When it comes to new 21st-century horror franchises, none come close to A Quiet Place. The critically-acclaimed film series, started in 2018 by horror filmmakers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, has gone on to spawn a sequel (2020’s A Quiet Place Part II), an upcoming prequel (2024’s A Quiet Place Day One), and in 2025, A Quiet Place Part III. In terms of the narrative, it revolves around a now-desolate world filled with blind-yet-deadly creatures that are keen to any and all noise. to survive, you must not make any sounds, no matter what.
This year, the series enters a new realm of entertainment: video games.A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, developed bySaber Interactiveand Stormind Games, is a first-person single-player horror adventure game based in the world of the film series. Players will experience the journey of Alex, played byMy Hero Academia’s Anairis Quiñones, a pregnant young woman struggling to endure not only the blind monstrous creatures, but also personal conflicts involving family, her boyfriend Martin (played byPersona 3 Reload’s Aleks Le) and her inner fears. Using only her environment and quick thinking, she’ll have to overcome many challenging obstacles, all while surviving the threat of monsters nobody knows how to defeat. And, above all else, she has to be completely quiet, as even the smallest of sounds will spell disaster for her and others around her.
In anticipation for the upcoming release on October 17th, we had a chance to ask the developers of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead (CEO and co-founder Antonia Cannata, lead game designer Manuel Moavero, and senior narrative designer Luca Esposito) questions about the process of adapting and capturing the series and the inspiration behind it all.
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Drawing from Silence
[Hardcore Gamer] What drew you to adapting A Quiet Place and bringing it into gaming?
[Antonio Cannata - CEO and Co-Founder]Stormind Games has specialized in creating intense video games with a strong cinematic imprint. After working on the first two chapters ofRemotheredandBatora: Lost Haven, we wanted to continue down this path.A Quiet Place: The Road Aheadwas a great opportunity we immediately seized.
Adapting such a big Hollywood IP into a video game was a huge challenge and we are satisfied with the result achieved. We have created a video game that will entertain players and that from a gameplay point of view has adopted choices that make life perpetually in silence more interesting than it may seem. All the work done to rebuild the environments and make them interactive, the way we have recreated the ambient sound and those produced by the protagonist, are all elements put into play to create a truly unique experience.
The IP allowed us to take on something truly iconic, but also to create our own original story, to expand the universe of A Quiet Place and provide narrative elements that, who knows, might even have more to say.
The ‘A Quiet Place’ series has a reputation for being the scariest films due to its concept of ‘not making any noise.’ What was the process of bringing that into the game and essentially building the game around that concept?
[Manuel Moavero - Lead Game Designer]We began with an analysis phase, where we examined the core concept and explored all the ways it was brought to life in the movies. It’s not just the “don’t make noise” element that makes A Quiet Place so terrifying, but the reason why you can’t make noise. The creatures have extraordinary hearing, combined with exceptional mobility, allowing them to reach any prey in an instant, no matter how far away. This makes them a constant, looming threat. That’s why making noise is never an option. With this understanding, we established the core pillars of the game: the creatures and the noise system. Everything else in the game was built around these two elements.
What, for you, was the most crucial in nailing when it came to adapting the world of A Quiet Place?
[Manuel] The most important goal was to give players the freedom to explore, move around, confront the creatures, and interact with the world—creating an experience that is, above all, fun to play while staying true to the rules and spirit of the movies. We achieved this by working in an interdisciplinary way, bringing together design, art, code, and, most importantly, audio.
You do have a history with horror titles like the Remothered series. Did working on those help in any way for preparing and developing the world of A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead?
[Antonio] Absolutely, yes.Remotheredgave us confidence in adaptingA Quiet Place: The Road Ahead. While both games are horror titles with stalker mechanics, they offer fundamentally different experiences.A Quiet Placeintroduces creatures that lack the sense of sight, creating interesting challenges for design and development. Both games share a strong narrative focus within the horror genre, allowing us to draw on our past experience to shape the pacing and gameplay rules. Our expertise in crafting tense, story-driven horror helped in some aspects of A Quiet Place. However,A Quiet Place: The Road Aheadpresented its own unique challenges due to its distinctive world and mechanics. These hurdles pushed the team to explore new approaches and solutions, enabling us to create a fresh and compelling experience for players that stands apart from our previous titles.
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You have some high-profile voice actors for your main cast in the form of Visions of Mana’s Anairis Quiñones and Persona 3 Reload’s Aleks Le. Outside of mo-cap, how was working with them knowing that, for a good amount of the game, they wouldn’t be talking much?
[Luca Esposito - Senior Narrative Designer]Even if A Quiet Place is expected to have a light-weight approach on dialogues, exchanges between characters have always been really important. In the first movie the Abbott family constantly communicates through sign language, in the second movie proper spoken dialogues increase in number and in Day One we have noisy sequences of normal life before the invasion, packed with dialogues.
InThe Road Aheadwe have both situations, with normal life moments during flashbacks and deadly silent sequences after Day One. During the first case actors had the chance to move more freely along with dialogues, but after the invasion began, dialogues became more essential, with few meaningful lines and, in that case, the delivery is pivotal. Every breath and pause are important and Kerry Kazmierowicztrimm (writer on the game) did an incredible job helping direct the cast through our story.
