Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is to be influenced by the experimental narrative elements of Dear Esther.
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, the upcoming sequel to PC horror title Amnesia: The Dark Descent, will use a philosophy of storytelling similar to that seen in abstract narrative game Dear Esther, thechineseroom creative director Dan Pinchbeck said today during a lecture at GDC Europe.
The horror title will take lessons learned from Dear Esther's use of inference and suggestion in how it tells its story, said Pinchbeck.
"You can't represent anything in horror games that will be scarier than what is in a player's imagination," he explained.
Citing theorists Roland Barthes and Daniel Dennett, Pinchbeck stated stories are an inevitable product of playing a game, and players assemble a narrative internally. Calling Dear Esther a "story-Minecraft," he added the studio is not in the business of writing plot but rather of giving players the tools to create their own experience.
"If you increase abstraction, players will invest more heavily," he said, later stating "there isn't a single tool you can throw at a game more powerful than a player's imagination."
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is scheduled to release Halloween of 2013. The title is considered an "indirect" sequel to the original Frictional Games developed title.