Frictional Games is proud to announce the release of the source code for our first game Penumbra: Overture, together with the source code for the engine and tools used in its creation.
2000 Pre-orders reached!
Thanks to all of those who pre-ordered Amnesia: The Dark Descent during the discount and an extra big thanks to those who ordered it before! It now seems like we are forced to record some commentary for the release, which we hope will be enjoyable.
Insane Amnesia Discount!
Since the Humble Indie Bundle has put us in such a good mood, we now would like to offer Amnesia: The Dark Descent pre-orders at a whooping 50% discount.
Humble Indie Bundle
Just wanted to announce that Penumbra: Overture is now available in the Humble Indie Bundle together with the games World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish and Lugaru HD. The price for the bundle is what ever you feel like and part of it will also go to charity!
Humble Indie Bundle – 5 Indie games for a price that you decide!
Five independent game developers, headed by Wolfire Games, have joined forces and created a bundle of games. The bundle consists of: Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, Penumbra: Overture and World of Goo.
1C-SoftClub/Snowball to publish Amnesia: The Dark Descent in Russia & Eastern Europe
We are happy to announce that Amnesia: The Dark Descent will be released in Russia and Eastern Europe thanks to 1C-SoftClub/Snowball. Amnesia will be released under the title Амнезия. Призрак прошлого and it’s Russian home can be found here.
Horror Tip: Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity (PA) is like a mix of Blair Witch Project, The Haunting and The Exorcist. It follows a recent trend of first-person/documentary movies like Rec and Cloverfield that I really enjoy and which works great for horror flicks.
Why Trial and Error will Doom Games
A sort unspoken rule in game design is that players should be able to lose. Just about every game has some kind of fundamental mechanic that is possible to fail. Whenever this happens, the player needs to try again and repeat the process until successful. This is thought to add drama, tension and also make the player’s actions count. It seems to be believed that without it games would not be games and instead some kind of boring linear entertainment. I think this position is wrong, extremely hurtful and if not fixed, will become the downfall of the medium. In this post I will explain why.
The judgement predicament of audio and graphics
The answer to this blog is probably going to be that the game industry dug this hole all by themselves and that we now have to live with it.
Storytelling through fragments and situations
Stories are something that is very important to us humans and also a crucial part of many video games. In some games the player is the author of the story, for example in Civilization where you are given some basic start resources and are then free to decide how your story will play out. In other games the designer has the most control of the story and the game mechanics do their best to guide the payer through the narrative (which may dynamic or linear).
