ASYLUM - Scarier than the upcoming Amnesia? [New horror game found]

[jens]

Oh Agustin on our forums! Good to see you and great info about what to expect of Asylum, I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Hey all!

First, I'm really glad to see that Asylum has picked your interest. I'm a huge fan of Frictional Games and especially Amnesia (I assisted in beta testing the game during its final stages of production).

Now, I understand your concerns about the gameplay in Asylum and its engine but let me clarify this: Asylum and Amnesia are different games with dissimilar goals. Amnesia has perhaps more in common with the Survival Horror genre with some Adventure elements; on the contrary, Asylum is 100% Adventure that feels like a Survival Horror. When I say "feels" I mean the environments and visual effects, which you will find at times similar to Amnesia. But that's it.

Asylum is heavily story-oriented and especially when it comes to the protagonist, who has a distinct personality and provides insightful comments as you explore the rundown asylum. There's also interaction with secondary characters as well. Point and click makes plenty of sense in this context as we don't want you thinking about your movement or the controls: it's better if you're most of the time still and investing your undivided attention to the environments and what happens in them. As I told Martin, the original poster, there's no room for "physical" horror in Asylum: it's purely psychological, and let me assure you that the game will mess up with your minds in ways you can't imagine (i.e.: no lame scare jumps).

So if you're expecting another Amnesia, you will be disappointed. If, however, you want to play a serious horror game with some of the most disturbing moments ever seen in this industry, we are here to satisfy

As for the engine, the logic behind it is simple: Asylum does NOT need full 3D. In fact, it would be distracting. Like I said, we want you to focus on exploring the environments, seeking clues to unravel an intriguing mystery. If the engine was full 3D, we couldn't provide the level of detail we want. Again, Amnesia has different concerns so it doesn't matter if players see repetition in the environments: in the case of Asylum, there is hardly any repetition because every room is unique and highly detailed, and it has to be that way to maintain your interest.

And yes, there are other benefits: as some of you said, it's economic. We can reproduce this huge virtual building with a very low budget (practically non-existent). If we had to do this in full 3D, we would need a much, much larger team and the game would probably weigh above 8GB (right now it's less than 2GB). There is an extra bonus to this approach too: Asylum will run in low-end computers, and tablets even. An iPad port for example is almost a reality with practically no changes to the game code and assets.

Anyway, I hope this more or less clears up our intentions with Asylum. And I do hope you still will be interested to check out the game when it's ready. We are issuing a playable teaser soon which should give you a nice taste of how Asylum looks and feels.

Cheers!