Silent Hill: Townfall developer NoCode rebrands to Screen Burn

Glasgow-based video game developer NoCode, which has worked on titles such as Observation and Stories Untold, has officially changed its name to Screen Burn amid ongoing development of its latest project, Silent Hill: Townfall. The rebranding to Screen Burn is a nod to Silent Hill: Townfall, inspired by the ghost of an image burned into an old CRT screen.

Founder and creative director of Screen Burn, Jon McKellan, commented on the rebranding, “We’re not who we were in 2015. We’ve grown and changed. For a start, we have coders now! So, we need a name that instead reflects what’s always been at the heart of games themselves, the imperfect feel of old technology, and the lasting impact of a story that stays with you long after the credits roll.”

Screen Burn is currently working on the Silent Hill spin-off project dubbed Townfall in collaboration with publisher Konami. It’s a standalone entry in the Silent Hill franchise, which was initially announced in 2022. 

Jon McKellan’s been a long-time fan of the Silent Hill series and, like a true fan, had played the original Silent Hill game on the PS1 in 1999. It’s clear Screen Burn’s founder is passionate about this opportunity. He further stated,” It’s a real honor for us to bring a new title to the series that both respects the source material but also does something a little bit different with it.”

As for gameplay, details remain sparse as we’ve only been treated to a few images, a trailer, and teasers during the announcement. What we can speculate so far is the game’s first-person perspective, which is contrary to the third-person camera angle of Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 Remake and the upcoming Silent Hill f project.

McKellan further teased, “Until we can show you more, it might be worth watching the trailer again and see what you might have missed.” Speculation online suggests that the game takes place sometime in the 1980s, hinting that Townfall is a prequel to Silent Hill 1.