Amnesia Studio Wants To Go Beyond Fear

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Amnesia Studio Wants To Go Beyond Fear

Amnesia studio Frictional Games says it hopes to evoke "less primitive" emotions than fear in its next game, but it'll still be a very scary experience - and it might be on consoles too.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent [http://www.amazon.com/Amnesia-Pc/dp/B004FZ9822/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313768925&sr=8-1] is a viciously frightening game. If you've played it for any significant length of time, you've probably spent at least few minutes wondering why you were inflicting this sort of horrific awfulness upon yourself when you could be doing more pleasant things like... well, anything, really. And while the team's original sales goals were modest - 24,000 during the first two months or Frictional would be forced to close down - the game recently topped 400,000 units sold and continues to sell.

"The press response was very nice - both in terms of coverage and grading - but even more fun and surprising was the player response that continues almost a year after," Amnesia project manager Thomas Grip told Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/19/amnesia-dev-discusses-success-next-project/]. "Sales-wise it's, of course, also overwhelming, and I think especially how good it is still selling even a year after."

Grip said Frictional is considering another Amnesia-related project but its main focus is to expand upon the game's experience. "We have been so focused on just creating fear that we want to see if we can evoke other, less primitive emotions as well," he explained. "This means our next game will not have super-focus on just horror. However, the other goals we are striving for will definitely result in a scary atmosphere."

And while the differences in developing for consoles as opposed to the PC are "a bit of a hassle," Frictional would nonetheless like to tackle the console market with its next game. "We are developing to cram what we can out of what we think the average PC rig will look like in the two years or so when the next game is release," Grip said. "At the same time, we're keeping an eye on what the most pressing console limits are so we still can make a port from the PC."

Back in July, Grip wrote an excellent look back at the trials and tribulations of the development of Amnesia, which ended up a far different game that Frictional had originally intended and almost didn't make it to the finish line at all. Check out The Terrifying Tale of Amnesia [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9011-The-Terrifying-Tale-of-Amnesia], right here at The Escapist.


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Albino Boo

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So the next game is going to be Apathy: The Beige Slope? Good luck to them trying to do something different but I'm not sure going for the console market is a good move. I think their ideas are a to little niche to sell well on the console
 

Micalas

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^ Oh god, that made me lol

So what emotion do they want to evoke? Most of our emotions are pretty primative.
 

josemlopes

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There is a reason for the sales to keep strong even after a year, the lack of good games in the genre. Everyone knows that even now if you want a good horror game Amnesia is the only way to go, if there was more competition (like a new good horror game this year) then Amnesia would start to become a dated experience and people would want to buy the new experience (the other fresher horror game).
 

Wolf Devastator

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Great move I think. If they establish themselves as a company that can pull at your emotions in different ways, I'm sure a lot of people will be behind them on that. Amnesia already felt like it would make a great console game, it felt like a game I would have played on a Playstation.
 

Kungfu_Teddybear

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They want to make their next game even more terrifying? Fuck, I still haven't managed to play through all of Amnesia.
 

Sizzle Montyjing

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This is awsome, seeing a studio trying to stretch themselves is nice, especially in circumstances like this, where they could just repeat the formula easily and still get money.

And if it's for the consoles, well, that would make me very happy.
:D

jFr[e said:
ak93]First
Really?
Come on now.
 

shiajun

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Hmmm...maybe it's just that good. We can test if people will still flock to Amnesia for horror until a new decent entry in the genre comes along, but I'd like to think Amnesia has claimed its place as a classic. It's like those old movies or famous books people read. It's not that there isn't anything better out there that's new, it's just that they're really, really good.

Or, at least, I'd like to think so.
 

Amphoteric

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jFr[e said:
ak93]First
The mods wrath will be upon you shortly

But anyway, I can only play about 20 minutes of amnesia at a time. I just can't bring myself to play it any longer. I am going to buy their next game, unlikely to play it though...
 

jFr[e]ak93

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Tenth

Yes, I am trolling at this point.

OT, interesting. If they can cover other emotions the way they did fear, any game from these guys will be good.
 

The Wykydtron

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It would be good if they could make a console port of their next game, hell whatever their next game is guaranteed to be good...

[sub]Or their next game will be drowned in the murky waters of overly high expectations...[/sub]

/forced cynicism
 

Andy Chalk

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Amnesia's only real flaw is that it pours it on so heavily and so relentless that it eventually becomes numbing. Over the last couple of levels, I was pretty much inured to the horror - although the fact that the game was able to keep it up as long as it did is a testament to just how damn good it is.
 

Fiz_The_Toaster

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Oooh, I would love to see what they plan on doing now.

If they can make me poo my pants from fright in Amnesia, I wonder what else they can do in the emotional realm.
 

Smertnik

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josemlopes said:
There is a reason for the sales to keep strong even after a year, the lack of good games in the genre. Everyone knows that even now if you want a good horror game Amnesia is the only way to go, if there was more competition (like a new good horror game this year) then Amnesia would start to become a dated experience and people would want to buy the new experience (the other fresher horror game).
Exactly. As far as horror games go their stuff is pretty much top-tier at the moment.
I wonder how well they can manage a genre change. On the other hand, there're only so many ways you can repeat a certain formula and the devs realise it as well, I guess.
 

Gambler_Justice

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Sounds good to me. Penumbra: Overture is definitely my favorite game from Frictional. Red is one of the most well-written videogame characters I've ever encountered. While I did enjoy Black Plague and Amnesia, I felt they focused too much on simply scaring the player, sacrificing immersion and plot for it. In particular, the backstory in Amnesia feels... hollow. In Overture, it felt like the horror wasn't the main focus, rather, the genre was chosen because it fit the story best, and I liked that. I'd rather have an immersive plot than a good scare.
 

ReservoirAngel

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If they can bring something even remotely Amnesia-like to consoles I will buy it like the non-logical glutton for emotional punishment that I am.