Did you work with anyone who had worked on [the A Quiet Place film series]? How was that experience?
[Luca]If you are asking if we had the chance to work directly with John Krasinski, the answer is sadly no. That said, Paramount and Saber have been super helpful, giving us all the support we needed, especially on the creative side. Conferring with people who worked on IPs like Doom and Quake really skyrocketed our knowledge on the best way to communicate with the player.
Making Some Noise
How would you say your game’s story differs from what we’ve seen so far for the franchise?
[Luca]A Quiet Place: The Road Aheadfeatures an original story, with a new cast of characters, set in a time between Day One and the first movie of the series. Obviously our main goal was to give players a real A Quiet Place experience, so it has been important to detect what narrative themes and moments identify the franchise and work on them to return an experience that tastes new and, at the same time, authentic compared to the source material.
A Quiet Place: The Road Aheadfeatures an original story, with a new cast of characters, set in a time between Day One and the first movie of the series
Were there any concepts that you wanted to put into A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead that maybe didn’t see the light of day?
[Manuel] Everything we’ve created has been put into the Extras section of the game, where you can redeem, using in-game currency, animations, sketches, character designs and more. We’ve put it all there, so that we can give players an extra opportunity to see the behind the scenes of our work and, most importantly, an additional reward for collecting all the collectibles in the game, in addition to unlocking achievements or trophies.
Outside of A Quiet Place, what else would you say you drew inspiration from?
[Manuel]In addition to studying theA Quiet Placemovies frame by frame, our inspiration came from multiple sources.Alien: Isolationwas certainly a title we kept in strong consideration during development. Both the Xenomorph and the creatures from A Quiet Place are extremely deadly and relentless predators. They cannot be killed with traditional weapons and pose a constant threat to the player. Both creatures display advanced intelligence and can adapt to the player’s movements and tactics.
The principle that the enemy is always listening is crucial in both games, since the Xenomorph uses sight, smell and hearing to track the protagonist, the creatures in A Quiet Place rely primarily on their highly developed hearing to perceive noises. Then, we also drew inspiration from a variety of games that could help us create a better and more enjoyable experience—from the classicThieftoThe Last of Us, as well asSplinter Cell: Chaos TheoryandAmnesia.
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Has your experience creating A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead prepped you more or less if there was a similar occurrence in our world?
[Luca]I snore while sleeping, so I’m basically already dead. Jokes aside, dealing with a fictional invasion of invincible aliens with super-hearing forced us to think of ways to survive and how to transpose them in gameplay mechanics. I’m not sure this will help us to survive a real invasion, but it has been a great workout for our creativity!
Is there another IP that you think would make a terrific horror game?
[Luca] my personal pick would be Mark Z. Danielewski’sHouse of Leaves! Also a modernBlade Runnergame, especially in the hunting phases, could deliver great horror moments. Same for Craig Zahler’sBone Tomahawk,David Prior’sThe Empty Manand Grant Morrison’sNamelessand many, many others.
[Manuel]If I had to fantasize about which IPs I’d like to make a horror game, on the list would definitely beAnnihilation,Event Horizonfor movies.HellblazerandThe Black Monday Murdersfor comics andUbikfor novels.
What can players expect when playing A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead?
[Manuel]A Quiet Place: The Road Aheadis a narrative-driven game with an intense, cinematic story, heavily focused on stealth gameplay. This means that any progress players make during Alex’s journey will depend on their ability to adapt to evolving challenges, immersing them fully in the world ofA Quiet Place.
What, in your opinion, would be the ideal setup for someone to play A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead? Is this a lights off with headphones kind of title? Or maybe something to watch with friends?
[Manuel] This is definitely a game best experienced with headphones – not only for the heightened immersion but also to better grasp, through sound, the opportunities and dangers along the way. However, enabling microphone noise detection when someone is nearby adds a whole new layer of tension that truly needs to be experienced.
Finally, fans have wondered since the first movie and we want to know: what are the names of the creatures?
[Luca] They don’t have a specific name. They’ve been informally referred to as Death Angels, hence the acronym DA, but in reality, even inA Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, they are simply called ‘creatures,’ and nothing more. We’re sorry we can’t unveil any mystery behind this choice—it’s just the way it is!
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead launches on October 17th, to Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. To keep up to date on the game, visitthe game’s websiteand follow them onTwitter,FacebookandYouTube.
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A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a single-player horror adventure game inspired by the critically acclaimed blockbuster movie franchise that highlights a unique survivor story after an invasion of deadly creatures. In this exclusive spin-off, experience the journey of a young woman who must endure a treacherous apocalypse in the midst of interpersonal family conflicts, all while coming to terms with her own inner fears.Unnerving Atmosphere – Experience absolute terror as you strive for silence when hiding from, and sneaking by, horrific creatures who hunt using only sound.Untold Story – Embark on a dramatic adventure inspired by the A Quiet Place movie franchise as a young survivor trying to navigate the new, eerily tranquil, post-apocalyptic landscape.Uncanny Ingenuity – Discover your own path through the world by observing your environment and leveraging the tools in your surroundings.
