"SOMA" by Frictional Games

[Nihilanth]

...

As some of you might know, after wrapping up everything related to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Frictional Games locked all the doors and windows and started working on a new game, new IP, continuing their tradition of not doing sequels to their previous titles. They remained silent about the project and the only piece of media we got was the concept art posted under a job offer on their blog. Until now that is.

The above site (nextfrictionalgame, previously used as a teaser site for both ATDD and AAMFP) has just been updated with a sci-fi progress bar (currently at 11%), suggesting an upcoming reveal of the game, after over 3 years since TDD. Whatever comes out when it reaches 100% is unknown but I think it's safe to assume we'll finally get some details on the project (hopefully!).

We don't know a lot about it. What we do know is that this next game will, once again, be a first person horror game heavily focused on storytelling and that it's meant to rely on a more sophisticated horror than Amnesia.

As a big fan of FG (ever since Penumbra Tech Demo) I'm super excited for it. It's easily one of my most anticipated games and I'm happy something's finally going on with it.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

Frictional's take on the sci-fi horror genre would definitely be something I'm interested in. They're one of the most exciting developers out there. I can't wait to see what they've got planned, especially after the Chinese Room's disappointing effort.

[Nihilanth]

According to guys over FG forums the system reboot takes ~40min for 1% and we're at 28%. So roughly 48h left.

[Nihilanth]

Originally Posted by Frictional Games' Twitter

Analysis of the pre-boot system uncovered the following image. Origin and subject are currently unknown.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

11 or so hours to go! I can't wait to hear the details and direction of the project. Hopefully we'll see gameplay footage or at least a ton of screenshots

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

http://kotaku.com/snake-plissken-alm...l-g-1404868454

'It appears we might know the next title from Amnesia creators Frictional Games. After Frictional's creative director teased in early September that studio decided on the name for their next game, Frictional registered the domain somagame.com. Soma typically refers to an intoxicating substance, the body as separate from the mind, or a cell body—all of which seem fairly apt territory for Frictional.P

In a blog post last year, Frictional said its next project would likely see release in 2014, and the game would be a first-person horror title that the developers hoped would delve into further thematic depth than Amnesia. A recent job posting—which was accompanied by some fuzzy H.R. Giger-esque art of spiders—for the studio requested someone with an interest in science-fiction, hinting that they are moving away from Amnesia's 19th century horror.'

http://www.somasystems.org/ Hopefully it'll unlock tomorrow.

[Nihilanth]

And the whole hype went to shit because both nextfrictionalgame and somasystems are idle. The booting finished 2pm yesterday (over 18h ago) but of course the entire thing crashed. For hours both the aforementioned sites and FG forums were massively overloaded. So after 3 days of waiting we have to wait again for an unspecified amount of time.

Originally Posted by Frictional Games' Twitter

This strange system was a lot stranger than we first thought. Please have patience while we try to get it under control.

That was 13h ago.

IMPORTANT EDIT:
Not anymore!

Originally Posted by Frictional Games' Twitter

Seems like dark forces have been against us. Despite that, servers are up again and booting continued. ETA: 5 hours. http://somasystems.org

Less than 5h left.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

https://twitter.com/frictionalgames/...37060869492736

'Seems like dark forces have been against us. Despite that, servers are up again and booting continued. ETA: 5 hours.' It's back on!

[Nihilanth]

SOMA

First file and a teaser on the systems site is up.

[Rapture_Rising]

Originally Posted by Nihilanth

SOMA

First file and a teaser on the systems site is up.

It kinda reminds me of SCP-173.

[Nihilanth]

A message that flickers on the site:

It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane Philip K Dick

[Nihilanth]

Unfortunately there's a high probability that this game will be a PS4 exclusive because PS twitter linked to SOMA site. This may sound like nothing but after thechineseroom sold to Sony and turned Everybody's Gone to the Rapture into a PS4 exclusive, screwing over PC fans, it's not out of the question that the same happened here. And if it did... to me that would be one of the biggest game-related disappointments ever.

