Some suggestions for Frictional's next game, and what makes Amnesia work so well

[Thief1337]

Actually, Amnesia did work on sanity pretty well and made me doubt quite a few times what was real or hallucinatory.

Spoiler below!

I was walking into the archives room at the beginning of the game and my insanity was quite high. I went into this very big and completely uncovered room and heard the grunt's growl behind me. I looked behind me and saw a grunt chasing me, and I started freaking out... until it disappeared instantly just like a mirage. I couldn't even have a good idea of how that monster looked like, at first. Also I could hear their growls from times to times, hide in a spot for many minutes just to realise there's actually nothing at all.

I can't wait to see the next game. Amnesia was so intense, so awesome. I miss the game so much again. It's bummer I can't play it again.

[shred.]

I agree on the lack of insanity related sounds/visions. Thief mentioned that he experienced noises and visions of monsters, but the most I was able to experience was a blurry screen and delayed movement speed.

Regarding sanity, these are the things I would love to see implemented in the next game, assuming it is also survival horror
1. (more) noises or visions when you are going insane. This could be more monster noises, imagining that a monster is pounding on a door, or changing the way that a room looks
2. Removing the sanity meter completely, where you cannot tell how sane you are

Additionally, I have two more suggestions
1. Being able to view your character's body (arms, legs, etc).
This would obviously require a ton of time to accurately draw and animate, but this would allow items to no longer be floating in space, and would greatly help the immersion. The player damage can also be incorporated into this, as instead of having a description (ie, the wound is bleeding quite badly) the player can look down at his body and see how badly injured he is.

2. Removing the current inventory screen.
The inventory screen now pauses whenever you access it, and this was my second biggest immersion breaker after seeing floating objects. While also difficult to program, I envision the player taking off a backpack or bag of some type, and laying it out in front of them. This would allow for the game to continue on, and for the player to still view everything in an easy manner.

[delusionalfox]

I agree on the lack of insanity related sounds/visions. Thief mentioned that he experienced noises and visions of monsters, but the most I was able to experience was a blurry screen and delayed movement speed.

Regarding sanity, these are the things I would love to see implemented in the next game, assuming it is also survival horror
1. (more) noises or visions when you are going insane. This could be more monster noises, imagining that a monster is pounding on a door, or changing the way that a room looks
2. Removing the sanity meter completely, where you cannot tell how sane you are

Additionally, I have two more suggestions
1. Being able to view your character's body (arms, legs, etc).
This would obviously require a ton of time to accurately draw and animate, but this would allow items to no longer be floating in space, and would greatly help the immersion. The player damage can also be incorporated into this, as instead of having a description (ie, the wound is bleeding quite badly) the player can look down at his body and see how badly injured he is.

2. Removing the current inventory screen.
The inventory screen now pauses whenever you access it, and this was my second biggest immersion breaker after seeing floating objects. While also difficult to program, I envision the player taking off a backpack or bag of some type, and laying it out in front of them. This would allow for the game to continue on, and for the player to still view everything in an easy manner.

I agree with you wholeheartedly with the whole immersion-being-broken thing. Several times when I was picking up objects in the game, I would vaguely notice that the object was floating in the air and I would be reminded this is just a game, ruining the terror-filled atmosphere.

Had we seen Daniel's arms actually holding the items, it wouldn't break the immersion, despite it being a nightmare to program. But this is a pretty minor issue, and it definitely didn't ruin the whole experience.

Same thing with the inventory-pausing thing. There's already a pause button, and it would make the game more intense if we had to grab an item from our inventory whilst running in a blind panic from Mr. Face and Mr. Tall. (Or grunt and brute or whatever, I'm a Mangaminx fan ;D)