My Games & MY Games: What I Did on Which Projects

Wouldn't it be lovely if MobyGames had a feature for studio leads or staff themselves to add detail to their credits? If someone's credited as a writer that could mean almost anything. If I'm reading about a level designer, I'd love to know exactly which levels in the game they designed.

Following on from discussion in this post, I thought it'd be worth the time to list the projects I'm involved with and to spell out exactly what responsibility I held on each. Quite apart from allowing me to feel better about the credit that I'm taking, I hope this might prove an interesting exposé for anyone interested in the practical role of the narrative designer, not to mention useful for anyone thinking about sending a contract my way.

Fairly briefly, and in order of least to most creative control, these are the major projects I've worked on, how I was credited, when I did the work and what that work actually entailed.

Amnesia (PC), 2008, 2009 - Uncredited (as far as I know, and by request)

I worked on Amnesia during pre-production. All Frictional had at the time was a setting and gameplay, and I produced, among other things, a document detailing plotting, setting and character concepts, and some gameplay mechanics. When Frictional ran into publisher dificulties they went right back to the drawing board and returned with a full (and very different) narrative design, which is when we (amicably) parted ways.

Driver: San Francisco (360, PS3, PC), 2010 - Not sure what the credit will be yet (better be one though)

I was part of a team producing in-game dialogue to a rough brief. My dialogue will make up around 10% (at a guess) of the total. The style and character were obviously set beforehand, but there was no concrete style guide, allowing for reasonable flexibility within the confines of a predefined bark script (in which every character has the same type of lines, triggered by preset events). The deadline was extremely tight and barks are never easy, but I hope my characters more often than not bring a smile rather than a cringe.


Hydravision Survival Horror (DS), 2009 - Cinematics Writer

This was a last minute job during Alpha. All levels and most assets were in place, the story set in stone. There were around ten one-minute-long cut scenes, each with variations dependent on player character. I was delivered a doc setting out exactly what story information had to be communicated in each, but was free to improvise within that and within the established style of the franchise. It was challenging to write good dialogue when little attention had been paid to the plot itself, but I hope my penchant for dark humour and philosophical observation shine through, particularly towards the end.

Lost Horizon (PC), 2009/10 - English Script Adaptation
The 100,000 word script for this one was written in German and translated into English, my role being to polish it up. Every line was delivered in a spreadsheet, so while I had reasonable freedom within each line, the gist had to remain the same and I had no control over the overall story or puzzles. The translations tended to be grammatically sound but very stilted, and I'd say that I quite significantly rewrote the majority in a consistent style that I felt appropriate. That style - a tongue in cheek, silly sort of feel - was to some degree my own, but also significantly defined by the nature of the game and the plot. I was also in the studio for the voice work, though I wasn't directing and had no involvement in casting.


Penumbra: Requiem (PC), 2008 - Written by
The guys at Frictional decided to take a very different approach with this expansion pack. Gameplay was to be entirely divorced from narrative, meaning I had no control over the physical lay out of the levels, puzzles weren't narratively justified, and my main story telling tool was to be voiced notes. The overarching 'plot' of Philip exploring his mental demons was my own, changed from the original concept of Howard exploring the Shelter and gradually going insane, but 'plot' is in quotes because when you can change an entire story without actually adapting any of the levels you know there's not going to be much involvement. I felt as if the Penumbra story was largely over, and it was a bit of a shame to go out on this note - this game was no small part of my reluctance to be involved with Amnesia.


Penumbra: Overture (PC), 2006/07 - Written by
This was the first game I ever worked on as a narrative designer - I wasn't credited as such simply because at the time I'd never heard the term. A three game plot outline was in place, though detail was very sketchy and really only the very broad strokes and the setting made it to the final game. Plot in place for Overture was actually very minimal - Philip travels through the mine to find his father - and my biggest contribution was the introduction of central antagonist and plot driver, Red. All the other story elements in the game were either developed from ideas the guys at Frictional had in place, or originated with me, and I had (mediated) control over every element in the story, from note content and placement to visual design and level layout. I was also involved in game design discussion, and I cast and directed all three games in the series.

