New Ideas for future games (open mail)

[ruzen]

Hi first of all I have to congrats on your new game Amnesia:TDD . I'm sending this massage to Frictional all game designers and I hope they read this open mail and discus my ideas. I really love the game all parts feel crafted with thinking (except the Choir room). Story is well told, but it could have more drastically twist and turns. The sounds and music are fitting the game perfectly(except the sanity drain sound). Grahpics are believable.

And now here's my ideas for future games or new chapters for Amnesia! What I really want to see, is my body! With same cam(FPS) If we look down we could see our legs,feet,stomack (and maybe our wounds too) or if we look around we could see our arms and hands( maybe sanity make our body shake and we could observe this?). The reason I suggest this couse if we are hiding in a corner with crouch position It will be cool to see our knees and arms shaking.And one another thing about our body part it will look cool if we stick to a wall and walk around with our hands on the wall or maybe if we stay in a dark room player may drag out his arm to feel what is front of him/her(like real life). Basicly more animation is needed to be in the game by not changeing the FPS cam. I have tons of ideas like that. For ex. Opening doors,unlocking doors,taken' an item to our inventory (backpack?) climbing, etc... but the most important is those very unrealistic lifting heavy objects with our one hand(while the other has gaslamp) and it will be cool if we accually see our hands while carrying an object opening a drawer,etc... there for the game can be more chalangeing and more fun!

And about sanity system. It could have drastically panalties for player. For ex. When we try to light a candle we cant do it on the first try (maybe an animation of that try? ), Hearing voices (let us feel like somebody is around but we cant see it -talking with yourself ?-), Seeing unreal things( not like monsters but maybe blood drops can be fall from ceiling or flys. Make them bond to sanity and even we have low sanity too.

About healt system it could have better because at the final of the game I ve got 10 potions didnt use but none oil left. Make an envoriment we accually need to heal.

Puzzels are not hard but very fun. Keep that.

Give little more open world to find about the game. Make more reading stuf. Create lots of books that we can read, they can be about the story or different story but about the game world.

Make secter areas. Reward the curious playeres who explore around.

More different hiding places. Ex. under a bed .

Well I think ı have more but it will be enough for now. I really love your uniqe game I just have some ideas. I hope you guys at least consider this. Maybe I can write the rest later. Bye.

P.S. Sorry for bad english this is the best I can do.

[dbfuru]

I agree that being able to see the body from a first person perspective would be pretty cool, being able to see your limbs shaking and wounds based on HP left.

I'm not sure about animations, though. I would just get bored of watching the same 'light candle' animation over and over, and I don't personally feel you need to see each item be picked up and put in a backpack. And then I suppose it would cost time and money to create and implement those animations.

Hiding places are fun, I like how there aren't strict hiding places, and if you're lucky you can get away with crouching behind a statue or something. Being able to lie and crawl would be interesting though.

I would also like more notes. I just can't get enough of them on my first play through, I'm so happy for a little break from the tension and to read up on some background information or just plot progression.

I'm unsure about the health thing, though. I also had a large stock of Laudanum, but even when I was being chased I never really used it, I only used it in the rare occasion I was hit but managed to somehow escape. If there were too many monsters around I don't think the game would have the same feel.

I also agree with the puzzles, they are not too difficult that you have to really deeply think about them, but they get you thinking and looking around, just enough not to break the tension. In Amnesia they felt rewarding when completed and fun.

I'm not sure how secret areas would be implemented, maybe extra notes and reading material could be found, giving the player some more background information and maybe a flask of oil and some tinderboxes. I found myself lacking tinderboxes for quite a lot of the game, whilst I don't want masses of them, a few more wouldn't have gone wrong.

[nofsky]

Visible body and hands is not a good idea and is a waste of time. First of all, have fun waiting for each animation, waiting for your hand to move out to grab an object. It will slow down the responsiveness of the controls to the point of frustration and the general pace of the game. Then there's the part that making something like that look good is incredibly hard. How immersed will you be when your arm bugs out or clips through an object? What about that "uncanny valley" effect, I'm sure that will happen. It's a waste of time and resources when your imagination and a simple hand icon works fine.

About the sanity ideas, most of what you suggest is in the game already. However I'd like to see more of it, more different effects and for it to happen more often.

It doesn't need more notes, just enough to tell its story. Amnesia was well balanced in that regard, I think.

About health potions and having too many of them. I think it would work in favor of the atmosphere and tension of the game if these were dynamically placed in the game. So, for example, if you have 3 potions of Laudanum already, new ones would be removed from the world or if you have no potions and low health some Laudanum might appear in the next new area you visit. That way you would never feel too safe, or frustrated.

The puzzles in amnesia were perfect. Just hard enough to make you think for a bit but not hard enough to make you frustrated.