[Nihilanth]

SOMA Systems

ITEM #: 4017 - "Mockingbird"

DESCRIPTION:

A standard UH3 articulated robot, active fluid memory with an approximated intelligence [MISSING DATA] shows a much more active mind [MISSING DATA] spontaneously developed a desire to socialize from observing human interaction?

[MISSING DATA] intelligence first noted by Security Officer Douglas Strohmaier while investigating an automated distress signal coming from Construct Depot 11 [MISSING DATA] Mockingbird had pried another UH3 open and removed its AI-unit [MISSING DATA] made motions resembling those of eating, moving it close to its camera, and making sounds similar to smacking of the lips [MISSING DATA] it introduced itself as Chief Engineer Adam Golaski.

Quarantined in T260 Machine Rep [MISSING DATA] during the night it had taken itself apart. AM Engineer Imogen Reed quickly records an interview in case the Mockingbird would continue its self-destruction. [MISSING DATA] appears there is a real Adam Golaski working at Omicron. Invited Chief Engineer Golaski to talk to the impostor construct.


APPENDIX A+B: Interview and Confrontation - Video Documentation

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

This ARG nonsense is taking too long. Just talk about the game already!

[Nihilanth]

You'll have to brace yourself, there are still six files left. Unless there's gonna be something else considering the current intrusion warning.

Either way, the loading rate is increased. The last one was ~1%/1,5h. The new one is ~1%/1h. So the upcoming update should be up Friday 6pm here.

[Damien_Azreal]

This form of marketing just annoys the hell out of me.

Let me know when the game itself is actually being shown and discussed. Until then... I'm out.

[Nihilanth]

I can respect that, I use to complain about live-action / viral type of promotion without showing the game too. But for something like this, I think it kind of works. It is strongly tied to the gameworld and such and it's really well done.

But then again, I am spoiled for this game, I'd get it regardless of what it was anyway.

EDIT:

An anomaly has been detected and appears to be taking over the system. Diagnostics uncovered the following image.



At the current rate of 1%/1h the next update will appear in less than 57h.

[Damien_Azreal]

I've never been big on any sort of viral marketing. Even for things I'm way excited for.
When Monolith were sending out "test packets" for FEAR 2... I was thrilled that I got one, but still annoyed that they were doing that kind of marketing.

[KO Gilligan]

The JJ Abrams Viral site for Star Trek had camera feeds where they were supposedly working on Enterprise (not the movie set - it was where you would pretend as if they were working on a real ship) and trekkies had to tweak the video feed to clear the static up and they gave us a bit at a time. As it turned out, there was nothing cool in the images, no hints to things about the ship - it was garbage.

The viral stuff for DNF was kinda weird. They had the boob-tube flash game and the strip club launch party, and the whole "it's only a rumor" frenzy.

They should just release a good demo a few weeks in advance. If the game is any good at all, they don't need shenanigans.

[Nihilanth]

SOMA Gameplay Teaser!

SOMA Game

Good news! It's coming to PC and PS4!
Bad news! It's coming in 2015...

„Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” - Philip K. Dick


The radio has gone silent on PATHOS-2. As isolation bears down on the staff of the remote research facility, strange things are happening.

Machines are taking on human traits and alien constructions have started to interfere with routine. The world around them is turning into a nightmare.

The only way out is to do something unimaginable.

Originally Posted by Thomas Grip

Hi, I am Thomas Grip, creative director at Frictional Games, an indie studio based in Sweden. We have been crafting horror games since 2006 and are probably most famous for having created Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Previously, we have only developed for PC, but this time our new title will be released for PS4 as well!

The last three years we have been working on a game called SOMA. All of that time, this project has remained a secret and it is a great relief to finally be able to talk about it. The game is by far the most ambitious and thrilling project we have ever undertaken.

So what exactly is SOMA? Briefly stated it is a sci-fi horror game played from a first person perspective. You are not a space marine though, but a normal, and very exposed, person trapped in a nightmarish world. SOMA is a game about exploration, survival and immersing you inside an interactive narrative.

That short description does not really do the game justice though. In order to properly explain why I am so excited we need to dig a little bit deeper.

