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SOMA (Frictional Games)

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
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Amnesia was shit, didn't bother to look at Bay of Pigs or any of the games after it.
 

Wirdschowerdn

Ph.D. in World Saving
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I'm a bit of a slowpoke, so only now I figured out that in the main game directory, there's a file called "_supersecret.rar". You can open it using the password: 19PzQ8arc11rkdv

There's plenty of things inside like unused music, concept art, design sketches, older story sketches, silly bugs, making-of videos, "stupid shit" and other cool development related stuff. Really enjoy skimming through the design docs. The original story was quite different with more characters, locations and even a faction war in it. I suppose budget/time constraints forced Frictional to narrow everything down. Not that this was a bad decision in any way.
 

Wirdschowerdn

Ph.D. in World Saving
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Do we know what are they gonna do next ?

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.co.at/2016/03/soma-6-months-later.html

Future
I mentioned above that a problem with SOMA is that it lies between two genres. Not only has this probably led to lost sales, it's also most likely the reason why SOMA cannibalized the Amnesia sales. The moment that SOMA came out, sales of Amnesia: The Dark Descent went down too, and has stayed down ever since. We saw the same happening when we released Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, but since SOMA is in many ways quite different from Amnesia, we thought it wouldn't happen this time. But it did, and the reason seems to be that people lump both titles under a "Current Horror From Frictional Games" label.

In order to combat this issue we're thinking about differentiating the games we make a bit more. So if we make another sci-fi game, we'll probably tone down the horror elements and make the sci-fi narrative more prominent. The reverse would be true if we made a new horror game. The idea is that this'll not only let us reach a new and wider audience, but also minimize the risk that people will mix up our games, and instead they'll see them as separate entities. With SOMA it feels we've made it clear that Frictional Games is not just about pure horror, and we want to take advantage of that and diversify the experiences we craft.

Related to the above is our new internal development strategy. For the first time in company history we're now developing two games at the same time. This will require non-trivial changes in how we manage the team, but in the end we're very sure it'll be worth it all. By having two projects going at the same time, we can release games at much higher frequency. In turn, this let us be more experimental as we don't have to rely as much on each new game being a big money generator. We're still in the early phases of this transition, but it's shaping up really well so far.

This also means we might do some recruitment in the near future. Watch this space for more news on that!
 

vortex

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http://www.wow247.co.uk/2016/07/19/...view-we-dont-just-want-to-be-the-horror-guys/
A fresh take on horror
So what of the other project – the horror game that Grip himself is not directing?

If you were thinking it might just be a retread of past glories, you’re likely to be in for a surprise here as well.


“We know we have an audience. We have a backing. And people will be interested. But we really want to bring something new.

“We want to be at the forefront of horror. We want to drive innovative things and have elements that people haven’t seen in a horror game.”

If there’s one thing you take away from a conversation with Grip, it’s this thirst for the new. And whether Frictional are working in horror or otherwise, you get the sense their games will always be striving to be different.

“Trying new things is what makes us a company that makes money,” he reflects.

“We want to be the ones coming up with games other people imitate.”
 

agentorange

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I finished it yesterday, appreciated it more than I thought I would. Frictional apparently learned a bit too much from Chinese Room as Soma is barely a game, less so than Amnesia and way less so than Penumbra before it. But this new linearity is made up for by having a science fiction story that is quite novel and interesting, something that is lacking in most science fiction based video games, rather than the bad Lovecraft fan fiction that was Amnesia. They have also improved their methods of transmitting said story as it is not longer a case of picking up one journal entry after another but has a more personal aspect as the story comes through interaction with people both alive and dead as well as other tactile means that fit the game world.

The game only scared me once or twice but I don't blame the game for that, I've played too many horror games at this point and have realized that most of the horror can be eliminated by just running straight at and past whatever monster the game throws at you. Even if I wasn't scared, which really I don't consider an important feature of horror games, I loved the monster designs and the story behind them.

I hope they release an expansion or something in the way they did with Amnesia because one of my gripes with the game was how they have created this incredibly detailed world but it feels wasted due to how railroaded the game is; I would like a chance to explore more of the setting (don't want to see the surface or anything, I value the sense of mystery they were going for in that regard).
 

