Amnesia Dev Teases Possible Sci-Fi Title

[Fanghawk]

Amnesia Dev Teases Possible Sci-Fi Title

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/ThomasGrip/status/383589486581407744]Frictional Games' placeholder website will reveal its latest project once it completes an exceedingly slow progress bar.

Frictional Games is known for a particular style of horror, specifically the kind where you avoid monsters in the dark and communicate with various disembodied voices. Not that there's anything wrong with covering familiar territory, Amnesia: The Dark Descent greatly improved on Penumbra's formula after all, but it does make one wonder whether their next project will be more of the same. It's too early to tell just yet, but if the company's updated teaser website is anything to go on, Frictional might be switching to sci-fi horror in the vein of System Shock 2.

The website, NextFrictionalGame.com, offers very little in the way of substantial information. The system error message "Booting system after unexpected shutdown" is prominently displayed, followed by a progress bar that's only achieved 40% as of writing. In the bottom right corner is distorted text that a few observers think reads "cogito ergo sum". If your Latin is shaky, that translates to "I think, therefore I am", a famous quote from philosopher René Descartes. Given the website's error message, I suspect Frictional is teasing a game dealing with a recently awakened sentient AI, a significant shift from the company's previous horror outings.

It's not entirely clear what makes the progress bar increase, whether visitor hits or simply time itself. Frictional's creative director Thomas Grip isn't helping, merely teasing that the "first breadcrumb is deployed" on his Twitter account. Once the bar reaches 100%, we'll have more to go on, but feel free to offer rampant speculation until then!

Source: Joystiq

Permalink

 

[A-D.]

This better be in the vein of "I have no mouth and I must scream". The latin quote, as well as the sci-fi theme would fit such a idea very well. Even if they dont exactly get the rights for that book to begin with, anything close to it would be awesome. And given that both are horror, the more subtle kind, not the "arghl-blarghl-boo" kind that the likes of Dead Space are..well yeah.

Looking forward to what comes of it, but if i could wish for anything, that'd be it.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

Well, their last game was unimpressive, so I will reserve judgment for when this game is released, or there is atleast more information. But I don't have high hopes.

well I think their last game was amnesia the dark descent
the chinese room made A machine for pigs. the chinese room is know for making the walking simulator( and sleep aid IMO) called Dear Esther.

 

[Glaice]

I hope it is more in the vein of Amnesia TDD in terms of atmosphere.

 

[lacktheknack]

Well, their last game was unimpressive, so I will reserve judgment for when this game is released, or there is atleast more information. But I dont have high hopes.

Frictional only published "AMfP". They didn't feel that they were interested enough to make a good sequel, so they gave it to thechineseroom.

As far as games they've actually developed go, they have a perfect track record, and count me in with the hyped.

 

[james.sponge]

Ok this can be either something along the lines of cyberpunk or sci-fi horrors like system shock, whatever it is I'm excited

 

[synobal]

I'd love a haunted space ship to explore. I tried dead space for that but it turned into an action game very quickly.

 

[batti]

Derelict spaceships? Scrambled Latin? If this is turning into an unofficial video-game adaption of Event Horizon, color me excited

 

[CriticalMiss]

Unless it is super subtle (or I'm really blind) I don't see any latin on that page

As long as Frictional are making it and not the chinese room I'll keep an eye on it, from what I've heard A Machine for Pigs was a bit crap. Plus it would be nice to see an Amnesia style game in a more modern setting, although hopefully it leans more towards horror and not action. I'd rather not see laser guns and plasma grenades in the game.

Edit: Nevermind, it hadn't loaded properly the first time.

 

[GAunderrated]

Well, their last game was unimpressive, so I will reserve judgment for when this game is released, or there is atleast more information. But I dont have high hopes.

Frictional only published "AMfP". They didn't feel that they were interested enough to make a good sequel, so they gave it to thechineseroom.

As far as games they've actually developed go, they have a perfect track record, and count me in with the hyped.

Really doesn't matter. They made a bad business decision and allowed the amnesia name to take a hit due to letting the chinese room ruin it.

I bought the AMfP pre-order without even researching because I had uncontested faith in frictional gaming. By letting the chinese room use the title under the guise of a true sequel and have it suck pretty much took away my support.

My fault entirely for not doing the research but as a consumer I still feel like there was a form of bait and switch was pulled on many fans eagerly awaiting for the Amnesia sequel

Heck even the store page tries to not put in bold that frictional is only publishing. This is what they said on the store page.

"From the creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Dear Esther comes a new first-person horrorgame that will drag you to the depths of greed, power and madness. It will bury its snout into your ribs and it will eat your heart. "

They stated that they are involved on the page so they must share the blame as well. I know people love to use the chinese room as a scape goat for making frictional blameless but they are not and their next game will have nowhere near the hype of the AMfP because so many fans got burned.

 

[Dfskelleton]

If this has anything to do with "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", I'm going to calmly shut down my computer, walk outside, then rip my shirt off and begin dancing around in ecstasy in public.
Seriously, one of the most f'ed up Sci-Fi/Horror stories in history in the hands of the developers of the most f'ed up horror games in recent memory? Color me excited.
Even though we've already got a fantastic game based off of the story.

 

[BleedingPride]

Remember that the Chinese room developed A Machine for Pigs before railing on this before it happens, guys.

 

[V8 Ninja]

god damnit, I'm thinking too much into this, I remember when a developer would just straight out tell gamers if they were making a new game. None of this ARG bullshit.

Frictional Games tends to keep its mini-ARGs limited to new content, so it's safe to assume that it's teasing a new game. The company is also using its "Next Frictional Game" website, which was used to tease A Machine For Pigs.

A Bit More OT: Frictional Games + Sci-Fi? Where do I sign up?

 

[Marak Daga]

ok bottom right says system malfunction, the japanese text says:

(bottom left) "right row"
(top row - this has a few possibilities as its not in context) "exit/appears/come out"

So mostly bloody useless

EDIT:

Anyone more familiar with JQuery than i am?
http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.min.js

that seems to be their main wrapper, ive had a quick look over it, not sure if its standard for a JQuery but there's code there to allow movement of the various pieces of the page - such as the japanese text saying right row thats on the left, also seems to be key-captures (right numpad and direction keys).

This could be a total waste of time but it gave me something to look at while having my morning coffee.

EDIT 2:

I reckon im looking too far into this

EDIT 3 :

According to the JQuery there are tabs, and i think ill stop staring at code now haha.

 

[Vie]

The progress is updated via http://nextfrictionalgame.com/script/progress.php

So, unless there's some way to find out what script is editing that page... ..I can't think of a way of finding out what's updating it.

 

[shiajun]

This better be in the vein of "I have no mouth and I must scream". The latin quote, as well as the sci-fi theme would fit such a idea very well. Even if they dont exactly get the rights for that book to begin with, anything close to it would be awesome. And given that both are horror, the more subtle kind, not the "arghl-blarghl-boo" kind that the likes of Dead Space are..well yeah.

Looking forward to what comes of it, but if i could wish for anything, that'd be it.

My thoughts exactly. The levels of fucked-up ness in that short story is waaaaay above a lot of "horror" plots. The depth of the cruelty and evil contained in that ending sentence "I have no mouth and I must scream" makes the phrase "cogito ergo sum" incredibly dark.

 

[Metalrocks]

sounds interesting. as long there are not 20 different windows popping up as in system shock 2 and half the sound is missing, i might enjoy it.
well, lets see what will come out of this.