Why are so many Amnesia custom stories so similar?

[CorinthianMerchant]

after Sir Pewdie started playing Amnesia, many many people wanted to make him play their custom stories

PewDiePie cracks me up. I love watching his videos on youtube. That dude is extremely funny, in my opinion.

So you think rape and sexism is funny?

[Melvin]

after Sir Pewdie started playing Amnesia, many many people wanted to make him play their custom stories

PewDiePie cracks me up. I love watching his videos on youtube. That dude is extremely funny, in my opinion.

So you think rape and sexism is funny?

If you guys want to leave your comment on Pewdiepie, hate or love. Please do it here: http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-18369.html

Let's stay on the subject, typical custom stories.

Well, I have played some Custom Stories to learn from mistakes others made. This typical custom story map order never caught my attention until now, and you're right!

I hope people who are developing CS like them, read this and don't make such CS anymore.

Interesting thread by the way.

[MyRedNeptune]

PewDiePie cracks me up. I love watching his videos on youtube. That dude is extremely funny, in my opinion.

So you think rape and sexism is funny?

I'm sure it's the obnoxious behavior that people find funny, not sexism in itself. I, personally, am more offended by accidental slips by people who otherwise don't act sexist than the inappropriate ramblings of hyperactive guys like Pewdie. Refuge in audacity, you know?

[Acies]

*Cough* Some advertising of what I'm working on.

Spoiler below!

[Cranky Old Man]

I am new to playing Amnesia custom stories but so far I have downloaded and played through around 100 of them. This has taken me several months to do. One thing I have noticed is how similar many of them are. Lots of them have this same formula:

1. Starts off in the same typical bedroom with a door that is usually locked for some strange reason.
2. Then you move to the hallways of the same typical house on a search for keys and tinderboxes. Tinderboxes are always a sign that the story is going down to the cellar, as usual.
3. Then it moves down to a typical underground/cellar/basement/prison area where you spend most of your time with the monsters.

Why do so many of these custom stories follow the same pattern?

I also play a pc game called Thief where fans of the game have created some AMAZING fan missions using the engine that created the original Thief game. These missions are all so extremely different. But with Amnesia, it doesn't seem that way unless it's a full mod with it's own bat or exe. file.

Just wondering. I've never tried to create a custom story so I don't know how limited the software is for creating custom stories. Has anyone else here wondered why these custom stories are so similar?

Because that's what the (default) models allow.
A creepy story starts out as fairly safe. This is where you use the mansion tilesets.
From there, you can either go with the castle or cellar tilesets, and then end up with the dungeon/caverns tileset.
It's a game engine that is about puzzles and exploring with a lantern, so you start at the safest possible room - the bedroom - and from there you explore your way down into dark dungeons. What varies on the way, is usually the journal entries, that tells a little horror novella on the way. Those entries are the actual stars of the show. For instance, you can simply tell any HP Lovecraft story while the player is walking around the mansion, and he will feel that it's relevant to the setting he's in.

The Thief engine, on the other hand, works with brushes and textures. If you want to make a giant icecream level, then nothing will stop you. You have various NPCs and tools too. It's mostly all about medieval thievery, though, isn't it?

---

So you think rape and sexism is funny?

Yes?
I wish PewDiePie would just be rape jokes and sexism, but unfortunately he's much worse than Retsupurae describes him. I did LPs once, and I was just about rape jokes and sexism.

[cav500]

It's mostly all about medieval thievery, though, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. I love Thief. I've been playing those fan created mission for years. I'm new to Amnesia. I have found some pretty good ones for Amnesia too. I really enjoyed White Night and some of the custom stories are really good too. I just couldn't help but notice this similar pattern in most of them though. Good explanation. Thanks Old Man.

[i3670]

Here's an idea. Do it reversed. If you've seen the movie Irreversible you'll know what I'm talking about.

[cav500]

I am currently playing through the Small Horse series. Wow! Those are custom stories (not full mods) and they are REALLY different. I'm not saying that all custom story creators should make stories like those but they do show some incredible creativity and that it can be done.

[CorinthianMerchant]

The Small Horse = incredible creativity

[MaZiCUT]

Simply put: you're playing the wrong custom stories.

There are some promising projects that have been made or are on the Horizon that utilize new models and mechanics. There are even a few unique ones that use only assets from the original game (building sets/models/music/etc) but are well put together. But, seeing as how you've played 100 mods, I'm sure you've already picked through the best ones.

The HPL2 is rather simplistic engine to work with (as far as basics go) so there is a lot of lower quality modding.

Your meme is bad and you should feel bad.