Director SWERY Answers Questions About ‘The Missing’ and Why He Opened His Studio

Arc System Works shared a new video for their the White Owls Inc developed puzzle platformer The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC-via Steam on October 11.

In the video, director Hidetaka “Swery65” Suehiro answers questions from the publisher about his upcoming game including the story premise, which stars the main character, J.J., and her best friend Emily as they go on a camping trip. During the night, Emily goes missing and for some reason J.J. becomes immortal. During her quest to find Emily, J.J. will encounter death many times but can regenerate herself over and over.

Swery explains that a small team of 9 developers poured themselves into developing The Missing. Mostly, the staff focused on making difficult and interesting puzzles, which seem to take a little trial and error to figure out.

Swery also mentions why he established White Owls, stating that in 2015 he had taken time away from the game’s industry due to illness. During that time he met many developers which expanded his ideas of what the video game industry can be and says, “I wanted to bring more than a story or worldview that everyone already knows me for. That’s why I decided to make The Missing.”

White Owls is currently developing the Kickstarter funded adventure game The Good Life, making The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories the studios’ debut title.

You can watch the video interview below:

Author’s take: I have a lot of respect for what Swery is doing. He is respected in the gaming industry, but his titles are still very niche. I’m glad to see him actively working and creating projects that he is passionate about. I will be giving The Missing a try if only to see what this small team is capable of creating.