“Cinematic” still seems to be a kind of buzz-word for videogames these days. Often scenes that are extra emotional or involving are called “cinematic”. I do not really like this word and its usage expose many of the problems videogames have today. I guess some explanation is required.
Today we can proudly announce that Amnesia: The Dark Descent has gone gold! So what does this mean? Well, it essentially mean that the game is done! What is left for us now to do is to send it away to our Russian publisher and online retailers. We will also start to focus 100% on doing PR and make sure people know about the game. In less then two weeks it will be released to the world!
We at Frictional Games are happy to announce that Amnesia: The Dark Descent has gone gold. We are extremely pleased with our creation and cannot wait to unleash our bundle of madness on the 8th of September. We feel that we have taken a giant leap forward compared to our previous games, the Penumbra series.
I just uploaded a compatibility test that will check so your computer will support the graphics in Amnesia. Please test it as it will help us make the release version work on as many computers as possible.
Release of Amnesia: The Dark Descent is now getting dangerously close and we are hard at work polishing, fixing bugs, spell checking, feeding the beast and answering mails. In between this we also need to have time to do PR work, but unfortunately we do not have time nor resources to do as much as we like. We therefore would like to ask you, dear Reader, for a small favor.
So I just came early to work today at 22.00 and found the front door to our warehouse ajar. Thinking that perhaps some of our pets had escaped, I became a bit worried and carefully entered our damp dwelling.
My hands tremble as I write this and my mind is left weakened by the things I have witnessed. The contents of this message might be too terrible and unspeakable to believe, but I assure you that it is all very real. For the sake of us all, I urge you, dear Reader, to keep an open mind, and very seriously consider the matters which I am about to disclose.
This week we reached something that, not too long ago, was a merely distant dream:
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is in BETA!
What follows are some thoughts on where I want videogames to evolve. At the same time it is also a sort of explanation of the core design goals for Frictional Games. It is not meant to describe how to do things, instead it as attempt to describe how we want our videogame experiences to be like.
It has been in our minds for quite some time and now finally it has become reality: Penumbra:Overture and the HPL1 Engine are now open source! In case that is all you need to know, then head straight to: http://GitHhub.com/FrictionalGames to get your hands on it!
