Discussion about the Darkness

[SpheRe]

Hey guys

I've read your comments and I will keep the things you said in mind.

Thanks for your review and I will work on it.

[Alex Ros]

Honestly, it's a bad trailer. There's no story, no rhythmical changes, no idea... just a bunch of meaningless "look what's here" and "look what's there" and there's nothing to look at, just usual ceiling and floor and a pack of torches. You shouldn't call it a trailer. It's not. It's... hmm... I don't know. If you could call it an Announcement or something like that... but trailer. Trailer is a short story and a very tricky one... well, it's a long talk what is a good trailer...

Why am I saying this to you? Because your Custom Story might be the best! Really!!! And you by your own hands just ruining an impression with that... that video. You better hide it somewhere and present your work in a more intriguing way. And don't get me wrong. I am not against you. No way. I am just trying to give you an advice. No less, no more. If you can't make a good trailer than don't do it. Just make an album of fantastic screenshots. That's just for example. But please man don't ruin the impression about your CS with such a videos. It's more dangerous than you could imagine. Bad advertising can ruin the whole enjoyment. It's better not to advertise at all than make it badly. I mean it, I know what I'm saying.

[Streetboat]

Props for using music from Dear Esther, though.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Well... I believe you that there are interesting puzzles and whatnot in your CS - but unfortunately, from the trailer alone, it looks like it consists solely of straight, empty corridors and almost empty rooms. That's not good. I understand of course, that you wouldn't want to spoiler the most exiting parts in the trailer, but leaving a bland first impression won't help either!

How about you make a nice Mod DB page instead/ in addition to the trailer? Put some intruiging screenshots there, tell people a little bit about what the setting and story will be like - that sort of thing. I think it would create more attention

_________________________________________________

Okay I gave it a try. I couldn't finish it though, because at some point in the big red foggy hall it kept crashing. And I mean the nothing-goes-restart-your-PC kind of crashing. I don't know if it's your fault, or if my PC is just being weird - but in case several people report that problem, you might want to have a look at what could be the problem there.

Anyway even so I could make some notes for feedback!

1. More detail:
The rooms aren't quite as empty as they looked in the trailer, but even so they still look pretty dead. Some are better than others - the library for example - but most of them just have too much empty space. You don't need to cram every room full of stuff, but try to avoid large empty planes, especially when they have obviously tiling textures on them. At least put a carpet there or a decal, some rubble - whatever fits and makes it look more believable.

2. Believable/ realistic rooms:
Before making a room, take a moment and think about what exactly you're creating. Take the library for example (The issue is apparent in several rooms though). I assume it's a library because there are several bookshelves there and a "reading corner" with a table and chairs. But if it's a library, why does it look like its also a storage room at the same time? Naked stone floor and walls, barrels and crates - you wouldn't find that in a library. All in all the room doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look like a real room you'd find in a building is what I'm sayin'.

3. Too much unneeded tinder and oil:
Not much to add to that statement. There's tons of tinder and oil but the map is fairly bright so you never need it.

4. Way too many monster encounters and jumpscares:
Now this one might be a matter of taste. But if you want to go for the "Amnesia-style" of horror (which I find to be the most effective kind of horror) then you're doing it wrong - more suspense, less actual jumps and monster spawns is the way to go here. The thing with jumpscares is that they lose their effectiveness very quickly - the more often you use them the more the player starts to expect them.

Also you have to keep in mind that all suspense is lost as soon as the player dies (Think about how rarely you actually encounter monsters in the original Amnesia - but how often you are afraid of running into one! Thats Frictional's secret trick...). Why are you killing the player every few minutes by spawning brutes without a real way to hide from them? (Especially in the big red room - although it could be one brute who isn't de-spawning.) That doesn't create horror, that just gets annoying after a while.

So all in all - more focus on suspense and atmosphere, less action and player deaths. The result will be closer to Frictional's vision of horror.

5. Story?
Can't say much about the story since, like I said, I couldn't play to the end. But it was quite confusing. Where am I? And why? And why am I trying to destroy a machine? I get that the original is called "Amnesia", so yeah, amnesia is probably also the case here. But in the original I had at least some sort of clue what my next goal was (follow trail - find letter - find alexander - open door to refinery to proceed...). Here its all a bit more fuzzy.

Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh - I don't mean to be an asshole, just trying to help with some constructive feedback.