Penumbra: Black Plague (PC), 2007 - Written by

Following feedback from Overture I had greater confidence and experience, and with the cancellation of the third episode I was also tasked early on with overhauling the plot. As a result, Black Plague remains the game that I most cite as representative of me as a narrative designer. The plot and level design were a result of a high level pitch I produced which was then discussed in detail with Thomas [Grip, Lead Designer], from which he drew up level designs. Every character - save for Philip and Howard - and plot twist was my own work, as were the original ideas for the sanity effects and the ways in which the player can interact with his alternate personality, Clarence. Outside of narrative concerns I was a staunch supporter of dropping combat altogether, and I also contributed some broad puzzle concepts.

Unannounced Hydravision Action / Adventure (360, PS3), Ongoing - Narrative Designer
If and when this project sees release, I truly hope it will take over from Black Plague as my calling card. The guys I'm working with had a scenario, plot outline and two player characters in place, and while the scenario and one of the characters were both outstanding, I've entirely reworked the plot and created the cast from scratch. I'm unspeakably excited about the potential for this project.

ir/rational (PC), 2009 - Written, designed and developed by
Finally ir/rational is, fairly obviously, the game over which I've had the most control. Because, you know, I made it. While it could be argued that I was limited by my meagre programming ability and time contraints, ir/rational best demonstrates the style of writing and topics that interest me, as well as my game design ability. For better or for worse, ir/rational provides me no excuses - ir/rational is a 'Tom Jubert game'.

The Hollywood Model of Employment & Individual Culpability

The recent consideration I've been giving to the projects I've worked on and my role within them has encouraged a regular topic of discussion between myself and GAMESbrief's Nicholas Lovell to resurface in my thoughts: that is, the idea that the current model of permanent 100+ man teams is dead, and that video games as a medium should be moving towards the project-by-project freelancing approach of the film industry.

The arguments in favour of such an approach are plenty:

1. Eliminate costs associated with employee downtime between projects
2. Eliminate post-project redundancies, rendering both staff and the PR department significantly less grumpy
3. Hire a bespoke team suited to each project and scale it up and down as the schedule dictates
4. Reward talent by pursuing those with proven credentials, and don't get lumped with salaried dead weight
5. Freedom for everyone to work on more varied projects
6. A possible compromise for unpaid overtime (ie higher day rates and time off between projects)

The ideal system would be for publishers and/or developers to maintain a small core staff. A group of 1 - 20 trusted, talented individuals (perhaps with a leaning towards production experience), ensuring the studio always has permanent personnel who are invested in the company and can ensure external hires work to the standard required.

Following this, if the studio already has a concept or property, the appropriate hires can be made. "We think cell-shading is the way to go, let's have a chat with the art directors from Mad World, Wind Waker and XIII." Alternatively, the Hollywood model allows for greater autonomy on the part of experienced staff. While talent agents for such trailblazers are already starting to pop up, a more industry wide adoption of this approach might empower - for instance - a talented programmer to approach a publisher with an astonishing concept for a new AI routine, and for that publisher to finance his personal research with a view to providing a growing team as and when the routine has been proven and a game is ready to be built around it. On a more obvious level, a designer and a writer could pitch a project to a studio in just the same way as a director might approach Pathé with a screenplay.

Culpability
One of the main draws of this system for an individual developer might be increased public and industry recognition of his or her talent. In the next month or two there are two games coming out that I'm connected to: Lost Horizon and Amnesia. What's strange about these games is that on one my name will be in the credits as the writer - despite the original script being by someone else - while on the other a great many people will assume I was the writer when in fact I haven't been involved.

