Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 1

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Spoiler below!

I'm interested to know if they have multilingual support. And even, like Penumbra Overture, german voices.

So, is there multilingual support, just the texts or even a full localization?

Mainly I mean german language.

Why would you even want localization in AMFP? Don't mean any disrespect but with all your big talk about immersion I would think you would want to use subtitles. Not to say localization is not a noble pursuit, it just never works out, especially not for an indie game. The only dub I have seen that was on par with the original English version is Puss in Boots, which honestly I think is a milestone in film localization.

EDIT: I'm talking about the Spanish localization of course.

Hah, the german localization of Overture is even better than the original english!
The voices, the language style, that's more impressively than the original.

And I also don't want to use subtitles, because reading a text during gameplay will pull you off from the game.
And you can't read a text and look at the environment at same time. So, a multilingual full support would be very important, when it's made well like in Penumbra Overture.

Hm, I see where you're coming from... I suppose they might have localization. After all Frictional have a bit more money now than they used to
But why not try out the english version? It might be hard at first, but playing games in their original english language is how I learned english!

Just don't make the mistake of switching on german subtitles - that actually doesn't help at all with learning. Because in order to really learn a language you have to resist translating what you hear in your head and instead grasp the meaning of the word immediately. Basically, after a while you start thinking in english as soon as you hear it and after you get to that point it becomes easier and easier.

I first played english games with english subtitles to get used to the way things were pronounced and then switched those off after a while. Now I get to enjoy my games in their intended glory because - few exceptions aside - most games are horribly localized.

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As mentioned the graphical design in Amnesia, I'm also trained in 2D art and I have to say that some textures in Amnesia really are bad. I don't mean low resolution, I mean the creation is crappy. Some textures like the bricks of the castle looks like "cloned" each other, there is no contrast, no dirt, no cracks and the textures aren't even tileable.

A texture need more structures, more urgently details, more contrast and more different "objects" on it, looking different each other, so that nothing seems cloned. The most important thing is that textures can set together without you can see the join. To have a better looking surface, a texture also should have different lighting, dark and bright areas.


But OK, Amnesia is a game where story and atmosphere comes first, not the graphics.

I won't say the graphics are bad, but I want to say some textures are poor made.

I already told about the bricks, but also the stone looks like an other one, barrels and wood planks, all looks like the same compared to the others. There is no versatility, whether that would be very important for an atmospheric and realistic world.

Some of the things you mentioned might be there because of the limitations of hpl. For example you can't have more than one material on the same object and you can't blend materials with shader networks like, say, in Unreal.
In UDK you can take one tiling stone texture and a random noise texture and then create the shader in such a way that it will never look repetitive, even if you tile it a hundred times on a huge plane. Or you can have automatic, randomized color variations in instanced barrels, crates and the like. Those magic tricks aren't possible in hpl so cut them some slack

As for the cloned bricks, the problem is also that if you make them too different, the tiling will be even more obvious. Think about it: You have the same piece of wall placed ten times in a corridor, one behind the other. Now if their bricks were super varied, you'd immediately notice that for example that one unique darker brick repeats itself on every piece of wall.
Make the bricks more uniform and it will look a bit boring but at least the repetitiveness won't catch the viewers eye quite as fast.