I just released our new horror game "Amnesia"

[Thomas]

Just wanted to say that we just released our horror game "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" yesterday. I have mentioned it in a few post and while not a 100% notgame project, a lot of notgame thinking has gone into it. There is no "fun" gameplay at the core really, there is very little trial and error we have had a holistic / top-down approach where we started with a feeling and then let everything added support that. There are gamey elements in the game and I know Michael disliked a few parts with enemies The plan was to add an easy mode (with no dangerous enemies) but we did not have time. Perhaps we will add it for a patch.

In any case, I think that the notgames thinking has served us very well. What we have tried to do is to put some more responsibility on the player and require them to roleplay in order to be engaged in the game. This has been very visible in comments, as some players are simply unable to do this (perhaps to used to cheap action based thrills that do not require anything?), but quite a lot of people have, seemingly unconsciously, been able to immerse them self. Horror is probably by far the easiest emotion to do this for, but I think it bodes well for the future and I hope to explore it more.

I liked this reddit write up:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/db2d4/my_amnesia_the_dark_descent_experience_last_night/
it shows how the player managed to almost create the experience by themselves.

And we also got a, extremely surprisingly, positive review from Game Informer

Amnesia is barely a game in the traditional sense, leaving the nearly two decades of horror gaming tradition since Alone in the Dark by the wayside and forging its own twisted path.

http://gameinformer.com/games/amnesia_the_dark_descent/b/pc/archive/2010/09/08/horror-done-right.aspx

Here is a link if you are interested:
http://www.amnesiagame.com

[Erik Svedäng]

Congrats on releasing the game and all the positive feedback!!! Saw the interview in the newspaper (DN) today also, it was great (and touched upon a lot of notgamey stuff in an easy-to-understand kind of way). I'm in the middle of the demo now... it's pretty scary

[Thomas]

DN? I heard we where in SvD Not seen for myself

[Erik Svedäng]

Oops, we change newspaper too often in this house. SvD was it. Good anyways!

[QXD-me]

I've been looking forward to this. It's the only game I've been excited enough about to pre-order recently apart from Demon's Souls, and I don't even particularly like the horror genre. I think a lot of your blog posts about designing it convinced me that it would be interesting, plus I started playing Penumbra Overture recently which helped convince me of Amnesia's potential.

Saying that, I probably won't download it until I go back to uni, partly because of my crappy internet connection here and partly because I'm currently low on hard drive space and need some time to delete stuff. But I'm really looking forward to playing it.

[badvibration]

I look forward to Amnesia, I played penumbra overture awhile back after purchasing the humble indie bundle and while it wasn't a favorite of mine, I was intrigued with all the things you guys are doing with the horror genre and actual gameplay mechanics (the actual pulling of doors is really immersive for me).

[Jeroen D. Stout]

I am so happy to hear this, Thomas - I hope you gain a lot of attention, I am very intrigued by the game and what it seems to be. I must admit I was getting a bit nervous not seeing any truly interesting games come out, but here you are!

I will sacrifice nightly rest to play it, but then, I understand that is somewhat the point of the game.

Also I am reminded of our discussions on knowledge of cold doorhandles, so I am very curious to see how I will receive non-visual/audio information

And GameInformer being positive?.. Some days I think 'never' but some days I think the (what I secretly refer to as the) 'Samyn revolution' is not that far away at all.

I will certainly give you some decent feedback when I have had a chance to play it.

[Utforska]

I saw the interview this morning, on the rare occasion of me checking SvD's mobile website! For some reason they don't seem to have published it on their regular website.

Here's a crude touched-up google translation for the 1% people on this forum who aren't from Sweden.

Experience as a weapon
Swedish game developer Frictional Games tries to find its own paths, outside the publishing system. Despite limited resources, they want to teach us to play in a new way to experience rather than to win.

Thomas Grip says he has butterflies in his stomach, but it can not be heard over the phone. The butterfly flutter is drowning in the sound of all the visions he stored inside and now bubbling over of.

Thomas is a founder of Frictional Games, a small games studio headquartered in Helsingborg, and is responsible for the overall design of the PC game Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a horror story released today. The butterflies in the stomach comes from expectations on feedback from players and critics.

Frictional Games has financed the entire production process itself, and now also manages the publishing and PR without help from a publisher. But Thomas Grip seems to enjoy the outsider role. To ask him what is wrong with today's gaming industry is like pushing a button.