In all of our previous games the setting and themes have been by-products. We started with the core gameplay and then created high level aspects that fit with that. While a lot of good can come from this approach, it makes it very hard to approach tougher subjects.

SOMA is meant to be a proper sci-fi game, and to get that right we couldn’t let the themes be an afterthought. My favorite works of sci-fi are the ones that use fantastic worlds to probe important issues in a way that down-to-earth settings just cannot. Great sci-fi authors like Asimov, Dick and Heinlein all do this. We want to give SOMA this quality as well.

The subject that SOMA will discuss is consciousness. Personally, I find it the most profound questions that it is possible to ask. “How can the feeling of subjective experience arise from a chunk of flesh?” Exploring this further takes us to questions such as “Can machines be conscious?” and “Do we have free will?” It quickly gets very disturbing and is ideal for a futuristic horror setting. It is the kind of sci-fi that we want to make.

From the start, we knew that this could not just come through background story or dialog. We want you to PLAY through this. It must be an integral part of the gameplay and not just fluff.

Part of this comes through the game’s monsters. You will encounter a number of strange creatures, each an embodiment of an aspect of our themes. In order to survive the journey, you need to understand how they work and in the process take on extremely unsettling subjects.

Our goal is for SOMA to not just be another carnival ride of cheap scares. It is meant to chill you at the core and confront you with questions about your very existence.

Here are some comments on the reveal from the FG blog. Interesting production-related stuff on teasers and live-action footage. A couple of things worth noting:

► The trailer is NOT from the full game, it's a custom map designed to showcase the general feel and direction of the game.
► The protagonist in the trailer is NOT the main character of the game. He exists as a minor, non-playable character.
► The teasers were indeed inspired by SCP but the game itself is not close to the SCP style.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

I couldn't stand the live-action teasers. I guess that endless ARG count down was emblematic of how Frictional values their potential fans time.

Announcing a game that's, at the very least, 15 months out shows contempt for your customers. Frictional's in a such a great spot. They're self-funded, self-published; they can pick whatever project they want and have the confidence and cash to back it up. They choose how to introduce the product to the world.

Unless they're going on a hiring spree like CD Projekt did with Cyberpunk 2077, why let people know this far out? No one needed to know what they were working on yet. It won't be shipping for at least 15 months! It's way too early to get excited. Instead, they've given people enough time to stop caring about the project.

I'm sure the game will be fantastic. The settings really cool, and that's a great mood-piece. Frictional's a really talented, creative team. It just sucks that a developer who's fully in charge of their destiny, chooses to market their product in such an old-fashioned mindset.

Edit: Here's an hour long audio interview with Thomas Grip. http://v.giantbomb.com/podcast/dumpt...6078582466.mp3

[Nihilanth]

Yeah, I have no idea what were they thinking. They've been working on SOMA for 3 years already, all in secrecy, what would it hurt to wait another year with the reveal and have a release right around the corner? Right now, even for a super hyped fan like myself, it basically goes back to... well, I will care for the game but there's no reason to get excited at all. Been waiting 3 years, they got us excited only to say that there are 2 more years to go.

[ScrewingUpMyRide]

It's nice to see how high their profile's risen since Amnesia shipped. Everyone loves the concept, so I guess Frictional can breathe a huge sigh of relief and step away from the public spotlight for a few months and focus on building the game. There's no doubt that the game will be special. Listening to Thomas Grip describe Soma's focus on the subjectivity of experience and the nature of man is extremely exciting. I just wish they would've held off talking about Soma until next year at the earliest.

[Damien_Azreal]

This is why more people need to take on Flying Wild Hog's development style. Work on it, announce it when release is only a few months away.

[Nihilanth]

Here are some notes on SOMA that appeared in interviews. Those interested in the game should check them out.


► Much like in Penumbra/Amnesia, there won't be any cutscenes, at least not ones that take away players control. FG believe that playing a cutscene takes the player out of the experience and hurts immersion. Dynamic cutscenes/instances can be missed but when spotted they are much more effective than passive movie sequences.

► Themes in SOMA are related to consciousness. The idea is to have the player experience those themes as opposed to merely hearing/reading about them.

