What would you like to see from Frictional next?

[perpetualmind]

I think the only way to really to get a unique horror setting would be to put it in a very crowded happy place, possibly some big event of some kind.
A ball or a party or even just the middle of a very crowded majour city.

The only problem there is how to get it to play as a horror game.

The idea of your character going crazy and seeing everyone around them as monsters of some kind could be interesting, police trying to catch you as your running around breaking into houses and such, but from the players perspective everything is crazy and horrible...
It would take a hello of alot of skill to pull something like that off though, and as much as i love Frictional i dont think they could manage something like that where they are now.
Infact i dont think ANYBODY could pull that off, it just seems too difficult in any medium.

I really cant think of a completely horror-free setup.

One thing i think could VASTLY improve Frictional's games would be improved character interactions.
More characters that talk to you and you see physically.
Say if they were to make a game where you started off at a work place, with your colleagues about you, then something happened that created the state of danger and you actually get to see the people about you being affected.

Frictionals games have allways relied on a sense on solitude.
It would be cool to see them make a horror where alot of the fear came out of the things happening to people around you aswell as things you experience.
Not only could the story be extremely interesting, it would open up a whole new set of tricks for them to use.

I love Frictionals games, and id really like to see them come up with something new that will really change the way we experience there games.
When we play penumbra of amnesia now we have a slight sense in comfort knowing the way the games play, feeling comfortable with the way the games progress.
if they were to come up with something new to change the way the game is experienced we wouldnt know what was coming.


this is all just ramblings by the way, not to be taken to seriously.

[RyuRanX]

I want to see more interaction with the game's environment and physics. For example, I want to actually put the glass in the acid, manually carry it to the door and manually apply it on the lock. I want to actually do the things in the game and not just open the inventory and click on the item. Also, the game should allow the player to do everything is possible in real life, like set fire on a piece of wood and use it to lit the torches.

The encounters with the monsters should be more unexpected. By the ending of Amnesia it was too predictable and easily avoidable.

Also, the next Frictional Games title could have more outdoor areas like the farm in Amnesia or the exterior section of Penumbra, even if they have to reduce the graphical quality or details. It doesn't need to be big, but something like the external places in Resident Evil 1's mansion.

And harder puzzles for God's sake! I want horror and challenge! Use more the physics engine in gameplay and puzzles. That's what other games doesn't do.

[spung3]

They should screw with the player using false hope more. Imagine half way through the game you find a revolver and 3 bullets. Then you save it for when you're really in trouble, finally pull it out to shoot and 'click', it misfires and jams. Never to be usable again

[Crabski]

Insane Asylum.

Oh my God. Imagine playing the Cradle level from Thief 3... as designed by Frictional.

I'm scared just thinking about it.

[fruitsaladninja]

Argh yeah that part in Thief was the worst! so scay with the puppets! i remember when you turn on the power to the cradle, you hear the place power up, and i think "shit now they know im here!!"

I like the approach of penumbra and amesia, its dark, rusty and gritty, if it were to be in a sci fi setting, say a space ship, i'd woule be nice if it were and old one, malfunctioning, falling apart sorta ship. were some "failed experiments" were the enemy haha

Insane asylum/old hospital sounds like a nice setting too!
and with more difficoult puzzles!

[Astor]

Now what about something lika a subway (something like Metro).

That would be awesome!

[Ephax20]

I would like to see Amnesia 2, with castle and maybe a huge garden/forrest type situation with the castle. Where offcourse all kinds of freaky bullshit takes place. I really really like the castle style they are rocking right now. Castles 'nd Ghosts.

[SmokeSum]

Some freaky Big ass House in the middle of the woods with some white floating ghosts that can pick up stuff and trow at you (like knifes, chairs or whatever)
Also i wanna see an area outside in the woods with a lot of fog and creatures crawling inside these woods so it makes you scare as hell to go into the woods

[CHANCEPHOENIX]

Frictional Games + ID.software = DOOM 4

[fted]

A few days ago I read the start of this thread and thought, "what could Frictional do to take things a step further?" I didn't think of horror though. I think Frictional's mastered that as well is can be. Horror in games seems to exploit the flight/fight response more than anything else, and though it relies on intellectual aspects to work (recognizing genre props and aesthetics), it's still quite simplistic, and it's still possible to break the spell of immersion rather easily. Once you figure out what happens when you die in Amnesia, it can be a game-breaking experience; you can see that it's a game.

So I thought that maybe it would be possible to make a game that encourages the player to question their own reality through obfuscating the player's reality; to basically do for games what people like Philip K. Dick did for literature. I think that if a game relies so heavily on physical reaction, it gives too much power to critical thought. When we realize that Amnesia is perfectly safe 80% of the time, we've analyzed the game and came to rational conclusion that can work against the deep psychology of the game that's below the surface. So a game that retain a thoroughly coherent atmospher like Amnesia, that also recognizes the presence of the player and anticipates their evaluation could be more immersive. Evaluating game mechanics and one's own perception is something that people do naturally, and if the two are combined in a diegetic manner, the overall experience should be better.

I'd imagine a game with these goals would work in a way that's similar to 3-D chess. That is, multiple playing fields that interact with eachother. However, the player shouldn't be simultaneously aware each plane immediately. Rather, the player should become aware gradually and do so through trial and error. Is the player really sitting at a bus stop, or is he on the bus? Are the people he meets real, or is he imagining them because he is supposed to? Does talking to one person in one reality have an effect on another person in another reality? The logic of it would have to be abstract over physical. If the bus stop in one reality is the same location of the post office in another, then we would figure it out too quickly because humans are good at finding patterns, especially regarding equivalency. However, if the connections between realities are based on absence, it creates competing discourses about reality itself. No one reality would need to be true or false, but would perhaps lend itself interpretations of free and restricted in nature. Color vs. no color, diverse population vs. homogeniety, safety vs. danger, etc. Perhaps a goal of the game would be to construct a preferred reality?

Anyhow, my point is that Frictional has proven itself capable of going beyond what people assume are the limits of gaming as an experience, and I think they should continue. If someone asked me what Rockstar should do for their next game, I'd say "pay me for doing nothing." They make money on doing the same thing with increasing aesthetic quality, they update, but they don't revise. Frictional is different, I've been reading the blog, and it's awesome to see the thought that goes into their projects. I'm a grad student, and study games a little bit, and the blog is better than most published work in games studies. So if anybody can push the limits further, it'd be Frictional.

tl;dr = random game crap.