When Amnesia arrives, it's going to be an interesting experience discovering what a Penumbra game looks like with someone else behind the keyboard. Naturally I'm a part of this industry because I want to be involved in developing fantastic, important games; but at the same time there are few creatives who could honestly claim they don't hope for some kind of artistic identity in their work, some stamp of their involvement. If Amnesia arrives to rave reviews it's only right that Mikael Hedberg should take credit; if things don't go so well it'll be disheartening that very few players or critics will realise why. Full credit to journos like Lewis Denby - who do their research and credit appropriately in their articles - but while it's very common to read something like, "Mauro Fiore's cinematography in Avatar is his best work to date," in a film review, it's incredibly rare in games.

In Lost Horizon, while I hope I've added a distinctive flavour of my own, the script is ultimately originated by another writer. While I was involved in the voice direction, I wasn't sitting in the chair, and I had no say over casting. If and when Lost Horizon receives praise, it's right that I should take only partial responsibility - but it's incredibly difficult to ascertain who's culpable for what.

My dream is of a model where key talent (department leads etc) are recognised for their triumphs and successes by the press, the audience, and by the industry. While most developers remain salaried their studios will remain cautious of talent poaching, but with an employment reform developers would be free to deliver, along with review code, a short document highlighting the central talent and their roles, so that critics can credit appropriately.

There are arguments against, of course. Speaking with Craig Pearson of PCG UK, he pointed out the potential damage a bad review under this system could do to a career. It's the problem games writers complain of non-stop: that good writing implemented badly reflects badly on the writer through no fault of their own. There's also the question of who deserves this elite status as a front of the box credit.

There's no denying these are problems, but they're problems every other industry seems to handle, and I believe the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. I dream of the day when someone plays a game and says, "Well, I can see elements of what Brian Mitsoda brought to the latter stages of Neverwinter Nights 2, but it's clear his style is more coherently implemented in Vampire: Bloodlines, and this game continues that confidence of expression."

Hey: a man can dream, can't he?

Update 29/07/10: Brian Mitsoda writes a friendly hello and suggests one possible drawback of the Hollywood model is typecasting of freelancers as developers rely more and more on their previous work to secure new jobs. He also points out that, contrary to what's suggested above, of all the very talented people on NWN2 he wasn't actually one of them. My fault.

Amnesia Previews & My Predictions

EDIT 5th December 2019 - Can anyone tell me in the comments why this random post from a decade ago is getting 10x more clicks than anything else on this blog just recently?

ORIGINAL:

As some of you may have noticed, Amnesia previews have started coming in thick and fast. If you don't know already, Amnesia is the new IP from my chums over at Frictional Games, the guys who - by taking a punt on me for Penumbra: Overture - gave me the break I needed to kick start my career as a games writer.

There are a couple of things I'd like to highlight in this post regarding the game. The first is that the early previews - based on a couple of hours' code from the beginning of the game - are roundly positive and that now's the time to pre-order. I realise previews are always roundly positive, but still. They're being - to my mind - positive about the right bits.

The second is that, not being involved with this game, when Amnesia comes out I'll be interested to see if the experiment Frictional is attempting with their narrative structure is pulled off. Part of the point of establishing Plot is Gameplay's Bitch was to be as candid about development as possible, and while for what I hope are obvious reasons I don't particularly want to say an awful lot about Amnesia before it comes out, I certainly don't want to be left in the "Me too" / "Told you so" camp once the game's released. To that end, let me tell you a little about...

What Concerned Me
To put the following comments into context, I should state that I was involved briefly with Amnesia back when it was known as Lux Tenebras. Since then everything bar the setting and familiar Frictional gameplay has changed, and while I have played the first few hours of the game, I'm commenting largely from a theoretical standpoint based on design work and discussion between myself and Thomas (Grip, Frictional Co-Founder).