► Not all creatures in SOMA are directly hostile. FG want to move away from monsters you constantly run from and instead have creatures that the player has to figure out how to deal with.

► The goal is to have monsters that will have the player constantly second guessing their next moves and reactions to his own actions.

► In a vague response it's been said that there'll be local creature-specific sanity-like systems throughout the game. There won't be any 'global' sanity system.

► Obviously AAMFP wasn't developed by FG but rest assured, SOMA will provide 'open and dynamic environments that give more freedom for the player to act'. In addition, SOMA will provide a similiar level of interactivity with objects like Penumbra/ATDD (and unlike AAMFP).

► The name is not related to the drug in Brave New World.

► It's unlikely that SOMA will support Oculus Rift. The team sees a lot of the visual effects they use, like zooming-in, changing field of view to be troublesome on Rift because they're likely to make the player dizzy. There might be some sort of FG project dedicated to Rift down the road, though.

[Nihilanth]

NEW FOOTAGE: SOMA - Upsilon [environments]


The Five Foundational Design Pillars Of SOMA

When creating a game I think it is crucial to have a few basic rules that underlie all other decisions. That way it is much easier to keep everything on track and get the final game to play out as intended. For SOMA our intention is to craft an experience where players become deeply connected and affected by the game's world and themes.

Here are the five cornerstones that we hope will let us achieve this:


1) Everything is story
First up, we want the player to constantly feel as if they are inside a flowing narrative. It is so common that a game is distinctly split into story and puzzle/action moments. We want to blur the boundaries here and make it impossible to distinguish between the two. Whatever the player does it should feel as if it is part of the story. We do not want to have sections that simply feel like blockers to the next narrative moment. From start to finish the player should be drenched in a living, breathing world of storytelling.

A good example is how we design puzzles. Instead of having the puzzle by itself, as a separate activity, it always springs from and is connected to some aspect of the story. For instance, if the player encounters a locked door, there are more reasons for getting it open than simply to progress. There are always short term narrative reasons and rewards for getting it unlocked. On top of this, the very act of solving it results in the player taking part of a narrative scene.

Encounters with hostile beings are handled in the same way. A creature will never attack you without good reason; they never do it out of pure gameplay necessity. We want every encounter to feel like a bit of storytelling is happening. To get this working properly, almost every single creature has unique AI.


2) Take the world seriously
This leads us to the next point: that every detail in an environment is connected to the story somehow. Nothing should be written off as simply a requirement for gameplay or exposition. For instance, if you find an audio log you will be able to learn more about the story by pondering its placement alone. There should be no need to "double-think"; the game's world should be possible to evaluate on its own terms.

We constantly think about what each character would have done in a situation, and shape the environment accordingly. For instance, in one level, we started out with scratches on the walls but later realized the character had access to a whiteboard pen and changed the graphics accordingly.

It's so easy to justify design "because the game needs it" even if it doesn't make sense to the story. But for each such thing you do, the less seriously the player will approach the environment. In SOMA a big part of the game is to ponder the situation you are in.Therefore it's crucial that players consider the world from a story view, and in order for that to happen we must provide them the opportunity to do so.


3) The player is in charge
When you invest this much in a setting, it's important to make sure that players feel connected to it. In order to this we need to put a bigger responsibility on the player. An environment quickly loses its sense of realism if it is extremely streamlined and does not allow you to make choices. The player must be the one that drives the narrative forward.

The game never tells the player exactly how to progress. There may be hints and other implicit guidance, but in the end it must be the player that figures out what to do next. If a game is constantly flashing up cues with objectives or showing arrows pointing where to go, the player will never take on the world at a deeper level. If it takes some effort to progress, players are forced to understand and mentally map the surroundings in a way they would not do otherwise.


4) Trust the player
This brings us to the next point: that we trust players to act according to the story. We do not force players to notice events by use of cutscenes and similar, but assume they will properly explore the environment and act in a rational fashion. We simply set up situations and then let the player have full control over their actions.

