevant information would be a better idea - which was actually not a good idea," Kahraman said.
"I have learned now just to keep them. Even if the information or concept changed, just keep the older information because people eventually will see for themselves what the difference is and then see what's more actual."
Many fans saw the removal of tweets as bad news - leading some to question the game's existence, and deduce it was either cancelled or all just an elaborate scam. In response to this outcry, Blue Box released a statement addressing the rumours, assuring people it was still coming. Addressing it again now, Kahraman said it was "heartbreaking".
Kahraman went on to discuss Abandoned's prologue, and emphasised that despite widespread assumption, it would not be a demo. Rather, it would its own "standalone game" with a price tag (although according to Kahraman this will be at the low end of the pricing scale, as the prologue will only have a couple of hours of gameplay) and its own set of trophies.
"The revenue collected from the Prologue will actually be used to fund the development for Abandoned, right? So, we're actually self-funding the game," Kahraman explained. "So, that's why we want to release the Prologue first."
Kahraman also said more content would come to Abandoned’s Realtime Experience app throughout 2022, although no specifics were given.
"The reason why people haven't seen anything of the game yet, any development of the game yet, is because simply, and to describe it in one word, is that I'm scared. I'm not going to lie," Kahraman said. "I'm not working for Ubisoft. I'm not working for a AAA publisher who tells me what to do, who basically tells me what game I should make.
"And the development progress, not everyone might get it because gamers don't see, don't understand what 'in development' means. Gamers don't care about that.
"The gamers only care about what they're seeing at that moment. And I'm between these two choices where I either... decide to actually show some development [now], the progress, to share with the world the development progress of Abandoned – and between the choice of whether I should wait just to do a proper reveal."
On his own Twitter feed, Kahraman has written heartfelt pleas to the community to "give [him] a break".
Following an earlier interview, Kahraman shared he "did NOT do a good job doing the interview. But c'mon guys... This is my first on-going interview. It was a mess, I had no overview what I wanted to say."
Finally, Kahraman stated once again that he was a genuine person, and not an actor hired to talk about Abandoned - despite earlier suggestion this was a repeat of a Hideo Kojima-style marketing move.
"I am who I say I am. There is no other truth than this."
Elsewhere, the vocalist who had previously revealed they had been left in the dark by Blue Box following their work recording music for Abandoned has said the situation was now resolved. The band, The Eyes Inside, released a statement saying they chatted with Kahraman, and "everything is okay".
In addition to this, they shared a video for the game’s upcoming music entitled "Exitus", which can be listened to below.