The story-telling approach Frictional is adopting on Amnesia is very passive (the story itself, that is, rather than what it demands of the player). Their objective has been to instill the game world with a history, diminishing almost entirely active, present tense story in favour of allowing the player to discover that history and to construct his own picture of events. To put that a more graspable way, there'll be lots of written notes, SS2-esque overheard dialogues, and a twisting character backstory to unravel. There will be (at least from what I understand) less of what we pursued in Black Plague in terms of tying puzzles into the active narrative.

Frictional's objectives in this are to provide a less hand-holding experience, to allow the player to digest the story at his own pace, and to allow him to personally contextualise his in-game actions rather than relying on NPCs. These are admirable goals, and I hope their experiment pays off, but I have my concerns. The reason I was proud of Black Plague was precisely the better job we did of justifying the puzzles and the game progression, and of placing the story emphasis in the present tense. It's my feeling that the relative narrative weakness of Overture and Requiem stems from their reliance on passive story, and that Amnesia may reawaken those issues. I know when I stated my concern that Amnesia was a Requiem, rather than a Black Plague follow up, Thomas disagreed. September will tell.

What I Think Will Work
What I do know for a fact is that Amnesia will prove the most polished, and the truest Frictional game to date. The central goal of the writing in their games has always been two fold: to drive the player through the world, and to reinforce the threatening atmosphere established by the visuals and expertly employed by the gameplay, making Frictional's releases some of the most frightening games ever made. While I fundamentally query how successfully the former can be pulled off, Mikael Hedberg is an experienced writer who cut his interactive teeth on the in-game descriptions in Black Plague, and so the latter will I hope be delivered on in spades.


When Amnesia hits the shelves on 8th September 2010 it'll be very interesting to watch the critical reactions: for a game whose narrative will ostensibly look and sound like an iteration of what was begun with Penumbra, will reviewers even identify the shift in approach?

Despite my concerns, I'd thoroughly encourage you to support indie development and to pre-order Amnesia from the Frictional store. It's guaranteed to be a fascinating experiment and the most confident expression of Frictional's horror credentials to date.

"How to Characterise When You Can't Afford Characters" - Part 3

This is part 3 (of 3) of an article that was originally printed in the IGDA Writers SIG Quarterly, discussing the specifics of writing for indie games. Part 1 - Why Big Budgets Are Overrated (Sometimes) - here.

NB Penumbra spoilers throughout!

What Independence Really Means for a Games Writer
Creative Freedom
There are, of course, natural advantages granted to the writer of indie games. At a recent roundtable another scribe suggested that in our line of work "It's not how good you are, it's how good you're allowed to be."

Without the 'shackles' of a hundred strong team forging ahead without you, it's possible to adapt as you progress to a far greater degree - and that goes both ways. If a puzzle design suddenly has to change three weeks prior to gold it's a straightforward enough process to wade back in and wrap that part of the story around a new structure. Vice versa, when there's only one level designer, there's only one person to upset when you make a change to the script.

Further, the smaller studio has less to lose, and therefore can afford to gamble on left field conceits. [Major Penumbra spoilers coming up in this paragraph] Imagine pitching to a large publisher the idea of the player character going insane; developing a caustic alternate personality; trying to rescue a damsel in distress who'd really be happier left alone, and inadvertently murdering her in the process; and then contradicting his own climax and getting killed off. Might be a tough pitch. At Frictional, the first thing laid down was that the protagonist wasn't going to save the day, or get the girl - and that the antagonist would never be a pantomime villain. [Spoilers over]


Of course, while there's the potential for almost unlimited freedom, it's a fact always tempered by a necessarily limited scope - you can do only a fraction of what you'd like to. I distinctly remember one fantastic bug (which I have a feeling may actually have shipped). It was a dramatic moment where the player's alter ego begins to display human emotion: a corpse is supposed to fall from scaffolding, frightening him. Of course rather than fall, the corpse would get confused about which way was down and decide to float eerily up into the air before getting stuck in the ceiling. Altogether less effective. Clearly games suffer issues like this every day, but when you have one programmer, who's got an entire game to complete and polish by next Friday, it becomes a lot simpler just to scale back and remove ambitious efforts than to spend the time fixing them.

