SDP [RELEASED]

[Darkfire]

Article Update:

Have you noticed how 90% of mods handle monster encounters ?

The usual scenarios are:
a)Monster appears and you have to run
b)You have to hide before the monster enters the room
c)You need to go find the proper passage in an area with a monster

Perhaps you got bored with those, and you usually react with "Another monster, huh ? Whatevs, easy"

Here my strategy comes in. For this mod I have invented a new formula.
It can be brought down to five principles:
1. Give the player a puzzle to complete while simultaneously dodging the enemy
2. Make sure that the puzzle itself isn't overcomplicated, which would render the experience frustrating. Also the puzzle should be significantly easier if the player remains unspotted.
3. Restrict the gameplay area, so that the enemy doesn't disappear ( they do so as soon as you go too far a distance from them, which is a mechanic heavily overused by players to avoid encounters)
4. Give the player a certain amount of options for avoiding and distracting the enemy
5. Implement random enemy paths, so that the player has to improvise every time they die.


This might seem to transform Amnesia's difficulty level to a Dark-Souls-tier, but believe me that it doesn't.
What it does though is bring out a level of adrenaline that you only experience when first playing Amnesia. At least it did for me. When I first implemented this formula, it turned out to be the first time I've been thrilled by my own mod.

Another sneak peak from "SDP"

Obviously this is not a friendly advise for fellow modders only - By writing this artice I wanted to point out a certain route of design I took while developing the SDP mod.
I would also like to mention that I haven't overused this formula, so that the gameplay doesn't become too samey. There will be some of the old scenarios as well, although usually with a twist.

That's all I wanted to say today, thanks for reading