I do not have amnesia, but I just nearly rewrote the intro from my last post about an Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs delay, so that’s kind of eerie. Also, indicative! Thechineseroom’s slow-roasting, pork-flavored reinvention of Frictional’s modern classic has missed the mark a few times now, and it’s all starting to kind of run together. Granted, the last slippage yielded a larger, much more Amnesia-esque experience, so delays definitely aren’t silently slurping this one’s bones in the dark. At this point, it’s all about polish, and the dynamic developer duo would much rather be great than fast.
As spotted by PCGN, Frictional recently took to its own forums to explain why the summer just got a whole lot less heart-attack-y.
“We are optimizing, tweaking and in general putting the Frictional Games expertise to good use. TCR keeps putting in work as well. There are companies working on the translations (will launch with 9 languages in addition to original English). The porting guys are porting away. Deals are being made. Things are prepared for launching the game through more online stores than any other FG game before.”
“We know we will not make Q2, we also know when the game will be ready for launch. We have not set the exact day yet. You can however make good use of the weather outside this summer and look forward to gaming with the piggies as the summer comes to an end.”
Deals, huh? Sounds like Machine For Pigs is getting some additional outside support. Whether that’s publishing, angel investment, or something else entirely, however, remains to be seen.
At this point, it almost makes sense to just wait until Halloween 2013 – exactly a year after Machine’s originally planned release date. It’s a timely solution to a lack of timeliness, and you can’t say that about many, well, anythings.
So, right then, taking all bets: is this the last Machine For Pigs delay? Or do you think I should begin breathing electric life into my Machine For Dealing With Disappointment?
05/06/2013 at 15:03 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
I hope the delay allows it to be a machine for wild boars, rather than a machine for guinea pigs.
05/06/2013 at 15:14 Meat Circus says:
The guinea pig isn’t actually a pig.
There’ll be another one of those same time tomorrow.
05/06/2013 at 16:02 jkz says:
Believe it or not they don’t actually cost a Guinea, they can generally be picked up for a thrupenny bit.
05/06/2013 at 16:10 Bhazor says:
Say what you want about America but 13 bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice!
05/06/2013 at 19:04 starmatt says:
Illusions Michael!
05/06/2013 at 15:49 Hodge says:
A machine for pugs. Pugs, I tell you.
05/06/2013 at 15:12 SominiTheCommenter says:
From the looks of it, it seems Dear Esther didn’t prepare TCR for developing a more ambitious game.
05/06/2013 at 15:27 Bhazor says:
From the looks of it, it seems Dear Esther didn’t prepare TCR for developing a game.
I kid. More or less.
05/06/2013 at 15:36 RaiderJoe says:
Nailed it.
05/06/2013 at 18:44 SominiTheCommenter says:
I was going to write that, but then I though I was opening a gigantic unrelated can of worms.
05/06/2013 at 19:10 WrenBoy says:
To be fair, the puzzles in Amnesia were both trivially easy and pretty superfluous to the overall experience. Take those away and there is not much of a typical game left.
05/06/2013 at 22:42 iGark says:
This is a very good point. If you are no longer scared by the game (I was at this point by the end of the game) then it becomes very tedious. It’s really not THAT much more mechanically sound than Dear Esther it just has a veil of horror obscuring the faults.
05/06/2013 at 23:19 WrenBoy says:
Yeah, I stopped being scared around the halfway mark (the Cistern I think the level was called) and think that this was mainly due to the games non competitive nature becoming clear to me.
As you say its mechanically quite similar to Dear Ester in some ways; challenge free and gives you the illusion of exploration despite being quite linear. Where Amnesia is mechanically very strong though is how subtle touches in its interface trick you into feeling the danger yourself rather than watching danger happen to some character in a game.
While the illusion held it was more like an iron fucking curtain of horror.
05/06/2013 at 15:14 Caiman says:
I’m almost tempted to say that the only machine these pigs are likely to see is a flying machine, but that’s only because it’s such an easy joke. I’m sure they’ll deliver soon enough.
05/06/2013 at 15:17 Mr. Mister says:
To be honest, currently it’s a bad time to release/announce something, what with E3, and sharones ammasing all the media.
05/06/2013 at 15:17 Meat Circus says:
TBH, the middle of summer is a stupid time to release a horror game anyway. Save it for Hallowe’en, you scary bastards.
05/06/2013 at 15:32 kwyjibo says:
Halloween is so obvious.
05/06/2013 at 15:40 Bhazor says:
Which means it isn’t scary. Valentines day is a much better day for horrifying surprises.
05/06/2013 at 15:49 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
You’d think so, but Lady Smingleigh objected strenuously. With violence.
05/06/2013 at 16:54 belgand says:
Not really. There already tends to be rather a lot of them on or around it at present. Not to mention the slightly morbid obsession with disembodied hearts all over the place.
05/06/2013 at 16:58 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
But you make just one of them squirt real blood, and suddenly it’s all “inappropriate”.
05/06/2013 at 21:08 bangalores says:
“Valentines Day is a much better day for horrifying surprises”
Oscar Pistorious had the same idea.
05/06/2013 at 22:12 Kaira- says:
Any horror game released on Valentine’s must begin with the following words:
“Honey, we must talk.”
05/06/2013 at 23:57 Bhazor says:
There is nothing more horrifying, nothing that can tear a soul apart quite like the thought of losing your most beloved. Apart from clowns.
06/06/2013 at 00:28 The Random One says:
Wait wait wait I know a good ‘un about this
link to scp-wiki.net
Just… just don’t click the ellipsis at the end that explains the story for the super slow folks.
05/06/2013 at 15:43 MichaelPalin says:
And I thought we wouldn’t have to deal with pre-release buzz with indie developers… What about you don’t say a word until the game is done and it’s a few weeks away from release?
05/06/2013 at 15:59 GameCat says:
A little hype is always great for sales.
05/06/2013 at 15:51 vedder says:
If they can make good on their promise of nice weather for the whole summer. I don’t mind the delay…
05/06/2013 at 16:04 lowprices says:
Maybe they finished development, but forgot?
05/06/2013 at 16:27 Lev Astov says:
They’re making a deal with Microsoft to have the game as a Windows 8 exclusive. You heard it here first!
05/06/2013 at 18:33 AlienMind says:
No, they fuck it with the micropayment razor dildo so long until it bleeds money. Remember, here first.
05/06/2013 at 16:38 nimzy says:
I’m thinking barbecue for lunch. Thanks, RPS!
05/06/2013 at 17:17 LennyLeonardo says:
Barbecue for lunch? I say barbecue for breakfast! It’s a pain cleaning burnt porridge off the grill, though.
05/06/2013 at 18:07 John_Hup says:
Take all the time you need. Seriously. Please. I’m not ready yet.
05/06/2013 at 21:09 kwyjibo says:
That bear is endless. Horace is the horror that is Amnesia.
05/06/2013 at 21:39 starmatt says:
You mean it’s a roofer bear?
06/06/2013 at 00:30 The Random One says:
The roofest.