The Recession of Amnesia Mod Development

[Kman]

To be completely honest I stopped really being interested in playing Amnesia mods a while ago, they can still be fun from time to time but I'm just not interested in them the way I once was. Really the only reason I'm sticking around here is cause some of the people are cool and so I can finally finish my mod. And even with that, when I finish my mod I don't expect a ton of community feedback or recognition or anything, all I really want to know is that I was able to commit myself to a story that I thought up on my own and see it through to the end.

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And as for giving people feedback to improve, in the time that I've been here I've maybe seen 1 or 2 people in total make a noticeable improvement in quality from mod to mod, regardless of how much feedback they're given. Hell even for me I didn't learn everything I know about the leveleditor from tutorials or people giving me feedback, I learned it by just dicking around in the leveleditor until I did something that I thought looked good, and then repeated it. I guess what I'm saying is while feedback can be helpful there's a certain amount that I don't think any tutorial or person on here can teach that you have to learn on your own.

[TheUnbeholden]

Recession? Of course, that happens for all games, but the main point is the best mods have come from this past year.

Digressiophobia, The Things in the Night, What Lies Beneath, and Fekete Keres. The only ones that I can think from the top of my head that where unique from 2011: Nepsis, La Caza and White Night. I think there was some competition that ran on here and the ones that won where pretty abysmal except for those 3. I think its good that we are no longer being overloaded with custom stories. The only good ones are the ones that are in development for some time and use some custom content to make things less blindly repetitive. Amnesia didn't exactly have a robust collection of models/puzzles. Especially not with monsters.

That competition that ran on frictional forums that won, where pretty abysmal except for those White Night, La Caza and the one that didn't win: Nepsis.
Envy the Dead was never released, Abduction and Cannibilism was ok, Through the Portal feels very unfinished. The Estate was unmemorable and we never got Portal.

My other recommendations: Theres the custom stories with custom monsters like Tenebris Lake (decomposing zombie), The Great Work (twitching zombie), Library of Alexandria (death spirit), Obscurity (spirit, winged beast), and then theres the total conversions like White Night and Mental Memorial.

Theres the mods that haven't been released that have a new monster like Spacey (creepy girl), Otherworld (giant spider). Theres another modern day total conversion coming for Amnesia, called Envy the Dead.

Speaking of monsters La Caza (theres a panther enemy, but needs someone to animate it), Obliviator27 from frictional forums is working on a weird monster savage with animal skull (horse head). Theres also a Demon finished and released.

[PutraenusAlivius]

Well, atleast the epidemic of sh*tty custom stories that contain naked flying guys are beginning to lessen.

[Miss Rigi]

I pulled back on the community here because I found a better one over skype that was more comfortable and tight-knit. Besides, I can't actually play Custom Stories due to various reasons, so all I can do on forums is lurk and see. As for feedback, it too often seems that the people who need it most are the least receptive. In order for people to say their thoughts, they need to know that there wont be a guaranteed backlash. These are my personal reasons and observations.

[Acies]

Recession

re·ces·sion ...

I rarely to never play Amnesia mods, because I find the process of creating something so much more interesting! I was part of the "no crappy mods" movement within the forum, but lately I've been thinking that everyone (indifferent to quality of the content) needs a creative outlet.

"Why should these people make new mods for Amnesia when only a few members give them feedback?

Why mod for amnesia when their mod will just be ignored completely?"

A subjective question.. Well I make mods/content solely because I find it very enjoyable. If the process, "the now", of creating my mod wasn't this fun I would probably have released my mod already for fame-hunting or gratification. I wouldn't be able to "go on" this long.

The answer is, there is no reason. For fun? Maybe, that is why I started modding, but every one of us desires recognition for our achievements, in at least some form. And when that is not given, frankly? You will feel like shit. Trust me on that one, you really do.
I'm lucky I had friends who were very talented modders to give me feedback on Eternium because god knows, I only got one other review that was remotely helpful.

Recognition is great! But I don't think one should go around expecting it or hunting it through modding. It's merely "icing on the cake", whereas the cake would be the actual modding. Having friends who are talented is great! I'm part of skype group where I can find instant feedback on anything I create, which is a great tool for improving on my areas.


I do not mean to insult senior members here, but you do need to wake up and start helping this community.

I like this community. My way of helping it is creating tutorials showcasing what I have learned (I have also organized a thread with a summary of some pretty awesome tutorials by other members) :]

On the other hand I don't consider it my duty to play mods and give feedback. I'm not hired by anyone, paid for anything or the like. I do this in my free-time because I think it's fun.

It's also my opinion that the "general quality" of producing mods, giving criticism and recieving criticism has increased greatly since the first time I visited the forums. It's just such a slow change that we hardly notice it :]

P.S I approve of giving criticism, I'm just saying that I will most likely not play and give feedback - because I'd rather spend my time on creating things.

[ApeCake]

It's sad really. Too bad the community already had it's climax in popularity when I joined; I'd like to see how it was back then. The forums are asleep in my opinion; they're definitely not dead, there are still custom stories being released with every now and then an amazing one. It's just that the majority is awaiting AMFP. Since that is bound to release somewhere this year, a lot of (potential) map developers have lost interest because they do not want to put effort in their map when the next game comes out and everyone of the existing community is moving onto that game. A lot of the commenters and players of custom stories have also moved on; either they left the forums for good because they're not interested anymore, or are awaiting AMFP.

[Miss Rigi]

There's also the fact that some very skilled members are moving on to more complex engines. I know that were I more capable in modding I would pick UDK over HPL any day.

[Statyk]

What Miss Rigi said. I like to play around with HPL from time to time, but when it comes to progress, I'd like to get most familiar with bigger game-industry engines, like UDK. The workflow is so much easier and pretty... HPL can do great things for a indie-developed engine, but sometimes, the ideas are restricted. Amnesia modding capabilities only go so far =P So IIIIIIII am going to go made stuffs in UDK.

Screw Unity

[Adrianis]

Theres an aweful lot that could be done with this engine that hasn't been done, though. A modern 3d adventure game engine with physical interaction like HPL's has a lot of ground that is not covered by Amnesia, Penumbra, and the mods that are like them.
I'm no senior member, but if you care to know, I don't play CS's because this ground is not being explored, it's all just more Amnesia. That's fine, but, we've already played Amnesia, and for those members who have been around for several years and probably used to play many CS's, eventually it's just going to get boring, right?
I started Amnesia modding after reading an RPS article that included a bit about White Night, and it basically said 'It was good, but I wish there were mods that would take advantage of the engine for non-horror games, because there is great potential for updating the adventure game forumula', and I thought that was spot on.

[PutraenusAlivius]

I agree with Robo here. Most seniors won't give feedback to the new users and say, "YOUR CS IS LIEK SH*T!". I was one too, but i always gave tips on how to do it, but i've never played them. I just critize them from the screenshots they provide.