Nakanishi gave the developers total creative freedom, deliberately refraining from imposing any design specifications.
Because of this, the prototype of the game was developed using the Unity game engine. The game was to be built with a new engine, the “RE Engine”, which was, however, not yet ready for use at the time. They travelled to Louisiana together to get a “feel” for the local setting. To form a common mindset, the team visited “haunted houses” and watched horror films together.
In April 2014, a team of ten developers began pre-production on the game.
Initially, the new direction taken by the series drew criticism from the marketing department, but in the end Kenzo Tsujimoto, CEO of Capcom, authorised its development. As such, RE7 also represented a direct departure from its predecessor (Hornshaw 2016). The aim was then to bring ‘horror’ back into the franchise, as the market had been oversaturated with action zombie shooters at the time (Nakanishi & Fabiano 2017). This tabula rasa allows for players to experience the horror first-hand, and not through fully-formed characters from the previous games. In RE7, the first-person single-player mode is used for the first time in the Resident Evil series, with new characters that are not anchored in the previous canon.
What sets the Japanese apart is the artistry of taking an element and using it to its full potential.” (Capcom USA 2020, 23). “At the time, open-world games were a global trend, but Takeuchi felt that this type of large-scale game didn’t suit the Japanese – especially Capcom’s development team. The explanation given in the art book released by Capcom in 2020, ‘Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Document File’, which includes details on their development process is also interesting here: The aim was to achieve narrative depth through the use of narrow, claustrophobic and photorealistic set-pieces, rather than expansive open-world areas. The team’s main inspiration for the new game was the 1981 film The Evil Dead (five characters, action contained within a confined space). This development environment should also actively encourage experimentation with new ideas. At the same time, Jun Takeuchi, the Managing Corporate Officer of Capcom, wanted to use the development of RE7 to build a more cost and labour-efficient environment in game production, which could also serve as a possible talent factory (Capcom USA 2020, 20). Thus, the observations based on this should be viewed with a source-critical approach, and in light of its context as a ‘sales pitch’:Īccording to Fabiano, the planning for RE7 began in February 2014. Peter Fabiano, Senior Manager at Capcom, gave a presentation on the game’s development process at GDC 2017 (Nakanishi & Fabiano 2017). The creative director was Toshi Nakanishi, who had previously played a key role in developing the Nintendo 3DS title Resident Evil: Revelations in 2012. RE7 was released in January 2017 on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and in May 2018 on the Nintendo Switch.
Platform: Windows Xbox One PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch (for the analysis, the PS4 version was played) Narrative Consultant: Richard Pearsey (first western writer of a RE game) There, he finds an abandoned house in the swamps. In it, Ethan explains that his wife Mia has contacted him after three years and that he is now on his way to Dulvey, Louisiana to pick her up. Her last sentence is: “…if you get this, stay away.” In the next shot, we see a bird’s eye view of a car driving through a rural area and overhear a telephone conversation. A new video appears on the screen, showing the same woman again, but this time she is upset and afraid. The video cuts off abruptly we see dirtied hands in a dark room tampering with an old laptop. She tells him that she is there working as a babysitter. The game begins with a cutscene that has the feel of a video recording: a woman, Mia, stands on a ship against the railings and cheerily greets her husband.