This means that we will let players do stupid things even if they might break the experience a bit. For instance, if they skip talking to a character with important information then they are on their own after that. And if they get hints that a dangerous creature is approaching, they need to figure out that hiding is the best course of action by themselves.

While we do our utmost to make the narrative unfold in a fluent and intuitive way, we will not cater to players that make irrational decisions. The environment is set up to be taken seriously and we expect the players to do so too.


5) Thematics emerge through play
Now for our last foundational design rule: that the game's thematics will emerge through play. SOMA is meant to explore deep subjects such as consciousness and the nature of existence. We could have done this with cutscenes and long conversations, but we chose not to. We want players to become immersed in these thematics, and the discussions to emerge from within themselves.

It feels wrong to just shove information down the player's throat. What I find so exciting about having these thematics in a game is that the player is an active participant. There are plenty of books and movies that cover these sort of subjects, but videogames provide a personal involvement that other mediums lack. We want to explore this to the fullest degree

Just like all of the other design goals, there is a bit of risk in this. It requires the player to approach the game in a certain way and it will be impossible to make it work for everyone. But for those people where it succeeds, it will be a much more profound experience. I also find that it is when you are dealing with uncertainties that you are doing the most with the medium, and am extremely excited to see how far it will take us.
______________________________________


I need this game. Right. Now. Easily the most anticipated game for me, hands down.

[Nihilanth]

SOMA - Theta

Originally Posted by Thomas Grip

Time for a little update on how SOMA is doing. (A brief summary for those who don’t already know: SOMA is a sci-fi horror game from the creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent that will tackle unsettling questions about consciousness. It will be released on PS4 in 2015.)

Before I get started, I should say a few words about the new teaser trailer, “Theta”. This video showcases a few in-game scenes along with fresh voice work. Our hope is to give you a taste of the feel and atmosphere that SOMA will have. It also contains a few clues on what the game’s story will be about.


SOMA’s current status

We are currently about a week away from the alpha of the game. This is a build in which a bit more than half of the full game is playable. It’s currently clocking in at around 5 hours, meaning the final game will end up at 8 hours or so.

A game like SOMA is a bit different to have in alpha than most other games. Normally, a game relies on a core mechanic that creates the basic engagement. While graphics and sound are important, you can mostly test the game pretty early on with only temporary assets in place. This lets you get a feel for the game at a very early stage. Not so for us.

We can play our game at last!

SOMA doesn’t rely on a core gameplay loop – such as shooting baddies or jumping platforms – to create a sense of fun. Instead, you’ll take part in a wide range of activities; it’s impossible to narrow it down to one. You’ll search for notes, solve puzzles, hide from dangers, explore unsettling places, take part in strange events and sometimes just run away. All of these come together with the graphics and soundscape to create a larger whole. This means that we couldn’t properly test SOMA without having all of these things implemented in a fairly final state. Making matters worse is the fact that the game lets things take their time; slowly building up the atmosphere, narrative and themes. It is hard to condense all this into a short prototype; a large chunk of the game is required.

Because of this, we haven’t been able to get a feel for how SOMA plays until very recently. The alpha is our first opportunity to really find out what the game is like. This means that we’ve had to take a lot of the design on faith, simply hoping that it’ll all work out. So it came as a great relief to us – when we’d managed to pull together everything for a pre-alpha test a few weeks ago – to find out that the game does hang together.

This doesn’t mean that we’re totally happy with everything. Now that we know how our game plays, we also know what needs to be fixed. There are a number of goals that we wanted to hit with SOMA, and now marks the first time we can properly evaluate how well we’re doing with them.

Goal 1: The feeling of playing a narrative

It’s important that SOMA is constantly drenching the player in storytelling. We need to make sure there is always a red thread of narrative running through the game. We don’t want you to say “Oh, here comes a puzzle section”, but to constantly feel as if you are being told an interactive story. Getting this right is tricky as there still needs to be some challenge in progressing, but not so much that solving a difficult puzzle becomes your sole focus. Now that we’re close to alpha it’s possible for us to test this and tweak where needed.

