When we first began with sport creation at Frictional Games, we knew we wished to make immersive horror experiences. We threw in the whole lot we may consider: puzzles, physics, fight, creepy dream sequences – you title it. Those of you who performed Penumbra: Overture will bear in mind these parts properly. Now, as we method the launch of Amnesia: The Bunker – coming to PS4 on June 6 – we wished to have a look again at how we’ve additional refined our components and method to video games.
The actual breakthrough arrived with Amnesia: The Dark Descent. We began specializing in key facets that led to a way more partaking expertise. We reduce away fight and all different facets that didn’t instantly gasoline the horror expertise. This led to gamers noticing extra about their setting and turning into extra deeply engaged. A easy sound impact, as an illustration, may set off intense reactions, inflicting gamers to run and conceal. Players turn into immersed with the happenings in a manner we hadn’t seen earlier than.
One of the one comparatively protected locations in Amnesia: The Bunker – the administration workplace. Check the map fastidiously, planning your subsequent transfer is essential to your survival.
This revelation confirmed us that we may use such strategies to propel the narrative in new methods. Few video games on the time have been doing this, and we felt we may nonetheless push the boundaries. This is how SOMA was born. We requested ourselves: Instead of scaring gamers, may you evoke comparable immersion in additional advanced matters? In the case of SOMA it grew to become: are you able to make them query the character of consciousness? Five years of labor later – seems you possibly can.
In Amnesia: The Bunker, the revolver is used to shoot off a padlock, showcasing how it may be used as greater than only a weapon.
We then aimed to increase our studio right into a two-project operation, splitting our staff in two. One group labored on Amnesia: Rebirth, the place we sought to intertwine gameplay and narrative extra tightly, introducing mechanics (like simulating a stomach rub) that carried vital story implications. We have been happy with the consequence however felt we may have pushed additional. A transparent signal of this was that, as soon as gamers knew the sport, they’d method every part in a predictable method. The gameplay merely wasn’t pushing far sufficient to really empower the participant.
The lighter. A vital merchandise used to craft numerous instruments, comparable to a torch that can be utilized to fend off rats.
With Rebirth launched, and our different venture – let’s name it the Super Secret Project – nonetheless underway, Fredrik Olsson, who was the inventive lead on Rebirth, proposed a easy thought: Why not have one monster, give the participant a gun, and unleash them in an open world? This was a smaller, extra centered venture we may end earlier than the Super Secret Project. The Bunker was born.
This idea diverged considerably from our current video games, but when we hint again to our origins with Penumbra: Overture, it’s not that far off. In Overture, gamers tackled monsters in a freeform method, utilizing weapons, setting traps, and igniting canisters. The Bunker goals to do the identical, however to take it up a notch.
Concept of the revolver, first usable firearm ever in a sport by Frictional Games.
At an identical time when Bunker was conceived, it was turning into clear that the Super Secret venture wasn’t on target. Things felt too linear, not open-end sufficient. Inspired by The Bunker, we determined to steer our different venture in the direction of a extra open-ended, gameplay-focused course as properly.
When you run out of choices, utilizing brute drive to realize entry stands out as the solely alternative. Careful although, it makes lots of noise and may entice undesirable consideration.
As a narrative-focused firm, we try to create tales by which the participant seems like an energetic participant – it’s a core a part of our DNA. The frequent thread in all our video games is the exploration of one thing (be it the character of the thoughts or the expertise of being pregnant) from an energetic, first-person perspective. The Bunker wanted to uphold this ethos, regardless of the venture’s restricted time and assets. We went with a less complicated, extra simple narrative: “It’s WWI. You’re a soldier trapped in a bunker, and a lethal beast lurks within the shadows. Escape!” The complete sport is devoted to telling this story as successfully as attainable. While not as advanced as earlier entries, it’s nonetheless very a lot a story-driven expertise.
This marks a brand new trajectory for us as an organization. Or maybe extra precisely, it’s us revisiting an older path and exploring what we will do with it. Starting with Amnesia, we started stripping away gameplay parts to see how far we may push that method. Now, we’re bringing programs, mechanics, and participant company to the forefront. We’re curious to see how far we will take this. The Bunker is an intriguing first step, being smaller in scope and aiming for a really particular expertise.
Despite being small and particular doesn’t imply it was a breeze to create – fairly the other. A bunch of fascinating challenges arose throughout improvement. For occasion, the open-ended nature of the sport implies that there are all the time a number of methods to get by means of doorways. In our earlier video games, passing by means of a door can be fastidiously scripted with one, or often two, particular options accessible.
In The Bunker, we merely endow doorways with sure properties, present some instruments, after which let the participant determine all of it out. In a sport the place we need to curate a sure holistic expertise, that is fairly tough. There are sure high-level notes, and this should happen no matter how the participant chooses to play. Solutions embrace making these beats extra system-based (e.g., modifications in monster habits) or organising obstacles in such a manner that there’s all the time a strategy to overcome them, it doesn’t matter what assets the participant has.
It can be fascinating to see how gamers method the sport. We’ve already realized quite a few classes that we’re incorporating into the subsequent venture, and much more insights will emerge as we launch this sport into the wild. We’re anticipating you all to check out The Bunker, not simply as a brand new entry but additionally as step one in a recent course for us as a studio.
