From the makers of the Penumbra series comes a brand new survival horror game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

We spoke with Jens Nilsson, game developer from Frictional Games about Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

The Big Bad Wolf: Can you tell us about the main character in this game?

Jens Nilsson: When the game starts up the protagonist is a blank slate and it is up to the player to fill out the void. Our goal is that the player should be the protagonist of the game and enter the role of an Amnesiac waking up in a confusing and frightening environment. The player will slowly find out facts about the protagonist's past and take a stance. Are we responsible for actions that we cannot remember? Are we still the same person now as in the past? These sort of questions are used to get under the skin of the player and create a really disturbing atmosphere.

The Big Bad Wolf: What can we expect from this game in terms of enemies the main character faces?

Jens Nilsson: Enemies in Amnesia will be quite different from your normal horror game. There will be no weapons available for the player, so the choices left are either hiding, running or using ones wits in order to survive. Enemy encounters are made to be a as frightening and intense as possible and not just your average cannon-fodder as seen in so many other games. Our goal is that players should truly fear the creatures lurking around and rather hide or run than to come face-to-face with one of them. In order to achieve this we have even made sure that looking too long at an enemy will have severe effects and the players can easily go insane if not careful.

To make really scary enemies, one should not focus on showing them close up, with the mouth drooling and so on. Instead, we believe that you the best way is to use players imagination and only hint at the horrors skulking the corridors. What the players can not see if often what scares them the most.

The Big Bad Wolf: Amnesia seems to rely heavily on atmosphere. Can you talk a bit about that?

Jens Nilsson: We believe in building up the horror by having a creepy atmosphere, making it unnerving to explore and continue on in the game. Often horror elements in games are made up of short, in your face scares, that are more about making the player jump out of a reaction, than of feeling a true sense of fear. As mentioned, we also think that the player's mind is a much more powerful tool when it comes to creating illusions of scary monsters, so instead of showing a lot of monster up close and over and over, we work a lot with sound, music and story to tell about creatures that lurk around in the dark.

The Big Bad Wolf: What kind of technology does this game use?

Jens Nilsson: We have our own in-house developed game engine and tools, it makes heavy use of cross-platform technologies such as OpenGL (Graphics), OpenAL (Audio) and Newton Game Dynamics (Physics). We have developed the engine since 2005 (some parts even from 2004), with a heavy revamp of it that started in 2008. During that time we also begun the creation of all the tools that are used in the making of Amnesia, which has improved our efficiency tremendously.

It's a modern game, using many popular techniques to allow for things that are important when making horror games, namely shadows and lights. We can have lots of light sources and shadows being cast at little penalty, which is crucial for creating a really dense and realistic atmosphere. It is also designed so that the artists that work with the game has to worry less about optimizing and making levels in an efficient manner, giving more time for the artistic part and increasing freedom.

The main technology in Amnesia is the physics interaction, the player uses the mouse to interact with the world. For example, to open a drawer or door you grab it and pull with the mouse and the object will move with the speed and behaviour of the movement the user makes. This is really a key element to create an immersive horror game, as it gives a much more hands-on approach to the interaction compared to the regular “click”-method.

The Big Bad Wolf: Which platforms will this game be available for?

Jens Nilsson: It will be released for Windows, Mac and Linux. Our previous game, Penumbra, was also released for all three platforms but for Amnesia we have taken it even further. This time all three platforms we be released at the same time and the tool suite, used to create levels and content for the game, will be released as well – allowing for user created content. All three platforms will get the tools, but maybe for Linux and Mac the release will be a bit after the initial Windows release.

The Big Bad Wolf: When is the release date for Amnesia: The Dark Descent?

Jens Nilsson: We are aiming for an August 2010 release, which should be just about the right time to feel tired of the sun, with a need growing to sit inside, in the dark, in front of a computer.

The Big Bad Wolf: Where can our readers find out more about Amnesia: The Dark Descent?

Jens Nilsson: At our website for the game, http://www.amnesiagame.com. We also have a newsletter, YouTube channel and a blog that we use regularly to talk about various topics. Not only our games, it has lots of stuff about horror, game design, game industry discussions and so on. One can find links to it all on the Amnesia website by looking at the very top of the page.

The Big Bad Wolf: Can you talk a bit about the Pre-Order Meter on that site?

Jens Nilsson: When someone pre-orders Amnesia, the meter will go up on the site, giving a live feed of the interest in the game. We thought this would be fun to try, as normally sales are very secret information. But as we are an independent developer we can try these sort of things and it also gives valuable information to other companies like ours.

If we get 2000 pre-orders before the 31 of May the game will get some extra content in the form of a commentary track, where we the developers talk about the ideas, design and implementation of it at various points in the game.

The Big Bad Wolf: In closing, what would you like to say about Amnesia: The Dark Descent?

Jens Nilsson: Amnesia is a true survival horror game, where the player is defenceless and scared. You have to explore the world, to piece together the story, while at the same time using your wits to avoid or outsmart the monsters that lurk around. It is definitely a game, but at the same we have spent tremendous amounts of time to make it a great a horror experience. This means that the focus is not just on having “fun” and “simple” gameplay, but to deliver a truly disturbing and streamlined experience. A lot effort has also been put at removing tedious repetitive moments, like replaying the same part over and over due to difficulty, which can often be common in the world of games. We are trying our utmost to keep the player immersed at all times, not able to stop playing before the game as come to an end.

The Big Bad Wolf: Thank you for your time! Best of luck with Amnesia: The Dark Descent!

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