"Oh wow, it's so much. The narrative is at the same level as in the 90s. The stakes are so high that no one dares to take the next step. That is why we get games full of marines and variations of Conan the Barbarian. Today the best games' stories are on the same level as the worst action movies."

Should the game medium learn from film and literature?

"No, they are no good role models. In the literature there is a several thousand year old tradition of storytelling with dramaturgy, turning points and character development. Many game developers are trying to copy that instead of seeing storytelling in the game as something new. In a novel set at the North Pole you must weave together a story just to illustrate how difficult the situation is. In a game, you can instead experience it directly by interacting with the environment."

How is Amnesia different from other games?

"You don't have any weapons. You don't kill any monsters and you shoot no one. You are an ordinary person. Even that many find strange. In a horror game where you have a weapon in front of you bobbing up and down the screen, the reaction when you hear a monster approaching will be "Yes, a monster! Finally I get to shoot!" In Amnesia it's the opposite. The player stands no chance against the monsters. The only way to survive is to avoid them."

But don't players expect to kill things?

"Yes. When you sit down with a game many think automatically, "What should I do to win?" But you don't sit down with a book thinking 'How do I get faster to the last page?" It's the word "game" that misleads. It should really be called "interactive experience". But of course it is difficult to replace a word we're used to. Instead, we try to educate people in what games can mean. We want the player to think "How do I immerse myself into this game and experience as much as possible?""

Some of your fans write on your site that you are the savior of the game medium. Why?

"Haha, I try to take both praise and complaints with a grain of salt. But you should not be afraid to have high goals. Although we have limited resources, we can be part of taking the game media in new directions."

[Michaël Samyn]

Congratulations on the release!
I really hope the press continues to be positive and Amnesia becomes a big success! We all know it deserves that. I'm crossing all fingers I can find.

I'm eager to play it. But I want to do so in optimal circumstances. It's like I'm teasing myself with this.

[God at play]

That's awesome man, congratulations.  I'll check out the demo and make sure I can make it through the whole game.

The comments from that Reddit link all seem incredibly positive.  Although many people are saying they're too scared to play it.  That sounds cool, but are you worried that you made the game so scary it will hurt your sales?  Someone mentioned you topped the Steam charts; are you doing well enough to recover?

[Thomas]

Well, "being too scary" also draws attention so it is a double edged sword And besides, it is all about making the work of art as one wants it right?

Sales are good, although with all the positive response we have had we where hoping for a bit more. That is not saying they are bad though. I think we have recouped the cost it took to make the game by now. But was working at very low salaries, so need to get in more for the sales to fully finance the next game too.

All looking good though, so will be no need have publisher or the like. Gonna try and use this freedom to try new stuff and get further into the territory of not games. For next game, we are gonna try and get rid of all classic incoherent adventure game puzzles and the like. Also gonna see if we can evoke emotions other than fear.

Feedback we have collected from this game suggest that as long as you have game where the player has a high level of presence, you can make them play along with just about anything. Fear seems like the simplest thing to do, and will be interesting to see what will be possible to achieve.

[QXD-me]

For next game, we are gonna try and get rid of all classic incoherent adventure game puzzles and the like.

Having just finished 'Penumbra: Black Plague', I'd say this was one of the main differences between it and 'Overture'. I found the puzles to be a lot more natural and intuitive in 'Overture' while I often had no idea what I was even supposed to be doing at parts of 'Black Plague' and had to use a walkthrough throughout. On the other hand, I found the 'combat', or lack of, to work a lot better in the 2nd one because the enemies were actually scary (I suppose the spiders kinda were in the first) whereas the dogs in the first one were more of an annoyance because it was always far easier to kill them than to hide or run away. Also, 'Black Plague' seemed to have "bigger" scares, though maybe that's just because I played it more recently so I remember them better...

Also gonna see if we can evoke emotions other than fear.

I'd very much like to see that, fear isn't my favourite of emotions 



Also, I've finally started downloading Amnesia on steam. Impressions should be forthcoming within the next week or so.

[Thomas]

I found the puzles to be a lot more natural and intuitive in 'Overture' while I often had no idea what I was even supposed to be doing at parts of 'Black Plague' and had to use a walkthrough throughout.

Any examples here? As I want to remove any forced puzzles for the next game, would be nice to hear what you found most natural and which where least natural.

[Mike]

Can not start the game on my Macbook. Is there any chance for Intel graphics support? 

[Thomas]

Can not start the game on my Macbook. Is there any chance for Intel graphics support? 

Afraid not, most Intel cards are not powerful enough. And those that are have bad drivers.