Community Support & Reputation
Perhaps the thing that most defines independent development, if not writing for it, is the community. The reason Penumbra: Overture happened at all was the incredible online and in print response garnered by the initial tech demo. Half the reason the second game was so much better than the first was players following the link at the end of the game to leave us their thoughts.

There's a lot of good will amongst the gaming press for what independents are doing. Most every single sale of Penumbra was down to glowing coverage and word of mouth, and perhaps there's something about an underdog story that helps to secure that praise not so much in the face of, but even because of the rough edges and bald patches.


In summary...
...it's my belief that character is something that can be communicated in a video game regardless of budget or status. Writing for indie games is not more (or less) of a challenge than any other form of interactive narrative - you have to work within your unique limitations and fight hard to secure the emotional impact you need.

With the right tools, you can give players an experience that will be affecting them long after 'Game Over' has faded from the screen.

"How to Characterise When You Can't Afford Characters" - Part 2

This is part 2 (of 3) of an article that was originally printed in the IGDA Writers SIG Quarterly, discussing the specifics of writing for indie games. Part 1 - Why Big Budgets Are Overrated (Sometimes) - here.

NB Penumbra spoilers throughout!

The Indie Team: Good Things Come in Small Packages
Integration: Keeping to the Story
During development, it wasn't uncommon that we might say "Let's put a dragon at the end of this level, and have him quote a Shakespeare soliloquy at the player," and 24 hours later it would be in-game. Sadly the dragon was cut for budgetary reasons, but the point is that such a fluid dev process is a core advantage in writing for indie games.

A video game writer's greatest complaint is often this - we don't get integrated into the team fully, or quickly enough. When you've got a three year project and a 100 man team, you can see why. When your core team consists of four men and a roster of contractors it's much easier to stay on the pulse.

In games, more so perhaps than in any other medium, every member of the team can make or break the story. The static art has to match the tone of the voice performances, which have to match the dialogue, which has to reflect the gameplay - and vice versa. When everyone knows exactly what they're aiming for - and confirmation is on the other end of MSN - you've got an instant head start over larger productions. What's more, an eight hour game only needs one narrative designer, one writer, and one voice director - when they're all the same person it's a lot harder to get tangled up.

When the Game Costs Less than the Marketing Budget
Though they often go hand in hand, diminished budgets aren't something that define indie development, and I don't want to go on about scraping together the pennies. All the same, finance is clearly a relevant topic. Frictional's first game was self-financed, and therefore on a genuine shoe string, while later projects were publisher backed. I think you can notice the change in the games - Black Plague has more professional actors, more voiced dialogue, and the story is told far more directly. With the increased assets we were able to let loose a little bit, before inevitably reigning back, accompanied by sighs of "Why did we think we could animate a golem for €3.56 in loose change."

Learning Not to Rely on Visuals...
...or why you don't need characters to create character. I won't deny it's a bit of shock as a writer when you realise you're going to have to craft emotionally engaging characters without ever showing the player another living soul. It's doubly unsettling when your next project is set in the 18th Century, and you're not allowed to rely on radios or computer terminals; but that's another story.

To some extent you can rely on in-game prose and evocative voice acting and to tell a story. Initially it's somewhat like that dream where you realise you're standing on stage and forgot to get dressed. Without a character onscreen emoting the words it's like your writing's been stripped down to its particulars for up close scrutiny.

Character models aren't the only area to suffer. Even on a series as story driven as Penumbra it's still, in my experience, been the narrative that's first to see cuts. Words may be cheap, but cut scenes and graphics are not. As a result, when it's time to triage and it's the end of level boss or the sexy intro sequence that's facing the chop, it's always that lavish opening that hits the cutting room floor.

