Not forgotten
Frictional Games returns to the series that helped define a decade in games – and that might well influence the next
Frictional Games returns to the decade-defining Amnesia series
Some horrors you’re glad to see stump around the corner. Amnesia is back with Amnesia: Rebirth: this time, you’re recovering the memories of Tasi Trianon while solving puzzles and managing your physical and mental resources, in “a harrowing journey through desolation and despair, exploring the limits of human resilience”. Pure escapism right now, then.
Most notably, Frictional Games brought us Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which did away with weapons in favour of forcing players to run and hide, shredded nerves through the infinite feedback loop of its ‘Sanity’ system, almost singlehandedly launched the Let’s Play phenomenon, and landed a coveted spot on Edge’s 12 games that defined the last decade. And while Frictional tells us it’s not about to try to repeat that feat, it’s also thinking about how the philosophy behind the development of
Rebirth might hold the key to a crucial next decade in game development.
A lot has changed at the Swedish studio in the five years since we last caught up with creative director Thomas Grip and team properly. The once resolutely small, remote-working studio now has an office in Malmö; since
Soma, Frictional’s previous title, the headcount has climbed from 15 to 25 (not including outsourced workers) as the studio has evolved into a multi-project outfit.
Rebirth is one of them; the other, which is currently in pre-production, is something of a departure for the studio. “It’s horrorish, but it’s definitely not a horror game at all in the same sense that Rebirth is a horror game,” Grip says. “There are going to be horror undertones, because our aesthetic senses are of a certain kind, but it’s not the hard focus.” He explains that Frictional wanted to start two projects simultaneously after Soma; as the second is based on “a slightly more crazy, or at least hard-to-define idea”, the familiar foundation of an Amnesia sequel seemed like a solid base on which to begin.
Thus followed some soul-searching about what an Amnesia game is, and what the next one needed to be. “We’re approaching it from two directions,” Grip says. “One is that we’re trying to approach it from the bottom up in terms of mechanics. A lot of what makes an Amnesia game has to do with the original Amnesia. It had sanity, tinder boxes and lamp oil – we’re seeing different ways of doing that in the new one.” The other approach is in the theming. “In the Dark Descent, we had this theme – I’ve always been superannoyed it didn’t come across as well as I wanted it to – ‘What makes a person evil?’ I honestly think there’s a similar exploration of themes in Rebirth, I just think we’re doing it a hell of a lot better this time around because we learned so much making Soma.”
Rebirth, then, is a chance to take those lessons and push Frictional’s games further. Creative lead Fredrik Olsson explains: “If you look at the evolution of Frictional, and
Amnesia, people are talking about the mechanics, the sanity system, the lore in the game. And then you look at Soma, where the focus was on the narrative, and the gameplay wasn’t that extensive. With
Rebirth, we put a lot of focus on matching these two things, where it’s not only a strong narrative and good mechanics, but they are actually fuelling each other. And I see us only continuing down that road.”
Indeed, whether it intended to or not – and we’re told it categorically did not – with Amnesia, Frictional hit upon one potential solution to a design problem that’s been around for a while: how do you make a singleplayer game in an era when would-be players can watch it all streamed on Twitch? Grip believes creating a strong emotional experience that’s unique to every player is key. “Soma
was different, to be honest, because the audience were experiencing [something] pretty similar to the player. But in Amnesia,
the audience is laughing at the player being scared. So there’s a significant discrepancy in the audience’s emotions versus the player’s. A horror game, you can’t experience it as intended during a Let’s Play the same way that you can with, say, a point-and-click adventure game.” The Dark Descent, he tells us, sold more in its third year than it did in its first. It was ahead of its time in using atmosphere and cleverly designed systems to push different buttons in each player’s brain in order to create an experience closer to roleplaying: something personal.
Now, the time has come for Frictional to pioneer solutions to the phenomenon it had a hand in kicking off. “It’s interesting to design around Let’s Plays,” Grip says. “There’s the naïve version, where you have buttons for pop-up scares for audience interaction. But more interesting is thinking, how do you make a game, especially a narrative game, that after watching it, you’re not less interested but actually more interested in playing it? That’s going to be a big focus for us as a company, going forward. And I think horror is the solution to it, because of the discrepancy in emotions between audience and player – but there’s a tonne of various ways of going about it.” One thing is certain: we can’t wait to see what’s around the next corner.
“It’s not only a strong narrative and good mechanics, but they are actually fuelling each other”