Amnesia: The Dark Descent Sells a Million

[Fanghawk]

Glad to hear that Frictional is doing so well.

No pigs till 2014?! Fuck balls... now I'm sad. It better be as good as Amnesia now, OR ELSE!
*Shakes fist angrily

No Machine for Pigs for over a year? Very, very sad face.

If you go and read the blog post then you'll discover that Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs will be released sometime early 2013. It's their other super secret project that won't be released until some time in 2014.

Whoops, totally right. My bad on mixing up the date. Fixed.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Being able to frighten gamers without caving in and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118247-Your-Health-Will-Regenerate-in-Resident-Evil-6>adding features like regenerating health...

Stop. That sounds suspiciously like the words of someone who hasn't actually played the game and is just taking potshots at modern gaming conventions for its own sake. It makes it sound like what people love about Amnesia is those moments where they're down to their last health point and are desperately hoping they can make it to another medkit before they're attacked again. And that's not even remotely what the game is like.

Health has almost no bearing on your success in Amnesia. If you're unfortunate enough to be caught by a monster and not be able to run away in time, nine times out of ten you're not making it out alive, period. The only thing that does damage you without killing you, the exploding pustules on the floors, are placed where you have to walk over them to continue. That is what people love, being absolutely terrified of every single monster because there is never any way to fight back and no recourse but to run away and hope you can make it in time. No ability to rely on your superior shooting or melee skills. No medkits to hoard to make the later encounters easier. There is a health meter and vials of laudanum you can use to restore it, but there are only a few places in the whole game where it's relevant. Especially since your health automatically restores to full at the end of each section.

Yes, that's right, this game that you just praised for not having regenerating health... has regenerating health.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Quality over Quantity always wins out

Correct. I love to see passionate games developers doing well. It's a bit of a damning statement on the state of videogames today when people are so surprised that a game still appeals to people who haven't played it after the initial release. I remember EA complaining about Call of Duty's MW3's terrible performance after the first few months because no one else was buying it.

When you make a well polished, properly tested, and tightly crafted gaming experience you will get a sustained audience running off word of mouth. It'll make people who otherwise would never dream of buying the game shell out money for it because their friends are all talking about it, and then if they like it they'll tell other people. I'd confidently say that over half the games I own were bought because of friend recommendations, and I know I'm not the only one.

This just helps prove that the best business model is to release quality original games that people cannot get the same experience from elsewhere on the market, not a myriad of same-y sequels and cross contamination of genres by mashing everything together into a homogenous mess. /soapbox rant.

All the best to Frictional, I hope they do really well in the next few years, they deserve it.

 

[Sartan0]

*Pats his Digital copy*

Got it and it was good. I wish them nothing but luck and more pays offs for hard work and a game done right.

 

[lacktheknack]

Whelp, too bad I didn't go for stock in underwear producers.

In all seriousness, awesome job, guys. I hope you outdo yourselves in "A Machine For Pigs".

 

[Dusty Donuts]

But it doesn't even have multiplayer! =O

Goddamn, I can just imagine Amnesia multiplayer. The whole castle, randomly spawning beasts, the ability to throw other people under the bus with flares and traps and locks and things like that.
Oh yeah, and you should be able to sneak up behind other people and scare them.
That'd be allllright.