58 - Amnesia

[Harry Sunderland]

Matt,

I agree that the enemy encounters in Amnesia are amazing, and honestly I think your game has the potential to be even better.

Part of what made Amnesia amazing was the realism of being pursued (as you mentioned). The way you react to enemies is exactly what any of us non-heroic types would do in real life...hide and shit our pants. However, in those rare moments in Amnesia when you die...you just end up re-spawning. Whenever that would happen, and I would re-play a segment...honestly it lost it's fear. Being killed and re-doing a segment just feels "video gamey."

The fact that you have the branching narratives, however, gives you potential for dying to take on a whole new element. It doesn't have to be a punishment...something that you have to re-do. It can just take you down a whole new narrative branch. I think you've mentioned this idea before, and I absolutely love it. It will make dying even more frightening, I think, because instead of just being able to repeat doing what you've already done...it will take you into a whole new level of terror. There's no backtracking...dying is just part of your journey through your Neverending Nightmares.

[loudERIC]

Something interesting the game does in the water section was change the scenario's design if you died twice. The first two times you have the creature in the same room as you. After you fail those first two times the play a mean trick on the player.

The creature is gone. You can do the puzzle in peace, it would seem. Once you get to the section where you're supposed to run from him you get halfway to the exit of that area and BOOM door crashes open and the monster runs STRAIGHT FOR YOU!

If you're fast you can jump onto a box or something near by and do the "throw a rock/severed limb to distract it" tactic and make a run for it down that hallway.

Either way... that game has some hilarious/genius moments like that. More stories and insights to the games design process and philosphy can be found here at this interview. (aricle)(podcast) I posted this before, but as someone who loves hearing about game development process and just a fan of what games can be this was a really cool and interesting interview I recommend to any fans of Amnesia or just game design in general. They also hit upon designing game mechanics around a core theme or idea they game is trying to express to the player which is what Frictional's next game, Soma, will be all about.

[matt]

I can't wait for Soma! I agree that game over screens (as well as loading screens) are inelegant, so we are working towards eliminating both and having a purely immersive game.

[sunsetbrew]

I would be interested in knowing your perspective on your game developer career. Some questions come to mind

1. Did you wish at times you chose a different sector of software?
a) Taking note that game development is not comparatively stable.
b) It pays less than telecom, network and device development.

2. What made you go Indy?

3. Would you recommend it for a upcoming software developers?

4. Do you think that skill set differs from other software paths?

5. Some personal history would be entertaining and informative as well.

[matt]

I'll make a note and try to answer them! I already recorded the next few, so it may be a bit before I post a video about this.

Thanks for your questions!