New Interview on AMFP - "Infection" Mechanic Was Cut

[Acies]

How it could have looked (minus the usual ATDD zoom effect):


http://s24.postimg.org/vvl8au61f/Infection_Overlay.png

Found the files for it on install;
Amnesia - A Machine For Pigs\redist\shaders\posteffect_infection_*

Thought it would play a role later.. I really need to finish the game (reinstall of my computer got in the way)

[Dikiyoba]

I think the point Ash was making is that the work shouldn't require the author to anticipate whether or not the audience will reach the end at all, nor for the author to alter the work accordingly. It shouldn't even be a consideration.

Dan intentionally making the game less scary so that people would stick with it to the end is an example of how wanting to keep people on board for the whole ride affects the overall work in a massive way. His initial vision, which was apparently much more frightening and Amnesiaesque, was shelved in favour of something else, for no reason other than wanting to ensure people got to the end. That's no way to approach any piece of art.

I also echo Ash's interest in finding out where this idea about "most" people not completing the game comes from. Sounds dubious to me, given how massively popular TDD is. For a game "most" people haven't finished it's sure done pretty well for itself, financially, critically and culturally! I'm not being flippant here, I would really love to know how anyone could possibly know the completion rate for TDD.

What's really strange about focusing on the low completion rates of TDD and changing AMfP because of it is that all video games have a low completion rate. Maybe the players didn't like something about the game, maybe they got distracted by something else, maybe they didn't ever have the time, maybe their computer crashed and they lost their save, maybe they only bought it because it was on sale and never had any real intention to play the game. There are lots and lots of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with the quality of the game itself. Maybe some people couldn't finish TDD because it was too scary, but that's balanced out by the number of people who were attracted to the game only because it was so scary, and pales in comparison to the number of people who didn't complete it for other reasons that have no connection to the content of the game at all. Changing the game in an attempt to make more people complete it is futile. You're better off making a high-quality, interesting game and market it appropriately so that you attract a large (or at least devoted) audience who will recommend it to their friends and return for future titles. You're better off with an audience of 100 of which only 30 people ever complete the game than you are with an audience of 30 but 28 of those people complete the game.

[Nyarlathotep]

How it could have looked (minus the usual ATDD zoom effect):


http://s24.postimg.org/vvl8au61f/Infection_Overlay.png

Found the files for it on install;
Amnesia - A Machine For Pigs\redist\shaders\posteffect_infection_*

Thought it would play a role later.. I really need to finish the game (reinstall of my computer got in the way)

I like how that overlay resembles a jaguar skin. Would be neat to see how this was working before they cut it.

I personally don't mind them cutting that mechanic. I really do believe the game is better off without an equivalent to the sanity meter. But I do think the game could have benefited from a few scripted moments of your character showing signs of his illness. I mean, I suppose this does happen at the very opening and at one point later on when it brings you to a crawl. But maybe a little something else would have helped cement the feeling you were playing as a sick man.

[Newsman Waterpaper]

I got agree with Ash,Paddy and Pluto. I felt AMFP was too softhearted on the player when it comes to puzzles and monster encounters. I know The Chinese Room wanted to tell a story but more challenge would have been great.

PS: I'm loving your avatar Paddy!

[WALP]

rant: Well a lack of challenge can be seen as a negative for the storytelling as well in my opinion. Sure hard difficulty can be annoying and break both immersion and pace, but a lack of it can make the protagonist efforts/actions seem rather fake or weak. Its about finding that balance, or alternatively a way of fooling people into that this is challenging without them discovering, but both of those are quite tough to pull off yeah. I feel AAMFP very much tried to do the latter of fooling the player, but that it failed miserably quite often because it was so exposed. When a door closes itself and the monster wont come after you it becomes pretty clear that its suddenly safe now and there's not even need to hide.

[Cuyir]

Anna had an interesting gimmick that most players would probably overlook. To say it in a non spoiler-y fashion: the game was an old school point and click adventure game but with a first person viewpoint and freedom of movement. It took me ages for some puzzles and all of that made me forget what the game was trying to tell me. I kept playing, sometimes confused and numbed from the obtuse puzzles and finished it. I thought back on what I did on the game and saw all three endings and I realized they had sneakily designed the game to stump players so they could share the protagonist's attitude at the end game.

Clumsy way to tell a story, which a lot of people won't get or care to get, but it's doable.

Dan deciding to make it easier and less scary was a bit overboard. But again, the payoff was more than worth it in my opinion so it's all a moot point (for me).

[Rya.Reisender]

Why would people buy horror games when they quit them due to being "too scary"? I don't see that at all.

Rather, I could imagine the section with the water monster getting many players to quit TDD simply because they couldn't survive that section.

In my opinion a game can be as scary as possible. Too difficult can certainly turn off players, but TDD was never really too difficult in the first place (except maybe the water monster part, but then against that's not much harder than the electric pig part). TDD actually had a neat mechanism that scalled down difficulty if you died often (like the monster that keeps killing you not appearing anymore). That was all I needed to not having to quit the game. Too hard puzzles... well I'm split on this. On one hand too hard puzzles won't really make people quit anymore. Not in generation online anyway. People will just go read a guide on how to solve the puzzle if they are stuck. Problem is when puzzles are constantly so super hard that you spend more time reading guides than actually playing the game. It totally kills immersion.

[Ossie]

Going OT, but as the other thread has been closed: do we yet have any idea how many copies of AAMFP have been sold to date?

When ATDD was released Frictional were seemingly quite happy to blog about, but now ..... silence. Is the lack of information on this front due to disappointing sales numbers? Here we are, three months after the game was released, so surely Frictional must have some solid figures by now?

[WALP]

Going OT, but as the other thread has been closed: do we yet have any idea how many copies of AAMFP have been sold to date?

When ATDD was released Frictional were seemingly quite happy to blog about, but now ..... silence. Is the lack of information on this front due to disappointing sales numbers? Here we are, three months after the game was released, so surely Frictional must have some solid figures by now?

Just saying but OT is a really useless shortening as O might just as well be "On" as it might be "Off"