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Frictional Games recently announced that Amnesia: The Dark Descent has reached the alpha stage. The upcoming new adventure horror title from the creators of the Penumbra series is described as a title which will take players on a "thrill-ride through the depths of madness and explore the dark side of human emotions." It follows the tale of a protagonist on the run from a horrifying foe.

So what does this mean? In general terms it means that we now have a large chunk of the game done which we can evaluate and draw conclusions from. More specifically it means:

• All code for tech, tools and game are done and what is left is basically polish. Note again that this is for all platforms! Sure, the polish is not an easy thing and can include plenty of smaller feature additions, but it is a road map that we can control and plan for.
• We can now, for the first time in almost three years, test the game and see how it really plays like!
• We now have all of the design for the game done and know with strong certainty how we want it to play and how to fulfill that vision. Much work remains, but now we know what we are working for.
• Having the design done also means that we can pinpoint very exactly what needs to be done and how it should be done. This means that can we now for the first time see a finish line and know that we have what it takes to cross it!

This project has been an emotional roller coaster for us at Frictional Games. There have been many times when we thought we where done for and had to stop making games. Now we finally feel that we have the finished game firmly in our grasp. Hopefully all the sweat and tears we put into this will help create an extra memorable experience for you all to play in a couple of months!

Frictional Blog: Alpha Status

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Amnesia: The Dark Descent

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