Try something new! Amnesia Custom Story - The Game

[nemesis567]

There is. You have to be friendly to receive friendly constructive comments.

I really don't see my unfriendly part in this.

Never said you were. I know it's a suck up when you put some effort into something and you receive such comments. I have no opinion yet on your story since I haven't played it yet.

[Wapez]

I like how you ignored the fact that on your last thread (in which you claimed it was one of the top 100 mods on ModDB (which means nothing based on their ranking system)), I DID give you constructive feedback. I told you what I thought was wrong with it. I told you what you could do to fix it. That thread no longer exists, so that can't be proven either way.

You want constructive feedback? You got it.

1. Don't scale things to 40x their normal size. Textures don't look very good when you do.

2. Welders are your friend. In the "kitchen" area upstairs, you can blatantly see through the walls.

3. Metal cabinets are not big enough to hide in properly. The door does not close. That may have been intentional, but I figured I'd mention it.

4. Your story doesn't really exist. Every note can be skipped and it makes no difference as to how the mod is perceived. Story-less mods can be ok, if executed properly or if it is based solely on puzzles or something like that.

5. You have lit candles in bookshelves. I really hope that wood has been coated with a fire-retardant varnish, or your mansion will be burning down.

6. You have decals floating in the air in some spots. Specifically, in the upstairs area of the kitchen, one of the tables with people parts has a floating blood decal.

7. The only item other than a key in the entire thing is a crowbar. That crowbar is used to get out of the area that you find the crowbar in, back into an area you have already visited. Now another door has been unlocked, and there isn't any indication that it has been, nor does it make sense for the door to be unlocked.

8. When an enemy is coming at me and I am cornered, one of two things will be the case: a)It's a poofer, I need not be afraid; or b) I am meant to die or get chased or something, I may as well run away or just sit there and take it. These things do not create fear, unless implemented correctly (which you didn't).

9. You have many cliche events, especially the ending. There's nothing new or special about that, and as soon as I see a dead end, well, the ending is rather clear.

The point is, I have already spent 10 minutes typing the same type of post as this before. You didn't listen to a word of it before. Why would I be compelled to do it again?

Your age is irrelevant. Welcome to the Internet, and the real world. It doesn't matter how old you are, how experienced you are, how much time and effort you put into something, if you release it to the public, you effectively sign a contract saying "I understand that some people may love it and some may hate it, and I may very well get flamed for it, but it's worth it to try."

You gave it a shot. It didn't work out. I gave you the feedback you needed to make it better, you ignored it. Now here we are a few months later, with the same map, and the same attitude that because you are relatively young, it excuses you for making a bad mod. It does not.

My age doesnt excuse anything. Though that it was my first mod does. By the way, you were one of the people (If not the very one) I listened the most to as I almost instantly started working on my next one. Though I don't agree with some of the feedback, I take (and took from the last post) your help seriously and I think I'm doing better and better. Maybe I'm making all of this too complicated, but what I meant with my first reply is that I have got a lot of feedback that is INCREDIBLY good. (which I don't understand myself). And since I have got the complete opposite here, I figured that I don't want people to think it won't be worth playing it, when it's a fair chance they will. Though I understand that the most of what have been said is true, it makes the mod look really bad to people who normally like this kind of mods. So I wanted people to try it before they read everything that could be better.



Maybe I'm just being a selfish kid now, but this is what I thought when I wrote the reply.

And if anyone else thought I didn't give a shit about feedback: I do. I thank everyone for taking their time to review it, bad or good. And thank you for re-writing it Anxt, I will once again remember what you wrote.

[Kman]

Just thought I'd bring this up, it being your first mod shouldn't effect the quality and shouldn't be used as an excuse. Many people's first mods are amazing, and not because they were just born with a talent, but because they waited until they had honed their skills to a level where what they released was of high quality. The reason so many people say that the first story is always bad is because too many people are eager to release something as soon as they learn to make something. I can understand why people would end up doing this, the first time I made a map I remember how badly I wanted to release it (and holy fuck it was a terrible map) but instead I didn't and kept working to improve my skills. Now, almost a year later, I've become a very skilled mapper and modder in general, and I can guarantee you that my first mod will be very good.

[Anxt]

Just thought I'd bring this up, it being your first mod shouldn't effect the quality and shouldn't be used as an excuse. Many people's first mods are amazing, and not because they were just born with a talent, but because they waited until they had honed their skills to a level where what they released was of high quality. The reason so many people say that the first story is always bad is because too many people are eager to release something as soon as they learn to make something. I can understand why people would end up doing this, the first time I made a map I remember how badly I wanted to release it (and holy fuck it was a terrible map) but instead I didn't and kept working to improve my skills. Now, almost a year later, I've become a very skilled mapper and modder in general, and I can guarantee you that my first mod will be very good.

Definitely true. Abduction is actually my first mod, and while I could EASILY make it much better, it has done very well for itself. At some point I may even go back to make a 2.0 version, improving environments, scares, scripting, etc.

[Adny]

A good idea for mapping practice I heard somewhere on the forums (I think it was from Khrypa?), is to pick a level from the original game (In your case, a simpler level such as the entrance or back hall) open it in the editor, and try to reproduce it yourself in a separate editor. I've never tried it, but in theory it sounds like it would work excellently; it will help you to pick up on details and ideas you've perhaps never seen before and make you an all around better modder.

