Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 1

**Alex Agosto** · 04-22-2013, 01:37 AM

(04-21-2013, 11:10 PM)Plectrum61 Wrote: They said the game would be dark and dark it is. Seriously what do some people expect from horror games? That it would be bright enough to see everything? You have a bloody lanternflashlight thingy! ATDD IS ALSO VERY DARK IN THE PRISON! WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE COMPLAINING?!
Xcuse me for my rage...

in amnesia tdd when you go in the dark everything glows blue so you can see

**Kman** · 04-22-2013, 01:45 AM

Actually on topic though I'm gonna have to agree that the screenshots do kinda suck, at least lighting wise. Yes, horror games are supposed to be dark, but not so fucking dark that you literally can't make out the environment, then it's just stupid. When I first got amnesia, I was having gamma issues and I literally could not see a single thing, I seriously played the first 5 or so maps by banging my face against the wall trying to find where the next hallway was and I ended up completely missing the first 5 or 6 scares because of it. That's not scary, it's just annoying.

Darkness in horror games only works when the developers utilize contrast between dark and light, when everything is dark it loses it's effect. In the prison, for example, even though for the most part it was dark there were still torches and cracks in the ceiling letting light in or some other source of light in every hallway and room. Even in ones where there wasn't any it was still acceptable because the night vision still would give you this contrast.

Jesus christ guys, stop being such fanboys, it's possible for them to release content that isn't amazing you know.

**rtjhbfvsrry** · 04-22-2013, 09:05 AM

Wow, let's complain about how dark all these screenshots where the character is not using the lantern are! It's not like the game has a mechanic that simulates your eyes adjusting to darkness after a while! What a pointless discussion, with all the lighting mechanics in this game and your own gamma settings nobody can guess what this will look like in game.

**Themaagen** · 04-22-2013, 09:14 AM

(04-22-2013, 01:45 AM)Kman Wrote: Actually on topic though I'm gonna have to agree that the screenshots do kinda suck, at least lighting wise. Yes, horror games are supposed to be dark, but not so fucking dark that you literally can't make out the environment, then it's just stupid. When I first got amnesia, I was having gamma issues and I literally could not see a single thing, I seriously played the first 5 or so maps by banging my face against the wall trying to find where the next hallway was and I ended up completely missing the first 5 or 6 scares because of it. That's not scary, it's just annoying.

Darkness in horror games only works when the developers utilize contrast between dark and light, when everything is dark it loses it's effect. In the prison, for example, even though for the most part it was dark there were still torches and cracks in the ceiling letting light in or some other source of light in every hallway and room. Even in ones where there wasn't any it was still acceptable because the night vision still would give you this contrast.

Jesus christ guys, stop being such fanboys, it's possible for them to release content that isn't amazing you know.

Can't Really see how this is anyones fault but your own. I and anyone I know have had no problems with the game's lighting Tongue

**Kman** · 04-22-2013, 09:16 AM

The only purpose of putting out screenshots, trailers, news articles, really any form of media for a game is to advertise the game and give people an idea of the quality they're going to be seeing when the product is release. When you release a screenshot where you can't see anything, that's what people are going to think it's going to look like in game, it doesn't matter if that's what it really will look like or not. And it doesn't matter if you're going to have a lantern or not, if they're depending on the player using their lantern the whole time then they should have taken the screenshots with the lantern turned on so people actually know what the game is intended to look like. Let me ask you, if a restaurant put out an advertisement where their food was spoiled and looked terrible, would you want to go there regardless of how good the food may be? No, because they did a bad job of advertising it. Sorry for judging a screenshot based on the actual purpose of releasing a fucking screenshot, I guess that's a no go.

(04-22-2013, 09:14 AM)Themaagen Wrote: Can't Really see how this is anyones fault but your own. I and anyone I know have had no problems with the game's lighting

Was I blaming it on anyone else? No. I'm fully aware that it was my system's fault and I got it sorted out within a couple of hours. My point is people saying shit like "wtf you guys are complaining about it being dark in a horror game horror games are supposed to be dark you dummies!!1" are being dumb. Yes darkness is a key factor in any horror game in setting the atmosphere and everything but when it's so dark that you literally can't even make out the environment that's not scary, it's just obnoxious.

