Date: 2006-07-07
Title: Frictional Games, creator of Penumbra.
EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS
At first glance, you might think that Penumbra is just another overrated freeware first person shooter. Take the time to download, install and play the game and you’ll discover that this couldn’t be further from the truth. While the game does contain elements of horror, it does not resort to gunplay but instead opts to focus on exploring and puzzle solving. If that isn’t enough to impress you than maybe the fact that the game features a fully-fledged physics engine will.
Developed by the members of Frictional Games, Penumbra has received a lot of positive feedback and with good cause. It impressed me so much so, that I felt compelled to ask these talented developers a few questions about their superb horror survival game. Read on.
Introduce yourselves for the readers..
Thomas: My name is Thomas Grip and I am a 25-year-old Swede. I am the main programmer of the team and have done some minor design and concepting as well.
Anton: My name is Anton Adamse, I live in Sweden and have mostly done some 3d work and textures for Penumbra.
Jens: My name is Jens Nilsson, with my 27 years I'm the oldest of the lot. Living in Sweden and doing the audio for Penumbra as well as our administrative tasks and a general "guru" on how to develop for the engine.
When did your Frictional Games form? How did you all meet?
Thomas: I dunno if there is any particular date when we formed. We started out as a team on a school course and during that course Penumbra was created. Me and Jens have known each other before and have worked together on both Unbirth (old on hold project, unbirthgame.com) and Energetic (that can also be found on our homepage).
Anton: I joined the team during a Masters course at the university. They were looking for a texture artist and I really liked the game concept so I joined. Me and Jens have studied at the same university program earlier.
Jens: Don't think I need to add much!
Leading up to Penumbra what projects had each of you worked on?
Thomas: As I mentioned before, I have worked on both Unbirth and Energetic. Before that I have worked on several personal projects including a Lovecraftian horror game called Fiend (on the page).
Anton: I have mostly worked on Mod projects. Most interesting must be a Max Payne 2 mod, all in black and white (no grayscales) inspired of Frank Millers’ Sin City.
Jens: I have worked on several smaller and larger projects over the years. Perhaps the more well known would be Tactical Ops, Red Orchestra and Nanosaur.
For the sake of any readers who might not know - where does the name Penumbra come from and what does it mean? Why use this name?
Thomas: Penumbra kinda means the area between the known and the unknown. What that exactly means I will not tell.
Where did the inspiration for Penumbra come from? What videogames, if any, influenced it the most? Thomas: Inspiration has come from a lot of places. Graphically, it is inspired both by games such as Silent Hill and movies including Lost Highway and Alien. Story wise, the game is very influenced by HP Lovecraft, Clive Barker and more.
From start to finish how long did Penumbra take to develop? Was the development process challenging or did it all run smoothly?
Thomas: We started working on the game and engine in August 2005 and finished it April 2006 for a Swedish game competition. So that is nine months if I can calculate it correctly. There were a lot of challenges during the project. For me personally, the building of the engine has been very hard and there have been a lot of obstacles that I have needed to overcome. This includes various problems with shadows, visibility, culling and other stuff.
Penumbra seems to be at least somewhat inspired by FPS', regardless of the lack of gunplay in the game. Is this the case?
Thomas: To some degree I think. Haven't really thought about it.
Anton: Yes, the camera is from a first person view but otherwise, there’s not much in common with games like Doom 3 and Soldier of Fortune. I think the game play is much more inspired by games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Are you guys fans of first person shooters?
Thomas: I love games like Undying and Half-life. Kinda tired of the generic shooters that seem to overwhelm the market now though.
Anton: I think games like Doom and Painkiller are very entertaining just because they are so simple. Just run and shoot. Can’t get enough of it but I hate when they try to put a story into it. I really don’t need an explanation why I have to shoot down 200 demons.
Jens: These days less and less, one of my all-time favorite games is Deus Ex though.
Was there a lot of planning involved in the development process or did the project evolve naturally as it progressed?
Thomas: A lot of stuff evolved. For example, the whole physical interaction came from testing and playing around with ideas.
Penumbra probably could have been made without a physics engine - what gave you the idea to feature physics so heavily in the game?
Thomas: Physics are one of the most exciting new features in gaming and we wanted use it in new ways.
Was it integral right from the start to use this?
