The Amnesia sequel is a real change of pace for thechineseroom’s Dan Pinchbeck.
“I think we started working on it sometime around November [2011],” says thechineseroom’s creative director, Dan Pinchbeck, “and we thought it was going to be a couple hours long.” That first impression didn’t last, and Pinchbeck – the man behind Dear Esther – realized there was a lot of potential in an expanded story for its Amnesia follow-up, A Machine For Pigs.
“In Esther, the story doesn’t really actually exist,” says Pinchbeck, adding that “It’s just a whole bunch of ideas about a story that the player then uses to create the story themselves.” Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs is a much more traditional story format than Pinchbeck’s Dear Esther, but that’s a welcome relief, in some ways, as it allows Pinchbeck to play around with some different concepts. There isn’t as much pressure to be experimental with A Machine For Pigs, and that means Pinchbeck can concentrate on story elements, and an expanded plot, which in turn means increased production values.
“I think this has ended up more of a natural successor to [Amnesia] Dark Descent than we ever thought it’d be,” says Pinchbeck. “Originally, we thought it’d be this halfway point between Dark Descent and Esther, but in a lot of ways, it’s much more like Dark Descent.”
Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs hasn’t got a confirmed release date yet, but that should change very soon; at the moment, Q2 2013 is as far as thechineseroom’s prepared to go.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