**Themaagen** · 04-22-2013, 09:22 AM

(04-22-2013, 09:16 AM)Kman Wrote: The only purpose of putting out screenshots, trailers, news articles, really any form of media for a game is to advertise the game and give people an idea of the quality they're going to be seeing when the product is release. When you release a screenshot where you can't see anything, that's what people are going to think it's going to look like in game, it doesn't matter if that's what it really will look like or not. And it doesn't matter if you're going to have a lantern or not, if they're depending on the player using their lantern the whole time then they should have taken the screenshots with the lantern turned on so people actually know what the game is intended to look like. Let me ask you, if a restaurant put out an advertisement where their food was spoiled and looked terrible, would you want to go there regardless of how good the food may be? No, because they did a bad job of advertising it. Sorry for judging a screenshot based on the actual purpose of releasing a fucking screenshot, I guess that's a no go.

(04-22-2013, 09:14 AM)Themaagen Wrote: Can't Really see how this is anyones fault but your own. I and anyone I know have had no problems with the game's lighting

Was I blaming it on anyone else? No. I'm fully aware that it was my system's fault and I got it sorted out within a couple of hours. My point is people saying shit like "wtf you guys are complaining about it being dark in a horror game horror games are supposed to be dark you dummies!!1" are being dumb. Yes darkness is a key factor in any horror game in setting the atmosphere and everything but when it's so dark that you literally can't even make out the environment that's not scary, it's just obnoxious.

You have a good point, and if the only content that had been released was these screenshots, I'd be right there with you. But since we've had trailers that give a much better idea of the game, these screenshots don't really matter... To me anyway Smile

**Kman** · 04-22-2013, 09:27 AM

(04-22-2013, 09:22 AM)Themaagen Wrote: You have a good point, and if the only content that had been released was these screenshots, I'd be right there with you. But since we've had trailers that give a much better idea of the game, these screenshots don't really matter... To me anyway

Yeah I feel you. I just thought a lot of the reactions people were having to peoples' critiques of the screenshots were ridiculous/fanboyish when a lot of them were perfectly justified, so I felt like defending them. I'm still gonna get this either way when it comes out obviously though

**Themaagen** · 04-22-2013, 09:30 AM

I just kinda got the feeling with the pictures like they were going "Oh no fans are getting impatient... Hey Jeff (I don't know their names, sorry Tongue

) Could you take a few screenshots of the game and post them to a news site? Oh, and make sure the pictures show the Jack the Ripper places so they can speculate a bit - that should keep them busy for a while!" And the rest is history Tongue

**Tesseract** · 04-22-2013, 09:33 AM

(04-22-2013, 09:05 AM)Funderbunk Wrote: Wow, let's complain about how dark all these screenshots where the character is not using the lantern are! It's not like the game has a mechanic that simulates your eyes adjusting to darkness after a while! What a pointless discussion, with all the lighting mechanics in this game and your own gamma settings nobody can guess what this will look like in game.

Wow, lets complain about people having opinions again. The character isn't using the lantern but surely for the sake of screen shots it'd be nice to see some forms of lighting to make out what the scene is. Just because they're good game developers doesn't mean they do things that appeal to everyone. There are people who have their say on particular things because as people, we're unique, we have opinions - who cares?
The discussion is pointless and it gets more pointless when people can't share an opinion or an experience.

Personally I'm not satisfied with the screenshots; I don't want a new trailer, I don't want another interview with the same information. What would be nice though is maybe a progress report, something that gives more meaningful information towards the games development so far. 6 screenshots do not purvey anything of any value about the games progress. I know that FG are working hard and I highly doubt they have too much left to do - I'd like to believe that - but there's no information to support that since the last informative post by Jens was over a month ago.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx** · 04-22-2013, 09:43 AM

Quote: I just kinda got the feeling with the pictures like they were going "Oh no fans are getting impatient... Hey Jeff (I don't know their names, sorry ) Could you take a few screenshots of the game and post them to a news site? Oh, and make sure the pictures show the Jack the Ripper places so they can speculate a bit - that should keep them busy for a while!" And the rest is history

This. What people are missing here is that this was not some big, official announcement. It was just a bunch of screenshots they made for the escapist magazine. They're not even on their official page! It probably went something like this: Escapist wanted to make a small article about the game, asked them to give 'em a couple of new screenshots, like RIGHT NOW, and some poor dude had to rush and make some.
Then he had the usual gamma issues hpl is known for and they couldn't figure out how to fix them in time, so they were like "ah, whatever", because in the end having an article with kinda shitty looking screenshots is still better than wasting the opportunity to get some press coverage completely. And now everyone's going completely batshit bonkers about it, even though samuel already stated it doesn't look like that ingame. *sigh*

So basically, what I'm saying is, the critique is completely justified, no denying that. But it is petty and useless, especially after the information given by samuel. So why can't we please just move on to discussing more interesting aspects of the pictures instead? Is it so much more fun to be negative?