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SWERY on Death Game Hotel & designing White Owls' first VR game

Hidetaka 'SWERY' Suehiro sat down with us to talk about White Owls' first VR game, Death Game Hotel, and the studio's future in VR and traditional games.

TJ Denzer

August 2, 2024 8:25 AM

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Deadly Premonition and The Good Life studio White Owls put out a new game in July, but it’s not like anything we’ve seen out of Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro and his crew yet. It’s a single- and multiplayer VR game called Death Game Hotel. What’s more, he was kind enough to sit down with us and talk about the game. Multiplayer and VR are both frontiers White Owls hasn’t spent much time on until now, but SWERY didn’t just see Death Game Hotel as an exciting opportunity. It also represents an interesting step forward for White Owls as a developer.

Death Game Hotel is out as of July 2024 and is currently exclusive to the Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro on Meta’s VR app shop. In this game, players engage in a tournament of gambling and sacrifice. Players will play parlor games with either a cast of characters in a single-player story or with other players online in multiplayer. The catch? You’re gambling with body parts and if you lose, well… It’s a cheeky and diabolical narrative that makes the game’s myriad amusements just a bit chilling and more intense.

SWERY was excited to design Death Game Hotel because it immerses the player in an interesting social experience. It was actually spawned out of experiences White Owls had during the pandemic when Japan was on forced lockdown. To keep the team socially connected, they invested in VR headsets, and ultimately, they began putting their creativity in that space. Death Game Hotel isn’t a one-off experience either. White Owls is still working on Hotel Barcelona With Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture in a traditional game format, but SWERY says Death Game Hotel, Hotel Barcelona, and his previous games build towards something exciting. With experience in these areas, the team won’t feel limited by what it can accomplish next.

Death Game Hotel is out now and available to buy and download on Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro headsets now, so check it out if you want to see the next big thing from the mind of SWERY and the White Owls team. Meanwhile, be sure to check out our other videos at Shacknews, ShacknewsVODs and Shacknews Interviews for more gameplay, interviews, podcasts, livestream VODs, and more on the latest video games, technology, and toys.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.