Frictional Games talks about their secret project

[failedALIAS]

I was actually expecting the release date to be further, since perfection takes time. Guess they're working their asses off.

[the dark side]

true, but, as Amnesia came out 2 years ago, how do we know how long there next game has been in developement? for all we know, it could have been in development since just after amnesia came out, heck, it may have been in development BEFORE Amnesia went Gold... (companies have been known to do that),. for all we know, it could have already been in development for 2 to 3 years already, meaning it may have had up to 5 years of gestation before it gets released.

[Ghieri]

true, but, as Amnesia came out 2 years ago, how do we know how long there next game has been in developement? for all we know, it could have been in development since just after amnesia came out, heck, it may have been in development BEFORE Amnesia went Gold... (companies have been known to do that),. for all we know, it could have already been in development for 2 to 3 years already, meaning it may have had up to 5 years of gestation before it gets released.

Haven't thought about that. Something tells me that they didn't start until after Amnesia, because Thomas expressed regrets about releasing a game that didn't have any deep meaning to it. Seems logical that regret could have sparked the latest project. Meaning it probably started development shortly after Amnesia's great reception.(After which Frictional had the financial means to support their staff comfortably, and more leeway in what projects they could do.)

Just my conclusion. I have no proof but it seems logical.

[Prelauncher]

true, but, as Amnesia came out 2 years ago, how do we know how long there next game has been in developement? for all we know, it could have been in development since just after amnesia came out, heck, it may have been in development BEFORE Amnesia went Gold... (companies have been known to do that),. for all we know, it could have already been in development for 2 to 3 years already, meaning it may have had up to 5 years of gestation before it gets released.

Considering the size of Frictional Games I doubt they started development on this game before releasing Amnesia, but I get your point. But since they are an indie company they can give themselves enough time to make a great game and the new title has propably been in development for quite some time now. I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.

[the dark side]

well, contrary to popular Beleif, developement isnt just the programming, the programming is actually phase III of development, Phase 1 is the "pencil and paper" stuff the outline, the basic plot comments, etc, the overall genre, phase II is stuff such as storyboarding, research, Concept Arts, level Map ideas (pencil and paper layout blueprints) etc.

so they could have started development, as in Phase I pencil and paper game outlines, before Amnesia was completed, as i said, programming is phase III of development, a part of the process, not the whole process like most people think.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

True, but since programming in this case also included a lot of work on the new engine version, they could have already started with that in pre-production too, since that is mostly independent from the whole "pencil and paper" stuff. (Well, unless they suddenly changed the genre to an RTS I guess ^^)
There's also always a lot of other stuff to do for programmers - writing new tools or improving existing ones to make life easier for the artists and game designers for example or prototyping features to see if they are possible. Poor guys, they never get any free time

Anyway, since its now confirmed that it will be a horror game of sorts, I can't help but ask myself which game will be better - AaMfP or this one? Both studios have a very unique way to approach game design and are eager to create an experience that's different from what people have seen so far... and both games have the same "ancestor" - one is a sequel the other one developed by the original studio. An exiting situation! Good thing they aren't released at the same time I wouldn't know which one to play first.