Interviews

We understand that there is an interesting story behind the idea for Penumbra.  Can you tell us about it?

Penumbra started out as a school project with the goal to make a survival horror game without any direct violence. That is not having the player going around shooting various creatures. We thought this would make a scarier game and it would also pose a greater design challenge and force us to try out new ideas.

As the project was developed we wanted the player to be able to investigate the surroundings. For example pull out a drawer and find an important item or clue inside. This created a problem though, how could we make the item inside slide along with the box? The solution seemed to be to use physics to solve it. Since we had already implemented a physics engine (Newton Game Dynamics) it shouldn’t be that hard to come up with something. Once we started testing this we figured that we might as well use physics for all interaction and the current interaction system for Penumbra was born. The interaction system turned out really well and made it a lot fun to do mundane tasks such as opening lockers and turning valves. By using the mouse the player can physically move objects in a very realistic way.

The new interaction system forced us to redesign large parts of the game. We really wanted to use the physics as much as we could. One of our goals was to create some type of emergent gameplay, where we just set up some basic interaction rules and the player could then go ahead and solve a puzzle in what every way she/he wanted. This was a lot harder than we first thought and the levels took a lot longer to design and led us to limiting the scope of the project. At first we wanted to do a complete game with multiple levels, but now we settled on just creating a small demonstration.

The deadline for the demo was set to be for a Swedish game competition and we worked really hard to have a complete demo at that time. When the deadline finally came we were really proud of our product and thought it would do well in the competition. However we only got nominated for best idea (which was the lesser category) and did not get any prize. This made us think that the project was not any good so we decided to stop working on it and just release it on the Internet. After a few weeks all hell broke loose though, the word of the game spread like wildfire and our school server crashed because of the number of people downloading. We also got a lot of great feedback from people telling us the game was great.

This success really encouraged us to start working on the game again and Penumbra: Overture was born. Recently we found Lexicon Entertainment as a publisher as well so things have been really exciting the last couple of months.

Can you explain the storyline of Penumbra?

The game begins with the protagonist, Philip, receiving a letter from is late father whom he has never met. In the letter he is told to burn an old book. However, Philip is too curious and decides to study it instead. He finds that it points to a place on Greenland and having always wondered who his father was he decides to go there.

He travels into the Greenland wastelands and is caught in a blizzard and as Philip is about to die from exposure he finds a hatch in the snow. With nowhere else to go he descends into the underground.

I do not want to disclose more of the story since a big part of the game is figuring out what is going on. The story is very Lovecraftian in nature so expect unmentionable horrors, strange places and insanity to be the main ingredients. We have put a lot of time into the story so hopefully it will be keep the player on her/his toes.

You are marketing Penumbra as a first-person adventure game that is played like a first-person shooter with weapons and battles.  Can you explain this further?

The main element of the game will not be to go around bashing enemies. The creatures found in the game are all very lethal and the player is better off sneaking or using his/her brain to fight them. The physics will allow for all sorts of things to battle the foes, traps can be set up and the environment can be used in various ways. The weapons are mostly used to solve puzzles and not for fighting. The player character is a scientist by profession and as a very limited knowledge of weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

The only thing that Penumbra: Overture has in common with a first person shooters are the controls and the view. In all other ways it is more an adventure with a physics engine powering all interactions.  

What type of 3D engine are you using?  Is it of your own creation or a licensed engine?

We are using an in-house developed engine called the HPL-engine that uses state of the art technology like dynamic shadows, lighting and normal mapping. It also uses the powerful Newton Game Dynamics engine to power the physics.

Although it uses new technology, players with older hardware will also be able to play the game. The current tech-demo can handle 4 – 5 year old cards and we are working hard on supporting even older cards.

What type of special effects can we expect?

The engine has some next-generation features such as depth of field and motion blur and using this to enhance the experience. We set focus on objects being examined and motion blur is used to visualize the players feelings when for example being scared.

We are also using a sound system for the physics that we have put a lot of work in. Depending on the materials involved in a collision as well as force of impact the sounds are mixed in different ways. This creates a more realistic feel and the player does not feel has if listening to the same sounds repeated over and over again. Sound can also be blocked by doors and walls, further enhancing the experience.

The sound is not only used for immersion though, it also has gameplay impact since the enemies hear the same things as the player does. This means that one has to be careful when closing the doors if an enemy should not be alerted.

We understand that Penumbra is meant to be episodic and Overture is the first of a trilogy.  What is planned for future games in the series?

The game is going to be split into three episodes and this entire trilogy is called Penumbra: Overture. The entire story is already made for all episodes so we have made sure that all the parts will be interesting and take the story forward.

There have been a few unsuccessful attempts at episodic adventure games in the past which have made adventure gamers leery of purchasing such games.  What guarantee is there that the series will continue, especially if the first episode does not meet sales expectations?

First of all the entire story is already completed for the games so we already know what each episode will contain. This make it a lot easier for us to plan the episodes and release it on much more regular basis than previous episodic games. The episodes will also be somewhat self-contained stories so the player will feel as if something was accomplished at the end of the each episode.

Since the scope is limited to only three episodes we have already planned when each episode should be released and have been able to plan this budget wise. This means that we should be able to complete all the episodes even on modest sales. We are also reusing content for all episodes and saving time and money that way. We work in a way similar to how Lord of the Rings and The Matrix trilogy was made.

Hopefully all episodes will be released over the next year and the wait should not be too long for players that want more.

Will Penumbra: Overture be available at the retail level only or also as a digital download?

There will be a digital download available but we do not know yet exactly where and how it will be sold.

Lexicon Entertainment has worldwide publishing rights for Penumbra, but it looks as though you are still searching for a North American publisher.  Is that correct?

Yes Penumbra: Overture will be released all over the world. I am afraid this is something Lexicon has to answer.

Tell us about your company Frictional Games.  What games have you worked on in the past and how was your staff assembled?

Frictional Games was started during the Penumbra project. However the team members have worked together before, most recently for an educational game called Energetic. We have also been worked together on an old adventure game called Fiend and the more recent Unbirth (which is on hold because of Penumbra).

Most members have known each other long before the start of Penumbra through school and Internet. We all live in Sweden and like true “indies” work in our apartments to reduce costs.