Metro

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If you saw the movie 'Sixth Day' with Ahhhhhhhhhnold Swartzeaknaskfnaksdfafwahatever, you'd know the story in Soma is hardly novel. The notion of 'is your clone really you' has been touched on numerous times in the past.
 

Robert Jarzebina

Guest
I just completed playing this.

Well it is big step back from Amnesia, less gameplay/interesting puzzles more cinematic hand holding storytelling and corridor experience.
Story is nothing original but really well told. Monsters are more annoying than scary, also their design could be better, puzzles are very trivial, most of the time is just press awesome button.
Overall game has great atmosphere, the underwater sections are amazing, and mood and some nice moments, but it is lacking any genius element.

It feels like they simplified it for console audience.

So its not a bad game but it is worst than Amnesia and Alien Isolation(which is also flawed by had genius moments).
 
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DramaticPopcorn

Guest
Having never played any modern """"""horror"""""" game (including Amnesia titles), I gave this one a spin, thinking it would be something close to System Shock (in atmosphere at least) and was thoroughly disappointed. The story is as barebones as it gets, there isn't anything even remotely novel about it.

I dredged through it, mostly annoyed by the gameplay, lack of actual puzzles, plot device monsters and low-effort morality choices.

I liked the ending somewhat, and some of the existential overtones clicked with me something fierce but all in all, I didn't enjoy the experience in the least.

Forgot about the most imporant part:
For a game that looks 10 years old, the perfomance is COMPLETE DOGSHIT. Frequent FPS drops to below 30 from 60 for no good reason.
 
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vortex

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Concept art for the new unannounced project:

river_and_waterfall_2.jpg
 

vortex

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http://frictionalgames.blogspot.hr/2016/09/soma-one-year-later.html

Despite a bloated budget and tough sell, here we are a year later having earned back every single dime spent. And not only that; we earned well past the break-even point! The project was a big success and we are able to keep doing games with scope and quality comparable to SOMA. In fact, our goal is to aim higher still.

Finally, I want to briefly go over where Frictional is currently at. As I said last time, our goal now is to be a two-project studio and so far it is going really well. One project, which most of the team is working on, is going to start production at end of the year and the other project is mid-way through the R&D stage. Unfortunately I cannot divulge any specific information on these two, and it will be a little while before there will be a proper announcement. However, we do have some smaller, cool stuff in store, one of each we will announced later this year. If all goes well, we should also have another thing for early next year.

So exciting things happen both in the short and long term, and I am really excited for the future of the company.
 

Darth Roxor

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^ That's pretty interesting cuz IIRC Amnesia's profits didn't cover the production costs at all despite its popularity, and it even made them consider going out of business.
 

sexbad?

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They were close to going out of business shortly before Amnesia's release, but they rebounded from a short window of $5 preorders, and maybe from the success of the first Humble Indie Bundle, which sold a Penumbra game. After release, Amnesia slowly gathered a decent amount of attention and then shot up in popularity because of screamy let's players. They ended up with a fuckton of money.
 

Barbarian

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Yeah, Amnesia was certainly very profitable. Imho, one of the reasons MfP and Soma weren't as popular is that they took the interactive fition route and ditched tons of gameplay.

Maybe Frictional should get the memo: you are still in the business of making games. Games need gameplay, walking around and following a story unfold is not good enough. I mean, I watchd an LP of Soma and afterwards I certainly see no point in buying the game, much less playing it.
 

AN4RCHID

Arcane
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I wonder if those "smaller" projects are SOMA DLC. inb4 hostile AI fucks up the ark.
 

vortex

Fabulous Optimist
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Maybe Frictional should get the memo: you are still in the business of making games. Games need gameplay, walking around and following a story unfold is not good enough. I mean, I watchd an LP of Soma and afterwards I certainly see no point in buying the game, much less playing it.

That's because game didn't have standard design.
Read this http://frictionalgames.blogspot.hr/2014/04/4-layers-narrative-design-approach.html
I didn't understand everything, but the purpose of SOMA is to evoke thoughts in the player and to tell a story through the narrative. Gameplay was structured accordingly.

It wasn't like: hey we want to make a stealth adventure game and hire writer to fill the gaps.
SOMA is more like visual interactive guidance for the player than stealth adventure game we're accustomed to.
 

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