Goal 2: A coherently crafted world

When creating Amnesia our setting was basically just “Old castle where supernatural stuff happens”. This allowed us to get away with just about anything and explain it with “because, magic”. But in SOMA we are building a world that is supposed to be tied into the real world and to make sense. Our goal here is to make proper sci-fi and not just a magical fantasy with futuristic designs.

This raises a whole load of issues that we might not have cared about in Amnesia. Puzzles that don’t make sense in the world, tech levels that vary throughout the game, basic physics principles that are broken and so forth. When you have a large part of the game playable a lot of these become visible, and we intend to squash them all!

Goal 3: Gameplay with plenty of variation

As mentioned above, SOMA does not rely on a core gameplay loop. There is a very good reason for this: we don’t want the player to become too fixated on figuring out the game’s underlying abstract systems. We want players to approach the game from how it looks, sounds and feels. In order for this to work the game’s different scenes can’t have the same setup, as that would make you familiar with how everything works. Instead, we need to keep things fresh and avoid repeating ourselves.

Now that we are in alpha we can more easily identify patterns and similarities in scenarios. If anything overstays its welcome it needs to be replaced by something else.

Goal 4: Deep, disturbing themes that make you think

A crucial design goal for us is to allow a deep exploration of what it means to be a sentient being. The first step towards doing this is to make sure that SOMA’s gameplay, plot, characters and setting reflect the subjects we want to discuss. If you approach the game in the right way, some seriously unsettling implications should be become clear.

And here lies the problem. Are we getting through to you in the right way? Will the really interesting details just rush past you, or will you stop and give them some serious consideration? What’s crucial here is that we don’t simply spell everything out for you, but that you can come to conclusions on your own. These sorts of things take a while to come together, and it’s not until this alpha that we’ll get a clear idea as to how it is working out.

Goal 5: A pervasive sense of horror

Finally, the game should be utterly terrifying. We do not want you to calmly stroll through the various environments; it must be emotionally tasking to progress. We want this blanket of oppression and fear wrapped around the entire experience. Sustaining this through eight or so hours takes some finesse – if we repeat something too often, you’ll get used to it and be able to predict upcoming events. The buildup must take time without becoming dull, and there needs to be a nice rhythm of ups and downs throughout the journey.

All of these are things that we’ve had a hard time getting a grip on until now. Now we can playtest a complete experience. A task that requires a dark room, a pair of headphones, an empty house and a tired, slightly hallucinating developer. You can’t leave this up to reports from your playtesters, you must experience the atmosphere firsthand to truly understand it.

The road left to travel

That should give you a good sense of the kinds of issues we’re currently struggling with. Hopefully it has also given you a bit more insight into what kind of game SOMA is.

We still have a long way to go; SOMA is still a year or so away from its 2015 release. We feel we are on the right track though, and we think this is shaping up to be our studio’s best work so far — by a wide margin.

Oh, and sometime soon, we’re going to reveal a big secret about SOMA. Keep your eyes open for it!

[Nihilanth]

New teaser has arrived. It's essentially what other teasers from SOMA: a brief look at one of the locations, so no story spoilers. However this one reveals something about the game. We knew it's set on PATHOS-2 station but where exactly is it located? Well, let me say that to me this setting automatically makes everything 10x better!

SOMA - Lambda

[KO Gilligan]

There's a few strange things about that fish that goes racing by:
http://i59.tinypic.com/vov8jp.jpg

[Rapture_Rising]

Game Informer wrote up a article - 16 things we know about SOMA

[Nihilanth]

I love it how the surprise of the latest teaser was that SOMA is set Spoiler:

show spoiler

at the bottom of the ocean

but ALL news sites that reported it, spoiled it right off the bat with their titles.

Originally Posted by Rapture_Rising

Game Informer wrote up a article - 16 things we know about SOMA

Personally I won't read it, I also won't read any of the previews. I feel like there's a lot of spoilers there and I want to keep the experience as much of a mystery as possible. Frictional Games did a decent job with the teasers where they haven't really spoiled anything aside from a couple of locations, so I might keep watching them but other than that, I'm keeping my distance.

But that's because I'm 1000% sure I'll get this game.