Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 1

[The Rock Worm]

Just found this article on A Machine for Pigs http://gamestar.ru/english/amnesia_a_mac...w_eng.html


I found these points to be bigger ones that caught me eye:

We always sense a good deal of influence of Lovecraft in your games,
even the engine name is dedicated to him. Please tell us about your and
you team’s tastes in horror books and movies. How did famous writer
influence first and second Amnesia’s world and background?

Two main inspirations from Lovecraft are:

• The horror lies in the unknown so you want to keep your things in the
  shadows, only allowing the audience glimpses of the terror.
• That there are terrible things outside of the normal human experience that when glimpsed make our concept of reality crumble.

TDD very much rely on these, and I think AMFP too, but cannot say since Dan Pinchbeck is the one writing the story.

Another day me and my friend played Doom 3 co-op, and even if some
moments kept their impression, most weren’t actually scary as they were
in single. Does that mean that loneliness is the main weapon in scaring
people, or there’s something else? Can you imagine co-op horror where a
group of people gets frightened? What would be your way of doing it?

Being alone is always good for creating fear but I think co-op can
work. One way of doing would be to make the player spook another in some
way. Perhaps make them unsure if they can trust one another.

Could you name 3 key elements that distinguish second Amnesia from other games in the genre and the original game?

Three things that Amnesia do differently from most other horror games
are: No combat, Physical Interaction and a focus on psychological
scares. Nailing down things that ae different between AMFP and TDD are a
bit harder but will try. For one thing the storytelling will be a bit
different and uses different ways to get it across. The levels will also
be a lot larger in AMFP and have more interesting architecture.
Finally, the enemy behaviors will be a lot more varied and harder to
guess than in TDD.

You often say that A Machine for Pigs is thechineseroom take on the
world of Amnesia. What are the most significant differences in gameplay
mechanics between the two games?

I'd say it is a bit more streamlined. There will be no inventory for
instance, which makes the puzzles handled a bit differently.

The 'no inventory' bit I have some thoughts on. If you think about it, how often do you have a bag to carry items and notes? If one of us were walking in a city when monsters or such happens,all we have is what we are carrying (clothes, wallets, cellphones, etc). Solving puzzles with no inventory would make things very interesting. Think about Penumbra, it had puzzles that inventories were not required. This doesn't take away from the story, to me it adds to it. You'd have to think to solve it, which might be tricky if a monster is after you while you're trying to solve a puzzle.

I do have a question concerning no inventory. If you have a locked door, would you just hold the key similarly a lit lantern/flashlight appears to you? Locked doors and no keys might be part of the puzzles needed to solve. We may have to MacGyver our way through. (Free Cookie to those who knows who MacGyver is without looking him up)