Thomas: We planned on using physics but wasn't really sure to what degree.
Anton: I think it’s interesting that this kind of physics interaction is not used by many games today. Even games like Half Life 2, who say that they have a very advanced physics engine, physical interaction mostly includes pressing a button and shooting at things.
While Penumbra features modern graphics - it veers towards the adventure/puzzles rather than simple gunplay. What audience were you aiming for when you made this? Has the positive response surpassed your expectations?
Anton: I think lots of gamers are looking for something fresh and that’s where Penumbra fits in. There seems to be a lot of gamers looking for something new when it comes to game play. I didn’t think this would be as popular as it has become.
Jens: At the start we aimed at horror survival fans: Silent Hill / Resident Evil that sort of thing. Looking at it now the game could also be seen as aimed toward Adventure games in general: it's horror but it's not based on the violence rather the puzzles.
How do you feel about the state of the commercial gaming industry right now - do you think enough innovation is happening or do you think innovation is going down the drain?
Thomas: I think there is still a lot of innovation: just look at Wii, Spore and all other cool game concepts in the works. There could be a lot more though, since most of the games produced are either sequels or based on some other established IP.
Anton: I think the Japanese companies are still very innovative but American and European companies are mostly playing safe cards. Look at Battlefield 2142: it will probably sell a lot but is it innovative? Seems like the biggest companies are the ones that are most afraid of new solutions.
Anything you're prepared to share about the future of Frictional Games?
Thomas: We have some stuff planned. More news will come soon.
Top 5 videogames – what are they and why?
Thomas: Silent Hill - cause it is scary as hell.
Beyond Good and Evil - great story, game play, etc.
Resident Evil - just love shooting zombies.
Super Mario Bros 3 - awesome game that still rocks.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - great hybrid action / platform / rpg.
Anton: Silent Hill 2 - best visuals and story I ever seen in a videogame.
Street Fighter 2 - a classic but I still play it after more than 10 years.
Final Fantasy 7 – Squares’ masterpiece. Has everything that the other FF don’t have. Hope there will be a remake.
Wario Ware - had so many funny drinking parties with this one. It’s so easy that you don’t have to be sober and you can play it with drunk friends.
Tetris - simple but genius.
Jens: Deus Ex - it's a FPS but then again it's so much not FPS.
New Star Soccer - excellent soccer game: when I first got it I spent the whole day playing it and pretended to work on Penumbra to not get into trouble.
Golden Sun - quality all over: if you have not played a typical adventure RPG this is the one to test.
Street Fighter 2 - these type of games seem to be all about "combos" these days, I miss the more simple but controlled fighting as in SF2.
Tactical Ops - I did work on it myself but I also spent 3 years playing the game in a nice friendly clan.
Thanks for your time guys. It’s been a pleasure.
Frictional Games' Website.
Title: Frictional Games, creator of Penumbra.
EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS
At first glance, you might think that Penumbra is just another overrated freeware first person shooter. Take the time to download, install and play the game and you’ll discover that this couldn’t be further from the truth. While the game does contain elements of horror, it does not resort to gunplay but instead opts to focus on exploring and puzzle solving. If that isn’t enough to impress you than maybe the fact that the game features a fully-fledged physics engine will.
Developed by the members of Frictional Games, Penumbra has received a lot of positive feedback and with good cause. It impressed me so much so, that I felt compelled to ask these talented developers a few questions about their superb horror survival game. Read on.
Introduce yourselves for the readers..
Thomas: My name is Thomas Grip and I am a 25-year-old Swede. I am the main programmer of the team and have done some minor design and concepting as well.
Anton: My name is Anton Adamse, I live in Sweden and have mostly done some 3d work and textures for Penumbra.
Jens: My name is Jens Nilsson, with my 27 years I'm the oldest of the lot. Living in Sweden and doing the audio for Penumbra as well as our administrative tasks and a general "guru" on how to develop for the engine.
When did your Frictional Games form? How did you all meet?
Thomas: I dunno if there is any particular date when we formed. We started out as a team on a school course and during that course Penumbra was created. Me and Jens have known each other before and have worked together on both Unbirth (old on hold project, unbirthgame.com) and Energetic (that can also be found on our homepage).