The character design process was haphazard at times, though they all began in the same place. I would write a faux interview with each of the characters, a proof of concept to help demonstrate voice, which the rest of the team would then feedback on.

It seemed to work. Eliciting that emotional response from the player was key, and I feel it's something we nailed pretty effectively. We were careful to ensure the character relationships were never predictable. The psychotically threatening miner devolves into a defenceless child, his previous aggression reframed as harmless temper tantrums. The damsel in distress turns out to have been a lot better off without the player's intervention.

...Or on Pre-Release Testing
Though perhaps not unique to indie games, another obstacle to be hurdled (or at least quietly tucked under the carpet to form a suspicious looking lump that we'll blame on damp) is the difficulty of finding decent feedback on the story. Gamers know a lot about games. PC gamers know a lot about bugs. Few know anything about allegorical rhetoric.

For a complex, story driven game, that can pose a problem. Those testers who proved reliable were also volunteers, and focused on bug hunting. The rest of the team spoke English as a second language, rendering even proofreading an impossible luxury.

As a partial saving grace, the series was released episodically - by that I mean the intention was to release three episodes over 12 months, while the reality was two episodes and an expansion in 18. However we did manage to harness the community and retrieve, if not in depth criticism, general feedback which, along with the reviews, went a long way towards making Black Plague a considerable improvement.

Part 3 - What Independence Really Means for a Games Writer - here.

Writing For Indie Games; or "How to Characterise When You Can't Afford Characters" - Part 1

This article was originally printed in the IGDA Writers SIG Quarterly

NB Penumbra spoilers throughout!

There's something about a team of fresh, undiscovered talent, combined with comically low salaries, that really brings out the best in people. So far, the Penumbra series has received widespread critical acclaim, been nominated for a Writers' Guild Award, and marked Frictional Games as a studio to look out for. But writing for indie games isn't just about bodging together a story out of limited resources (or starting sentences with the word 'but'). As is so often the case for the filmic equivalent, it's also about the opportunity to provide a genuinely inventive and touching piece of (interactive) storytelling; or alternatively a passionate, yet no less complete, shambles.

This post mortem looks at the specifically indie aspects of games writing, as experienced during my time with Penumbra.

Why Big Budgets Are Overrated (Sometimes)
Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Without particularly setting out to, I've ended up quoting Plato, really early on. Let it be known I cringed while doing it. Tight purse strings, though, certainly have their guiles. I can't count the number of great elements that went into Black Plague as a direct result of not being able to do it the traditional way. Not having characters on screen lent the game a real sense of isolation. Substituting green DOS text for a lavish final set piece made for an eerie and uniquely low key ending to each game. Every piece of narrative had to be designed with extreme limitations in mind, which made imaginative story telling techniques an everyday necessity, rather than an ideal.

One of the best received narrative techniques we developed was to do with the alternate personality the player character develops towards the beginning of Black Plague. We had no way to produce any flashy cut scenes, character models or bespoke graphics, but needed some dramatic moments in the game to develop the relationship. As a solution, we used the assets we already had in the form of the game engine and scripting tools to represent the character's presence onscreen. Unseen teleports and level geometry that shifted moment to moment produced a disorienting atmosphere for this malevolent psychosis to revel in. Later on, the player is tricked into murdering his only friend in the game when she is morphed into the shape of an enemy. It's all very guerrilla: using cheap tools to deceptive effect; combined with convincing voice acting it proved to be everything we needed.

Learning to Promote and Rely on Tone
Just as minimal resources encourage innovation, there's something very athletic about refusing (OK: not having the option) to rely on lush visuals to inject interest into a plot or relationship. Being forced down to the very basics of the craft means doing your best to get the very basics right.

Having the writing support the tone of the game in a far stronger way is the first step. Of course, Penumbra has always had dark, atmospheric scenery and better than average lighting effects, and these help to set and maintain the mood; but any tonal demands that go beyond "Everything's a little bit grimy and hard to see" have to be conveyed through the writing, because you haven't got facial expressions or dramatic visual stunts to support you.

