"There was a distinction in our mind between making a horror game and making a game with jump scares in it. "We wanted to make a horror game," Pinchbeck explains. It's really a matter of how the developers interpreted the genre.
Released earlier this year on PC and Mac, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs has been no less divisive, especially among fans of the original Amnesia title – particularly because the sequel departs from the idea of jump scares and shock, and goes for a nihilistic, languishing, pervasive horror, the sort that stains your memory and has you lie awake at night, long after the game has been turned off. And yet Pinchbeck, the lead designer and writer of the game, was at that time doing his doctorate on first-person shooters primarily because he adores the genre. Though it was meant to be an experiment in fragmentary, restrained philosophical storytelling through beautiful environments, some self-proclaimed gamers saw it as a direct attack on the first-person shooter genre, unworthy of existence alongside the unchallenged might of their favourite action games. Founded by Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry in 2010, it is famous for its experimental first-person exploration game Dear Esther, a critically polarising adventure that detractors famously wanted to label 'not a game'. It was an interesting problem.Īnd the Chinese Room is an interesting studio. So when Frictional asked Brighton-based developer the Chinese Room to come onboard to make the sequel to the original, the team knew they had to make something different – and yet somehow similar to its predecessor.
That game was popular for its jump-scare qualities, its ability to frighten in small intense doses, to elicit squeals from players and the makers of online Let's Play videos.
It's the sort of trouble that often hits the sequel to a beloved title, in this case Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Horror game Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs has had some PR trouble.