Who better to learn from than the very people who created the game?

[Wapez]

Just thought I'd bring this up, it being your first mod shouldn't effect the quality and shouldn't be used as an excuse. Many people's first mods are amazing, and not because they were just born with a talent, but because they waited until they had honed their skills to a level where what they released was of high quality. The reason so many people say that the first story is always bad is because too many people are eager to release something as soon as they learn to make something. I can understand why people would end up doing this, the first time I made a map I remember how badly I wanted to release it (and holy fuck it was a terrible map) but instead I didn't and kept working to improve my skills. Now, almost a year later, I've become a very skilled mapper and modder in general, and I can guarantee you that my first mod will be very good.

This is all true, and I guess I weren't as smart as you. You know, I just wanted to show people what I had done, I learned first afterwards that this was not very good. But yeah, all of this has really improved my skills significantly, and I did just that; looked at the real maps. Even though I didn't recreate the whole maps, I took a closer look on lights and decals and stuff like that. Found out how they solved problems I couldn't myself, at the time. And I think I've made huge improvements. And since you guys actually are here commentating, I would love if you could take a look at my full conversion, which I think will be kinda good, not the best, but fairly enjoyable to play, for everyone.
And maybe provide some more feedback after that. Thanks.

[Wapez]

A good idea for mapping practice I heard somewhere on the forums (I think it was from Khrypa?), is to pick a level from the original game (In your case, a simpler level such as the entrance or back hall) open it in the editor, and try to reproduce it yourself in a separate editor. I've never tried it, but in theory it sounds like it would work excellently; it will help you to pick up on details and ideas you've perhaps never seen before and make you an all around better modder.

Who better to learn from than the very people who created the game?

It is a good way, but personally I prefer the "learn what works" strategy, as this way you're not reproducing someone's style but carving your own. I mean, my style is simillar to Frictional Games in quite a few ways but at the same time the levels tend to be darker, more focused around story than scares etc. Doing this helps you learn how to make good maps yes, but it won't let you develop your own style. Personally, if I ever needed an idea of how to do something I'd just glance at how FG did theirs and then tried to recreate it.

---

Just thought I'd bring this up, it being your first mod shouldn't effect the quality and shouldn't be used as an excuse. Many people's first mods are amazing, and not because they were just born with a talent, but because they waited until they had honed their skills to a level where what they released was of high quality. The reason so many people say that the first story is always bad is because too many people are eager to release something as soon as they learn to make something. I can understand why people would end up doing this, the first time I made a map I remember how badly I wanted to release it (and holy fuck it was a terrible map) but instead I didn't and kept working to improve my skills. Now, almost a year later, I've become a very skilled mapper and modder in general, and I can guarantee you that my first mod will be very good.

This is all true, and I guess I weren't as smart as you. You know, I just wanted to show people what I had done, I learned first afterwards that this was not very good. But yeah, all of this has really improved my skills significantly, and I did just that; looked at the real maps. Even though I didn't recreate the whole maps, I took a closer look on lights and decals and stuff like that. Found out how they solved problems I couldn't myself, at the time. And I think I've made huge improvements. And since you guys actually are here commentating, I would love if you could take a look at my full conversion, which I think will be kinda good, not the best, but fairly enjoyable to play, for everyone.
And maybe provide some more feedback after that. Thanks.

If you ever want help with story, or anything really, just send me a PM and I'll do what I can, you seem like a nice guy and someone who's eager to learn so..

Thanks, I will. Means a lot to me.

[josegamer]

Why is everyone saying that this custom story is horrible, a piece of crap, a shit etc...
I have played it and I didnt saw so much bugs like you guys say. Well its true that it could be a little better but I really enjoyed playing it and it has some cool puzles to solve too so I think that is not so bad as you guys sad.
When the second part come out I will play it so for whoever made this I just say: Keep up the good job and continue making this awesome custom story !!

[Wapez]

Why is everyone saying that this custom story is horrible, a piece of crap, a shit etc...
I have played it and I didnt saw so much bugs like you guys say. Well its true that it could be a little better but I really enjoyed playing it and it has some cool puzles to solve too so I think that is not so bad as you guys sad.
When the second part come out I will play it so for whoever made this I just say: Keep up the good job and continue making this awesome custom story !!

Thanks that means a lot to me

[HumiliatioN]

It's true that this custom story is not that great, but it's not piece of shit seriously. I completed it and there is not any unique events or puzzles what so ever. Little disappointment for that, but don't be too harsh guys. If this is her first mod he can now learn something when he is making sequel or something.

My feedback for this mod: Little rushed, puzzles pretty boring, many scares pretty unpredictable.. atmosphere not good, it was okay. This is the truth for this story. There are some bugs too, but make different versions, update this etc.

My tips:

For your next story if you do that: Don't ever rush it, train your brain to make a really creepy atmosphere areas, use different wallset types, use more particles, use your imagination to make something really complex puzzles too not too simple and make something unique to really creep the hell out all the players then you can get some really positive feedback from your next story.