Open-ended discussion on creation and design

[Adrianis]

How will your non-horror narrative be experienced? All of the characters would be horror-like enemies, so you couldn't include them, which means you'll have a pretty lonely world. Is that what your story would be focused around? I feel like in an empty world, if the player doesn't feel uneasy they don't have much to do, not many things to interact with. A lot of Amnesia is about hiding from the enemies, which is a form of interaction, which is something that a non-horror narrative would lack. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

Loneliness will be an important aspect. In my mind, Amnesia was pretty damn lonely as well - Grunt's aint much for company But as I said, I dont want the player feeling uneasy when exploring this environment, as it won't be a horror game constant un-ease isn't a neccessary part of building the atmosphere. But the atmosphere will be key.

Your right, alot of Amnesia is hiding from enemies, which was frankly not the best part. For many people the best part was exploring the environment and discovering the narrative. I don't personally feel that hiding provides a good means of interaction but I do get what your saying. I hope to be able to expand the interactivity of the environment itself. Really, this is kind of an experiment to see if this sort of thing can work, I don't know if I'll be able to make all the other aspects well enough that you don't need mechanics like stealth and enemies to keep the player interested. I know that I can enjoy games in that style - Dear Esther for example has close to no interactivity, and yet the atmosphere and narrative were enough that I found it an excellent experience.

Fundamentally, I have no interest in re-making Amnesia or expanding on whats already there, but HPL2 is an excellent platform for exploring this design philosophy. Whether or not I can pull it off is another thing entirely.

You say you try to make your maps so that they could be inserted into Amnesia and no one would know the difference. Out of interest, why is it you want to recreate that same experience? Is it part of your challenge to see if you can make a horror experience of that calibur? Are you expanding on or changing part of that core experience, making it more about running from enemies or more about solving puzzles, more about narrative etc or are you trying to maintain the same balance?