First, you guys have been making games for a while now with the Penumbra series. Overall how well did the games do for you?

Because of stuff like steam sales and indie bundles, we have earned enough to keep the company afloat. I wouldn't say that it has been a huge success though and we are hoping for Amnesia to do a bit better, so we do not have to worry about the future so much.

However, we are steadily becoming a more and more solid company, not only in terms of finances but also in terms of public awareness and media contacts. For instance, there is no better feel than seeing Penumbra brought up as a positive example when people are discussing horror games. We know we still have a lot more ground to cover to become a really "respected" company and game developer, but we feel are are slowly getting there!

How did the idea behind Amnesia come about?

It was quite a long process! Amnesia started as a "fast paced" horror game back in early 2008. Back then, our idea was to have a game that would be easy to pick up and played, taking place in small bite-sized chunks, like Super Mario levels. We did some tests with this design and it did not work out as we thought. We then went back to some older ideas and started retrofitting the assets we had already made to do a more Penumbra-like game. Amnesia is now more slowly paced with focus on building a psychologically frightening atmosphere instead of just having cheap scares.

When it comes to ideas story wise, it was at first inspired by books I've read about scientists in the 17th century. I was interested in capturing the atmosphere of these enclave groups of men working with all these strange projects and portray it in a non-mad-n'-evil-scientist fashion. That story then evolved into some different and more focus was but on evil in human beings, torture and similar themes. For example, I am fascinated by experiments such as those conducted by Milgram which clearly shows how it does not take an evil psychopath to commit the most hideous acts. Over the three years this game has been in development, inspiration has come from a lot of other sources as well, all of which have been brought into the mix. I do not think we have ever worked this much on a story and there is a lot of more thought and research behind it than any of our previous games.

What is it about the horror genre that attracts Frictional Games to make titles?

It is the only genre where it is okay to sacrifice classical gameplay mechanics in order to increase atmosphere and put focus on the story. This is something that we find interesting and worth exploring. Hopefully we can bring the knowledge we have gained making horror games, into other non-horror games as well.

Also, nowadays when horror games are mostly about shooting zombies and the like, games that really focus on the horror aspect are rare and create a niche market for us.

What can you tell us about the back story for the game?

Dazed and confused the protagonist will wake up in an old castle, with his mind blank except for a few crucial memories. He knows his name is Daniel and that something is hunting him. Early on the player will then find out that he has himself chosen to forget and given himself the task to murder a man somewhere in the castle. After that more and more memories start to surface and the player needs to piece together the scattered remains of the protagonist's past.

It is worth noting that the above talk about a protagonist is not really correct. Our aim is for the player to become Daniel and that the memories uncovered should feel like the player's own. We aim to a make it a very personal experience and to put the player in the role of an amnesiac and all of the consequences that it implies. As more is found out, the player will need to take stance and choices made will have consequences for how the game plays out.

In terms of gameplay how will Amnesia differ from the Penumbra series?

Players of Penumbra should feel right at home in Amnesia and there is a lot of similarities between the two. What differs is that more time have been spent on making Amnesia a streamlined experiences, concentrating on the player's journey, atmosphere and making the player part of the story. Physics interaction has also been reworded and made a lot smoother, so it should be easier to play Amnesia than Penumbra in terms of controlling the protagonist. Just about all aspect of Penumbra have been looked over and, we hope, been improved. There is of course also a vast difference in locales and the story line between the games. Tons of effort has also gone into improving the graphics, with much more time spent by artist. A totally new rendering engine has also been built on top of the old one, improving quality of graphics further.
You guys are putting in a lot of physics in the game. How does this affect gameplay?

For the player it will hopefully mean more immersion, and a greater feel that the world "is really there". When just about anything can be picked up and examined it creates a stronger feeling of a truly physical world. It also adds some fun twists to the gameplay. For example, since door opening is entirely simulated using physics, the doors interact in an analog fashion allowing players to slightly open a door ajar and take a quick peek into an unexplored room.

For us as developers it often means more work as physics can behave in unpredictable ways and not always do what we intended it to. In other (sadly not so common) situations it allows us to do things quicker, for instance there is no need to create animations when opening drawers.

What else can you tell us about Amnesia without revealing too much?

Not much I am afraid. The best way to start the game is not know anything and then immerse your self in the role of finding out your past. Our main goal has been to create an experience that players see through their own eyes, without any spoon feeding of information. There are almost no descriptions in the game and players are instead forced to draw their own conclusions. Scratch marks on the floor; has somebody been dragged through here or is it something else that has made the scratches? The player needs to decide on how they want to view the world and this will in the end shape the actions they will make.

Why did you decide to make your own graphics engine in house when there are so many third party engines to license?

I think there are four main reasons:
- Because it is cheaper when one wants to use it for a commercial product.
- We can shape the engine to fit the game as nicely as possible. This is especially true because of the physics that we use.
- So that we do not have to rely on someone else to do updates and to fix bugs. We can handle everything ourselves.
- For the challenge and feel of accomplishment.

Are there any plans to release a demo of the game?

Yes, a demo will be released. Can not say when though.

After Amnesia's release do you plan any expansion packs or sequels?

Depends on how well the game is received and on our sales figures. There are more things we want to explore in the game's world so it is well within the realm of possibilities.

Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Amnesia and Frictional Games' plans for the future?

Not really at this point. We just hope that people will like Amnesia enough for us to continue making games and to delve deeper in the medium. There are many ideas we would like to explore and we hope that we are able to do so. The videogame medium is such a powerful tool and we would really like to be part of exploring and expanding its limits further.