So, as I said in my last post, I interviewed the team over at Frictional Games for
Xugo Gaming twice, once prior to the release of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and once after its release, as a bit of a followup. Below is the second of these interviews.
NGW: Let's start by talking a bit about the game that almost wasn't, if you don't mind. Leading up to its release it became known that you guys almost had to drop work on Amnesia completely. Care to shed any light on the subject?
Frictional Games: It's also lost in a haze of Amnesia so can't remember really. Nah, the short version is something like this: We originally had a publisher to do a new game, we had to break that contract and found ourselves with no money to really run the company for as long as it would take to finish the game. We had a rush where we tried all possible solutions, from bank loans to investors, right at this time there was a sale of Penumbra on Steam, which had a huge success. We then took a quick decision to cut salaries in half and re-plan the project to be completed in a short timeframe and started working furiously. We did not have the money needed to finish the project, but we had a couple of months and made a budget where we had some key areas where we needed to get more money.
The same year we had a great combination of a Penumbra Collection for Linux/Mac re-launch, with a heavy sale and a spot on blog post on a popular Linux blog (blog of Helios) which created another great weekend sale of madness. This occurred just as things were looking pretty game over for us.
We continued on and during the rest of the project we managed to get some extra cash when needed, so we kept running on the low burner and managing to survive. Then during this late spring there was the HIB, at which point we knew already that we were going to be able to finish the game with out any troubles, but the HIB really made it feel very safe and warm, that after finishing the game we would not be completely out of money. Thank's to the HIB we have been able to sleep comfortable and knowing that even if Amnesia failed tremendously we would have a couple of months again to think of solutions. Thank fully Amnesia did not fail...
NGW: Following on from above, you also have stated that your future as a company is pretty much being decided on this one release. Has Amnesia sold up to (beyond?) expectations? Do we have to worry about your future as a company or is all good?
FG: That's true, the good news is that Amnesia met our expectations so we are continuing on in an OK form. It's not a huge success, we have met our sales expectations so far, but the reviews and reception has been a lot more positive than we expected, so with this in mind we are a little worried that the sales could be viewed as worse as the game is better than we had planned!
Frictional Games has not been in such a good shape as we currently are. But we had hoped to have a bit more financial success because we have some ideas and visions that would require a bit more stability. We are on the right track though!
NGW: Speaking on Amnesia's performance, the game has received fairly positive reviews, I don' think I've seen any less than an 8. Obviously as a team you're shooting for the highest possible scores, but are you as a whole satisfied with the game's performance score-wise?
FG: Yup, very satisfied.
NGW: There's no doubt that Amnesia is a frightening game, I've had seasoned gamers, even Penumbra veterans, tell me that Amnesia is just too much for them. Do you feel that it is possible to make something that is "too scary", either in that it pushes away too large a group of potential buyers or that it really could be harmful to the health of your players?
FG: Haha, hopefully not harmful! Yes on the possibility of pushing potential players away from the game. Not sure that has to be negative, it is a niche and to be really horrifying in this niche makes us stand out and hopefully attract more players than we loose.
NGW: One complaint I have seen pop up in regards to Amnesia is the almost scripted feel to some of the scares. Not just so much that things like certain monster encounters or environmental events or some such are scripted to happen and will happen in every play through, but that Daniel's own reactions may differ too greatly from the player and pull them a bit out of the experience. While I personally feel it does work if you approach the game with the right mindset, I can see how it may be a turn off for some players. What say you?
FG: There was a suggestion to make an option in the game to "disable player character reactions", which we have said to be a great idea. We will not do it for Amnesia, as it would require some work we have not planned for, but for a next game we can keep this option in mind and create the game with that option. We think it is a typical design issue that adds a lot to the game for some people but detracts a lot from the game for others.
NGW: The way deaths are handled in Amnesia are a bit different from most other games, in the manual it mentions that somewhere, something in the game world changes upon a death. Now I've died a few times in both of my plays of Amnesia, but I can't say I've quite experienced these changes, at least not to the degree I'd have expected. More often than not I'd respawn, generally in the same area outside of a couple of circumstances, the creature that killed me would either be gone or farther away, and I'd actually in some cases have been moved slightly ahead. Is this how it was intended or is there more to this system? Care to give examples of things that may change?
FG: There are more interesting changes, but overall it can be a bit simplified. The main reason is to make sure that players do not get stuck and have to play the same part over and over, so while the first death might change something more interesting the second or third might simply be something that eases the difficulty level to pass the specific section.
It can be difficult to notice what has changed, because some are simply that you will get encounters later in the level that you do not get if you did not die. Some might be more noticeable, as starting out in a strange place, with some sort of event happening. If you die and think now I will pay attention and see what has changed it might not always be easy if it is not one of those events, as the change will occur later.
