Amnesia in the classrooom?

[KamenRiderSun]

So, this is my debut thread on the Frictional Games Forums. I've been a player of Amnesia and Penumbra for a few months, and have been trying my hand at custom story making lately. I love the games and how they're played, they make for a great experience, in my opinion.

Now to the meat of the post. I've been given permission from my psychology teacher to have Amnesia up on a projector screen to play in front of and with the class. [we're a very small class, only ten of us on a good day] But I have a little issue with time. I only have around twenty minutes to do this, and I'm leaning towards using a custom story as the intro to the game is a little slow, and explaining the plot would be a little time consuming if I loaded a save from a specific point. What I'm looking for is a custom story that sets up the atmosphere quickly without being cheesy, is well written, doesn't have pointless jumpscares, and holds interest for about half an hour.

tl;dr:

• Hi, I'm new
• I need a custom story for my class
• quick atmosphere setting
  
• twenty minute length [preferably]
• well written
• no pointless jumpscares. [teleporting naked guys in a closet with the iron maiden sound effect]
  

If you have any other advice, I'd love to hear it.

[Kman]

Ooooh... This is kind of tough simply for the fact that there aren't very many serious stories that create atmosphere but get to the scares quickly too. I think your best bet though would be Black Forest Castle or An Unexpected Arrival (though An Unexpected Arrival does have ONE jumpscare, it is also VERY atmospheric and it's pretty good), you could also try Nepsis or Followed By Death (though you might want to run through these two ahead of time since they take a little longer to get going on the scares). Another possibility is the Justine DLC, since it gets to the scares pretty fast too (but again, you'd probably have to run through it first to make sure you could actually get to the really good parts in 20 minutes).

On a side note, your psychology teacher sounds like a total badass. Seriously.

[palistov]

Tisk tisk Kman....did Hunter never come to mind?

KamenRiderSun, look into Palistov's Holiday Series -- Hunter. It's a short mod I made that features things like dynamic & layered atmosphere, freedom of choice, subtle story-telling with a holiday theme.

There are other options as well. You can still show gameplay of The Dark Descent. The story is very straightforward and shouldn't take more than a minute to explain thoroughly enough to ensure your class knows what's going on. For example:

1) Daniel wakes up in castle Brennen, and has amnesia
2) He finds a note-to-self explaining the situation and telling himself to find and murder Alexander, the baron of Brennenburg.
3) Along the way, Daniel pieces together the story of how he came to be in the castle and uncovers dark truths about the castle, Alexander, and himself.

Like Kman said, there's also the Justine "expansion". Definitely a memorable experience. I'd suggest these levels from TDD to give your class that tension we all are familiar with

Morgue
Sewers
Wine Cellar Maze (water-monster chase scene)
Storage
Refinery

As for custom stories, the only ones that pop into mind which have some noticeably tense parts to the game are

Library of Alexandria by Acies
Cry & Russ's 24-hour custom story challenge: Acies' map, Kman's map
Nepsis by Homicide13
Deterioration by Streetboat

To be honest, nothing else really comes to mind. The rest of 'em are usually your typical "Here's a poofing monster and a teleporting naked guy. Be scared."

[Kman]

Yeah all the ones Palistov said are good too (sorry I didn't mention Hunter btw ) even though in my mind Deterioration is the best custom story released at the moment, I'm not sure it's right for this specific prupose, simply because it's more puzzle oriented with a horror tundertone to it and scary moments in it, and it seemed like this guy was looking for a more scare filled mod.

[KamenRiderSun]

Wow, thanks a lot, everyone. I wasn't expecting such an enthusiastic and helpful response. Like I said, I'm still green, so I don't know much about the community.

I have played the Justine expansion, but I think it might be a little too sadistic, what with the killing captives and all. [and stacking those boxes took way too long]. I've also started on Followed by Death, which was one of my original choices. I just have a little inner debate on if I should have played through the story before-hand or not. On one hand, I know the layout of the story, so I am able to play through it quickly without wasting time. On the other, there's the notion of everyone getting into the atmosphere, including me.

Again, thanks for all of the help. I'll definitely be checking out each of the stories/creators mentioned, but I'll hold off on playing them for now.

[ThoseRandomGuyz]

I don't know how long this one is, but I'm almost positive that The Old Well-Chapter 1 would work. I don't know exactly how long it is tho... But it really well made and when the scares start, THEY START! Just be sure to play it through once tho. Because the first puzzle had my friend stuck for half an hour...

[Pandachoko]

I am fully working on my custom story, called Shelter: the description stand: YOU SEEK SHELTER FROM RAIN AND THUNDER IN A CASTLE OUT IN THE FORREST. YOU STILL REGRET AFTER YOU ENTERED THE BIG GATES.

Send me a private message if you interresting. The only problem is that: - I am not finished. It is more than 20 minutes.
+ side with this custom story is, NO JUMP SCARES(The horror will be 80's horror, like halloween and so on.
+Well written story, and at huge atmosphere, you get a quick feeling that is an abandoned castle. And you are in some ones presence. And you are not alone. You WILL not die in the map, because all is hallucination. It's all about ghosts, and a urban legend with a suit.(the man with the suit will NOT be shown in the custom story, He will be told in storyline
+And again it's 80's horror, moving chair, creepy sounds, I will make a link to a sound that in the game.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1vYNIl1x7Q <--Link to a creepy sound, that will be in the game


(sorry for my english, I am coming from Denmark)


BUT please just send a private message, if you interresting or not. so I know, if you interresting, I will begin to make it 24/7 if it is a urgent. and you need a custom story right know, or?. But send me a private message

[SlenderMan]

I played this custom story http://www.moddb.com/mods/white-night/ trust me you'll have nightmares when your going to sleep.

[JMFStorm]

I played this custom story http://www.moddb.com/mods/white-night/ trust me you'll have nightmares when your going to sleep.

Good job.

[lowtide]

Maybe Dark room?