Frictional Games General - A Thread That Talks about Video Games made by Frictional Games

[Psychonaut]

What is Frictional Games?
Frictional Games is an independent game studio based in Malmö, Sweden, they are well known for games like:

• Amnesia: The Dark Descent
• Amnesia: Rebirth
• Amnesia: The Bunker
• Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs
• Penumbra: Overture
• Penumbra: Black Plague
• Penumbra: Requiem
• SOMA

History About Frictional Games?
Frictional Games was founded in January 1st, 2007 by Thomas Grip & Jess Nilsson. Before founding the company the two had little experience working in the video game's industry. The two became to collaborate when Nilsson joined Grip on Unbirth a hobby project that was later cancelled. Later on they made a tech demo called 'Penumbra' a game to show off Frictional Game's HPL Engine. The tech demo was successful enough for Frictional Games to make another game called Penumbra: Overture the game was originally going to have a episodic release but due to a fall with a company called Lexicon Entertainment, Frictional Games then shifted with a company called Paradox Interactive. Frictional Games then went on to create two new Penumbra games with Paradox Interactive, Penumbra: Black Plague & Penumbra: Requiem. Over a three year long lifespan Frictional Games then self-published Amnesia: The Dark Descent which released on September 8th, 2010 with Very Positive Reviews. Frictional Games then opted to draft The Chinese Room as a third party developer to develop a second game later called Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. During the Time of A Machine for Pig's development, Frictional Games was developing a game called SOMA. SOMA Later self-released in September 22nd, 2015 with Very Positive Reviews. If you want to learn more about Frictional Games then you can check here.

 

[Nicholas II of Russia]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent was my first horror game. It was a great game, the monsters in it have an awesome design and the voice acting is top-tier. I need to replay that game sometime in the future.

 

[Psychonaut]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent was my first horror game. It was a great game, the monsters in it have an awesome design and the voice acting is top-tier. I need to replay that game sometime in the future.

What's funny was that at first I thought Amnesia: The Dark Descent was boring because there was not enough action. Until I saw a YouTuber played it decided to try it again and man I had a lot of fun playing it. Almost bought all of the Frictional Game's Library expect SOMA and Amnesia: Rebirth and that's about it.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

SOMA was a great game. very fertile concept and excellent execution. I do like me a good horror walking simulator, and in that genre, SOMA is one of the greats as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Fig Kommandant]

SOMA was a great game. very fertile concept and excellent execution.

It was the last good writing from Frictional too, the head writer quit after that. Bunker was fun, but it was really light on the story.

 

[umseriously]

Sad they went down the shitter. So much potential. The bunker was decent but not dark descent tier .

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

I really liked Penumbra. Horror games are often very binary in the sense of "you're doing it wrong, now you're dead" and "you're doing it right, now you progress" but in Penumbra you have janky physics based freedom which made things terrifying!

 

[Fig Kommandant]

The bunker was decent but not dark descent tier

They really didn't try to make a sequel, I saw an argument once that The Bunker is much more like the Penumbra games in terms of setting and gameplay and I think it's true. They said they're moving on from horror games though, I'm anxious to see what they'll release next.

 

[Armband]

The new game they're working on is going to have a similar game design as the bunker but it's more expansive, probably more of a story/world to it

 

[Armband]

It was the last good writing from Frictional too, the head writer quit after that. Bunker was fun, but it was really light on the story.

I wonder if some environment designers/artists quit as well after SOMA or if they had hired outside help at that time, because SOMA looks way better and the world is more fleshed out compared to all their other games.

 

[Armband]

Guy's a marxist but decent video about the amnesia games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHZwFlsM-_o

 

[Fig Kommandant]

I wonder if some environment designers/artists quit as well after SOMA or if they had hired outside help at that time, because SOMA looks way better and the world is more fleshed out compared to all their other games.

You can check on MobyGames, Soma had a much leaner team and Thomas Grip was the Creative Director and it doesn't seem like there were other leads. For Bunker, they had a bunch of leads for different stuff, too many cooks in the kitchen probably:

 

[Fig Kommandant]

Guy's a marxist but decent video about the amnesia games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHZwFlsM-_o

God, I hate when commies namedrop just to appear more well-read. His take on the colonization of Algeria was retarded, but it was an interesting idea that the Amnesia games are united by the theme of Lovecraftianness. I much prefer Mauler's analysis of TDD and Pigs though, he avoids trying to inject his own politics in his works.