The Terrifying Tale of Amnesia

[Thomas Grip]

The Terrifying Tale of Amnesia

Designer and Programmer Thomas Grip reveals the story behind the creation of Amnesia: The Dark Descent ? including how it originally imitated Super Mario 64 and how you may have helped save the game from disaster.

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[ADeskofRichMahogany]

Wow, that was really interesting! Kudos to the development team of Amnesia! You guys made a great game that still keeps me up at night =D

 

[Ruairi iliffe]

Very Intesting Read, Amnesia is such a fantastic horror game, and one of my fav in the genre.
Glad to know everything worked out, as it would have been a compete shame if after all that hard work if it went to waste.

Congrats to them. Hope they bring out a 'like Amnesia, but better' with their next title

 

[Zhukov]

Wow. Those guys were cutting it pretty damn close.

Glad it payed off in the end though. Amnesia was fucking brilliant. Easily one of the best games of 2010.

If Frictional make another horror game, I'm buying it. Hell, I'm pre-ordering it, no questions asked.

 

[Metalrocks]

its a good game only that it dint scare me as i hope it would, no seriously, this game dint scare me one bit.
was a good read anyway. good to hear they had success. im interested how their next game will be. the atmosphere was really good in amnesia and it sure made you want to keep playing, just not scary for me.

 

[hyker]

does this mean FG is going to write stuff for the escapist?
awesome!

 

[AlternatePFG]

I love Frictional. Both of the Penumbra games (I got stuck on Requiem never finished it) and Amnesia are some of my favorite games and by far the best horror games that have been released in the past few years.

It's a good thing there wasn't any combat in Amnesia, while it wasn't terrible in Penumbra: Overture, it was pretty basic and really had no point to it.

 

[Mr. Google]

I played Amnesia at my friend's house and it was great. First time I had actually been scared in years and i loved it. I would buy it myself but my computer is terrible.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Very good read, amazing how borderline things got there...wouldn't expect Steam sales would be capable of making-or-breaking a game.

Inspirational story, thanks for writing it.

 

[DJ Jack]

WOW, I never realized the game took over three years to make! Good thing it was worth the effort. I've never been more afraid in my life when I played it last October.

 

[hollowleviathan]

It's harrowing to read how close you were constantly to never getting the game out the door, and interesting how much design iteration it went through over the years. I'm really glad you got financial stability from your hard work and can work on your next game with full focus on making it even better.

I played Amnesia at my friend's house and it was great. First time I had actually been scared in years and i loved it. I would buy it myself but my computer is terrible.

Amnesia is on OnLive now, I believe, so you no longer need a good computer to play it, just a decent internet connection.

 

[ulizez89]

I just finish playing Amnesia last night (ended up playing untill the sun got up). And I love it (even if I have to play it in low setting )

BTW: Does anyone know why developers teams (mainly indie) doesn't put a "donation" feature in their bussiness model???. I'm shore that a percent of the people who get Amnesia at 25% (or piracied it) would give a nice tip to FG for the asskicking scary jumps they got playing the game.

Just saying: more money into FG -> more games from FG

 

[esplode]

Great story. It's nice to hear how Frictional managed to survive through all that. Good luck to them on future projects!

 

[Mr. Google]

It's harrowing to read how close you were constantly to never getting the game out the door, and interesting how much design iteration it went through over the years. I'm really glad you got financial stability from your hard work and can work on your next game with full focus on making it even better.

I played Amnesia at my friend's house and it was great. First time I had actually been scared in years and i loved it. I would buy it myself but my computer is terrible.

Amnesia is on OnLive now, I believe, so you no longer need a good computer to play it, just a decent internet connection.

Well i neither have a great internet connection or OnLive so im still SOL. I have a strictly internet browsing PC from like 2003.

 

[jpoon]

This is a great story. Very cool to hear how they managed to put this game together, well done.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I really enjoyed that story, and I had no idea what they had to go through just to get that game out. I'm glad they survived all that madness.

Good luck and I wish nothing but the best!

 

[GasMasksAreForChumps]

Amazing read, and I am quite glad that Frictional Games was able to release Amnesia, because that was probably my best game of 2010.

 

[Telumektar]

Great article, reminded me a bit of the one about Starbreeze Studios by 1Up http://www.1up.com/features/starbreeze-secret-history, but with an overall better ending. I mean it's really nice to read this kind of stories, puts things in perspective and ends up adding to the game's experience. Knowing what went behind your enjoyment (and horror in this case). It's a pitty I can't play Amnesia, I get too terrified, seriously.

 

[RA92]

Very good read, amazing how borderline things got there...wouldn't expect Steam sales would be capable of making-or-breaking a game.

It's not the first time Steam saved a small indie studio. Just look at Introversion and <url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/tripwire-valve-absolutely-not-exploiting-indies-with-steam>Tripwire.