NGW: What are some things that have changed over the course of Amnesia's development? I did begin a play with the commentary, and found some interesting facts out (such as Daniel's initial lack of the titular Amnesia upon his awakening), are there any other examples? I recall in trailers Daniel being able to barricade a door with objects such as a tables to block Alexander's servants from getting in, this has changed from the final product and much less of the world is that interactive, what was the reasoning behind this change?
FG: Originally Amnesia had a working title of horror pacman, the idea was to have smaller rooms that you entered and solved puzzles. So a horror themed story driven puzzler, a bit like Saw if you so like. This was later moved towards a horror game with combat elements, the reasoning behind this was that combat allows for easy to make gameplay. When it is puzzle and story driven, you really have to craft every single minute of gameplay, but if you have combat you can add a weapon and an enemy and off you go (sort of). But with the weapon we got the same problem as in Penumbra Overture, that for some combat was really easy and for others it was really difficult. Then we actually went back to some older ideas, which was more like Penumbra, but with a re-usable gameplay with using shadows and light instead (shadows being dangerous and light being safe basically). We never really got that far, as we first started to prototype the game as a whole without that specific gameplay bit, so we eventually had prototyped something that was quite close to what Amnesia were on the release. We mostly spent the last year removing typical gameplay elements, like coins, potions, the quest system and things like that, in order to make something that was really concentrated on the "not to play and win, rather to experience" idea behind Amnesia.
NGW: With the toolkit now released, are there any expectations you have or things you are hoping to see develop from the userbase? Any specific requests?
FG: No expectations at all to be honest. We are surprised and very happy about the interest already! We did not expect so much stuff to be made this soon as it is, so we are simply enjoying all the fun stuff showing up. We even already have seen the very first Machinima made with the tools, created a good laugh in our Skype chat!
NGW: You have stated in the past that Amnesia is a stand-alone title, and that it will not be handled in an episodic manner like Penumbra. But is there a chance that we may in the future revisit the world of Amnesia? Perhaps find out more about the orb and the shadow that guards it, or this other world mentioned by various characters and notes, maybe explain a few things left unanswered by the end of the game? And while you've stated there is no direct connection between Amnesia and the Penumbra games, are they possibly in the same universe or are they completely removed from eachother?
FG: There is no link at all between Amnesia and Penumbra. Amnesia really was a fresh and lovely start on something new for us. There is a chance for more Amnesia in the future, but most likely not what we do next. It will be near impossible for us to gather the inspiration to do another horror game like that and to make something that will meet the expectations. We are very happy with the reception of Amnesia and feel ourselves right now that we will have problems trying to make an even better Amnesia game. So we are off to look high and low for new inspiration.
NGW: I've stumbled upon some interesting theories regarding the story of Amnesia, as well as the meaning behind the password used for the super_secret.rar file in the game's folder. How close would you say some of these are? Any clarifications you wish to make? Or is it more open to one's own interpretation.
FG: No comment.
NGW: I have to ask this, as it pertains to a personal favorite story/moment of mine. Late in the game there is a strange metal cylinder, and from this cylinder a voice. Is this meant as a reference to "The Whisperer in Darkness", my favorite HP Lovecraft story? If so, I love you guys all the more. And do you have a favorite Lovecraft story?
FG: A bunch of stuff in the game is inspired by Lovecraft stories, but we do not want to (or can) say exactly what. As you read books, watch movies, you fill your mind with inspiration and some of this is bound to end up in the game. Amnesia is not meant to specifically be a Lovecraft inspired work, but there is bound to be lots of stuff in there that relates to his stories.
Hard to pick a favorite, Statement of Randolph Carter, Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Hound are some that pop up, but hard to pin down just one.
NGW: What were some specific challenges you faced when developing Amnesia, be they story or design related.
FG: Tons! With our prototyping it is safe to say that we had a hard time figuring out the main concept in the game, what the player should actually go about doing while playing. It was a challenge to let go of many rules that you have about games, that they need to be challenging, difficult and even fun is a must. We spent a lot of time trying to convince ourselves that you can remove all that and yet present something that will be a great experience for the player.
NGW: Any plans for the future now that Amnesia has released? Can we look forward to, mayhaps a sci-fi/horror title along the lines of the original Alien, something like what Dead Space could have been? Or do you have something else planned?
FG: We are full steam ahead already on what is coming next, but too early to say anything specific about it. Lots of things can change before we have something that can truly be said to be the next project. It will not be Amnesia 2 that is as good as certain and we doubt it will be in space!
NGW: Any last words or tips for our readers?
FG: Visit amnesiagame.com and try the demo, what else is there!?
NGW: Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions, always a pleasure to speak with you. Congrats once again on the release and success of Amnesia, looking forward to whatever more you have planned for us. Here's hoping we can keep this contact again in the future.
Kindest regards,
NGW
FG: Thanks and best regards,
Frictional Games
And for anyone looking for more information on Amnesia, Penumbra, or the team behind them be sure to check them out at
Frictional Games' website.
