Amnesia: The Dark Descent Creative Director Thomas Grip: Extended Interview

Ars Technica is proud to present our extended interview with Thomas Grip, creative director at Frictional Games and designer of the 2010 survival horror classic Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Learn more about the challenges Thomas and his collaborators faced in bringing their terrifying vision to life, the creative decisions that would echo through Frictional Games’ future titles and other surprising facets of what went into making one of the most frightening games ever. -- 00:00 Introduction 00:23 It All Started With Penumbra 03:05 Removing Combat In Penumbra 08:33 Inspiration For Amnesia 10:02 The Team 11:09 Can We Make It Simpler? 15:08 Financial Constraints & Creative Direction 18:53 Game Loops & Traditional Game Design 22:00 Games As Art & Influence On Gameplay 25:02 False Starts 28:56 How To Make Light & Dark Scary 30:31 Sanity System 38:51 Using The Unknown To Create Horror 42:04 Directing Players To Focus On Details 43:30 Using Player Imaginations To Create Tension 50:13 Guiding Expectations Using Familiar Environments 53:51 What We Learned & How It Influenced Soma Connect with Ars Technica: Visit ArsTechnica.com: http://arstechnica.com Follow Ars Technica on Facebook:   / arstechnica   Follow Ars Technica on Google+: https://plus.google.com/+ArsTechnica/... Follow Ars Technica on Twitter:   / arstechnica   Amnesia: The Dark Descent Creative Director Thomas Grip: Extended Interview