Chris Darril

Chris Darril
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	April 13, 1989
Place of birth:	Catania, Italy
Career
Profession:	Artist, game designer, director, writer
Notable works:	Remothered Bye Sweet Carole Before Saying Goodbye

Chris Darril (born April 13, 1989, Catania, Sicily) is an Italian artist, game designer, and director.

He is the creator of the Remothered series, founder of Darril Arts and Little Sewing Machine. He was the creative director and partner of Stormind Games in developing Remothered: Tormented Fathers and Remothered: Broken Porcelain.

Biography

The following text is the official biography originally published by Darril Arts

Born and raised in Catania (Italy), Chris Darril is a game designer, director and artist. Chris is an enthusiast arts-lover, with a strong passion for cinema and videogames, the arts that follow and embrace in harmony the ones that came before them.

During his early years, his attention is caught by the masterpieces produced by Disney throughout its “renaissance”. What really intrigues Chris the most about these animation movies is understanding the process behind the animation of the drawings themselves. As a 4-year-old kid, Chris makes his first “attempt” to create an animation movie: he sketches on several sheets of paper and puts them inside his video recorder, which eventually gets broken. This anecdote tells a lot about Chris’ artistic inclination and his wish to develop original projects.

During the following years, Chris keeps drawing several characters and creating new stories. Following this path, he gives birth to Remothered, his own tribute in style to cult titles such as Silent Hill by Keiichiro Toyama and Clock Tower by Hifumi Kouno, but also inspired by movies like The Silence of the Lambs, Rosemary’s Baby and Mulholland Drive. The idea behind Remothered begins in 2007, when Chris Darril is only 18. The project starts taking shape in 2009, as a indie game, with Darril in the role of the only developer working on it.

Despite its naive nature and the inconsistent development typical of an homemade project, Remothered unexpectedly raises the interest of several gamers, thanks to the buzz generated by the fans. At this stage, the project is just a 2D game created though RPG Maker XP, but it gains the attention of the audience and specialized magazines and gathers its own fan-base at a global level.

Remothered rapidly shows to be on par with the most known survival horror videogames as it relies on a solid structure, a peculiar characterization and an intriguing storytelling.

In 2011, Darril takes part in a competition for indie game developers, where Remothered obtains positive feedback. The first offers arrive in no time. Chris gets sincerely surprised when he receives a €100.000 offer for the game’s intellectual property alone.

This event makes Chris aware of the real potential of his project, born out of a hobby and evolved into an authentic case. As a consequence, this huge offer doesn’t separate the author from his work-of-art - actually, Chris becomes even more charmed by the idea to keep developing Remothered. Supported by his friends, Darril turns down the offer to sell the intellectual property and focuses on the development of the game.

This is when Darril gets contacted by an indie game development team, eager to work on Remothered. The plan is to join forces: the company commits to develop the game using its own team and budget, while Chris operates as main designer and art director. This partnership soon turns out to be just an attempt to use the popularity of Remothered as a brand to develop a project that has nothing to do with the story Chris has in mind.

Due to his bond with the original plot and characters, Darril decides to halt the partnership and to take a break from Remothered. During this period, he becomes a member of the scientific board of the IUDAV (Institute University of Digital Animation and Videogames). Furthermore, Psychoz Interactive hires him to work on Forgotten Memories: Alternate Realities as art director and concept designer.

This stimulating role enriches Chris’ experience, who also begins a collaboration with Nude Maker, a Japanese game developer, for the highly-anticipated Kickstarter success Project Scissors: NightCry. Chris has now the opportunity to work together with artists such as Takashi Shimizu, the filmmaker of The Grudge franchise, and Hifumi Kouno, creator and game director of Clock Tower.

In the meantime, Remothered, even if temporarily on hiatus, gets registered at the Italian copyright collecting agency. Encouraged by the international designers he works with, Chris partners up with 3 of his friends and colleagues and funds Darril Arts with the aim to give birth to Remothered the way it deserved to.

What follows next is the partnership with Stormind Games - an Italian videogame development studio that produces thrilling games with strong cinematic vibes - and the development of Remothered flies off.

Nobuko Toda, esteemed musician and composer (Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, Halo, The Evil Within) joins the team as she composes the inspiring soundtrack of Remothered. The project, originally thought as a home-made indie title, becomes a game that shows to be every bit as good as the most impressive AAA works. After a decade, the project of Chris Darril is finally ready to hit the market.

Official biography ends here

Career after Remothered

In March 2021, he was awarded with the highest recognition at the DStars Awards, the Game World Observer, defining him as "the most important professional for his contribution to the Italian scene in 2020 and bridging the gap between videogames and art of cinema." His short film Before Saying Goodbye that featured prominently in Remothered received an award for "Best Director in a Short Movie" at Oniros Film Awards.

In September 2021, he announced his new game titled Bye Sweet Carole, a 2D horror-adventure with hand-drawn graphics inspired by Disney, alongside his newly founded company Little Sewing Machine.

In January 2022, he announced his departure from Remothered as he had chosen to focus on Bye Sweet Carole and other projects. He revealed that the development of Broken Porcelain was an unfortunate period of his life due to his mother dying of a terminal illness during the time of game's production. Allegedly, he had less directive control over the game, citing creative differences with the developers, and adding skills and weapons was not his idea. He shared that he didn't approve the re-writes to the story, stating the final game does not represent his creative vision for it.

He shared some ideas and concept art he had for Chapter 3, Broken Porcelain DLC and a graphic novel in late 2022.

Works

Completed

• Forgotten Memories: Alternate Realities (Graphic designer and art director)
• NightCry (Storyboard and concept artist)
• Remothered: Tormented Fathers (Creator, writer and director)
• Remothered: Broken Porcelain (Creator, writer and director)
• Before Saying Goodbye (short film) (Director)
• Remothered: A Lamb To The Slaughter - Book 1 (graphic novel) (Writer)

Upcoming

• Bye Sweet Carole (Creator, writer and director)
• Bye Sweet Carole 2
• Ruby and Dices
• My Horrible Guest (film)

Not in his plans

• Remothered: Chapter 3
• Remothered 2D
• Remothered: Tainted Memories (graphic novel)
• Releasya (cancelled adventure game)

Trivia

• He revealed Remothered was dedicated to his mother, who suffered from cancer, and he had written the story as an allegory for her struggle. She passed away in January, 2021.
• If asked to remake Clock Tower, he would make it in 3D with a gameplay similar to Sherry's chapter in Capcom's Resident Evil 2 remake.
  • In 2022, he posted a screenshot of a proposed 2D remake in an art style reminiscent of the classic Disney animated films.
• He is friends with Hidetaka Suehiro aka SWERY, creator of a cult classic Deadly Premonition.
• He stated he wasn't planning on revisiting Remothered 2D, however, he would reuse its sources as a basis for a new project. The project was revealed to be Bye Sweet Carole.
• He hates Broken Porcelain.
• His favorite Remothered character is Rosemary Reed.
• He's a longtime supporter of LGBT rights as he believes "love is beyond gender."It is reflected in his work as Remothered features LGBT characters as main leads.
• He accused the Panaroma magazine of plagiarizing his review of Rule of Rose, that was originally posted on gameradar forums in 2006, and using it to start a moral panic against the game in Italy.

External links

• Official Darril Arts website (archive)
• Little Sewing Machine website
• IMDB page
• Deviantart page
• Wikipedia page (ita.)