Voice: The Final Ingredient
Yet it's voice that ties the whole narrative experience together. We talked a lot about emotional response and philosophy during development. We wanted, in Penumbra, to do more than scare players, or even entertain them: we wanted them to care for the characters, to be conflicted, to feel guilty. A lot of that is set up by the plot and character arcs: NPCs' motives are intentionally hard to read, their reactions volatile, while the player's own in-game movements affect them in significant ways.

A lot, meanwhile, was down purely to a reliance on fantastic voice performances. Without the wow factor of mo-cap and lip sync, you place your trust in the actors' abilities to bring characters to life. As ever, recording was done to a budget, though Black Plague and Requiem benefited enormously from the very positive feedback earned by Overture and the resultant stretching of purse strings.

Almost all actors were sourced via Voice123.com. The developer submits sample scripts and character sheets, and upwards of 50 actors upload audition tapes for each part. It's a low cost way of finding the right performance, and once you have your cast it's a simple matter of live directing over Skype while they do the lines in a recording studio local to them. Required re-takes tend to be part and parcel, and my experience with the actors and actresses was 90% outstanding.

A typical session would involve a complete read through of the script, with the actor taking notes as I talked them through what was going on in each scene, and their character's motivations. This was an essential stage - the personalities in the series are not the usual contemporary square pegs; most are insane. This makes communicating emotion in the performance essential, a goal at least partially achieved via ludicrous direction such as "Imagine you're a puppy who's being scolded for shitting on the carpet". It seemed to get the job done.

To some degree, I think the use of voice only is liberating. It seems to recapture that freedom of imagination granted to the prose reader, while avoiding the all too familiar pit falls of dodgy animation and the uncanny valley - your interaction with characters in Penumbra is 100% human.

Part 2 - The Indie Team - here.

The (Not So) Humble Indie Bundle

Since my first post was all thinky and depressing, it's only right my second be shameless promotion. It'd be shameless self-promotion if I had anything of my own I was allowed to talk about, so count yourselves lucky.

Way back in 2006, Frictional Games released their Penumbra tech demo and I sent them a cocky email suggesting what they really needed for awesome commercial success was an unproven, undergraduate writer from the UK with a penchant for dark humour and philosophising. We released a trilogy that sold just enough to keep itself afloat and then, once the games arrived on Steam at a healthy discount, enough to finance a new project called Lux Tenebras. The Humble Indie Bundle is the latest development in that saga, and with over $1 million in sales it's fantastic to see things really taking off for the developers involved. Even before the figures came out I knew something big was afoot - games writers don't tend to get royalties, but I do get remunerated in fan mail, and it's doubled over the past ten days. I don't know where I'll find the time to answer that additional one email per month, but it's a nice problem to have.

With the pay-what-you-like concept and the announcement that most of the games (Penumbra included) are now going open source, it's reassuring to see the indie community consistently demonstrate a real grasp of marketing and how to turn a profit in today's something-for-nothing web culture.

As of right now the offer has another 1 day, 5 hours to run. Given its success I wouldn't be shocked if the expiry date wasn't extended again, but all the same it'd be best to get in quick.

While we're at it, Thomas and Jens at Frictional are gearing up for the release of their new IP, Amnesia, with a 20% discount on pre-orders if you mention my name. Or just turn up at the site at all. But feel free to mention my name anyway. From the alpha build I've played I'd say the most exciting new element in the formula is the use of dynamic light and shadow as a gameplay mechanic in the truest survival horror vein. Born from the ashes of Lux Tenebras, Amnesia's narrative is much less the Penumbra: Black Plague +1 I wanted to create, and more of an experiment with the way the player relates and adds to a more passive story. I'm not involved for that reason, but I'll be very interested to see how their approach works out.