Anton: I joined the team during a Masters course at the university. They were looking for a texture artist and I really liked the game concept so I joined. Me and Jens have studied at the same university program earlier.
Jens: Don't think I need to add much!
Leading up to Penumbra what projects had each of you worked on?
Thomas: As I mentioned before, I have worked on both Unbirth and Energetic. Before that I have worked on several personal projects including a Lovecraftian horror game called Fiend (on the page).
Anton: I have mostly worked on Mod projects. Most interesting must be a Max Payne 2 mod, all in black and white (no grayscales) inspired of Frank Millers’ Sin City.
Jens: I have worked on several smaller and larger projects over the years. Perhaps the more well known would be Tactical Ops, Red Orchestra and Nanosaur.
For the sake of any readers who might not know - where does the name Penumbra come from and what does it mean? Why use this name?
Thomas: Penumbra kinda means the area between the known and the unknown. What that exactly means I will not tell.
Where did the inspiration for Penumbra come from? What videogames, if any, influenced it the most? Thomas: Inspiration has come from a lot of places. Graphically, it is inspired both by games such as Silent Hill and movies including Lost Highway and Alien. Story wise, the game is very influenced by HP Lovecraft, Clive Barker and more.
From start to finish how long did Penumbra take to develop? Was the development process challenging or did it all run smoothly?
Thomas: We started working on the game and engine in August 2005 and finished it April 2006 for a Swedish game competition. So that is nine months if I can calculate it correctly. There were a lot of challenges during the project. For me personally, the building of the engine has been very hard and there have been a lot of obstacles that I have needed to overcome. This includes various problems with shadows, visibility, culling and other stuff.
Penumbra seems to be at least somewhat inspired by FPS', regardless of the lack of gunplay in the game. Is this the case?
Thomas: To some degree I think. Haven't really thought about it.
Anton: Yes, the camera is from a first person view but otherwise, there’s not much in common with games like Doom 3 and Soldier of Fortune. I think the game play is much more inspired by games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Are you guys fans of first person shooters?
Thomas: I love games like Undying and Half-life. Kinda tired of the generic shooters that seem to overwhelm the market now though.
Anton: I think games like Doom and Painkiller are very entertaining just because they are so simple. Just run and shoot. Can’t get enough of it but I hate when they try to put a story into it. I really don’t need an explanation why I have to shoot down 200 demons.
Jens: These days less and less, one of my all-time favorite games is Deus Ex though.
Was there a lot of planning involved in the development process or did the project evolve naturally as it progressed?
Thomas: A lot of stuff evolved. For example, the whole physical interaction came from testing and playing around with ideas.
Penumbra probably could have been made without a physics engine - what gave you the idea to feature physics so heavily in the game?
Thomas: Physics are one of the most exciting new features in gaming and we wanted use it in new ways.
Was it integral right from the start to use this?
Thomas: We planned on using physics but wasn't really sure to what degree.
Anton: I think it’s interesting that this kind of physics interaction is not used by many games today. Even games like Half Life 2, who say that they have a very advanced physics engine, physical interaction mostly includes pressing a button and shooting at things.
While Penumbra features modern graphics - it veers towards the adventure/puzzles rather than simple gunplay. What audience were you aiming for when you made this? Has the positive response surpassed your expectations?
Anton: I think lots of gamers are looking for something fresh and that’s where Penumbra fits in. There seems to be a lot of gamers looking for something new when it comes to game play. I didn’t think this would be as popular as it has become.
Jens: At the start we aimed at horror survival fans: Silent Hill / Resident Evil that sort of thing. Looking at it now the game could also be seen as aimed toward Adventure games in general: it's horror but it's not based on the violence rather the puzzles.
How do you feel about the state of the commercial gaming industry right now - do you think enough innovation is happening or do you think innovation is going down the drain?
Thomas: I think there is still a lot of innovation: just look at Wii, Spore and all other cool game concepts in the works. There could be a lot more though, since most of the games produced are either sequels or based on some other established IP.
Anton: I think the Japanese companies are still very innovative but American and European companies are mostly playing safe cards. Look at Battlefield 2142: it will probably sell a lot but is it innovative? Seems like the biggest companies are the ones that are most afraid of new solutions.
Anything you're prepared to share about the future of Frictional Games?
Thomas: We have some stuff planned. More news will come soon.
Top 5 videogames – what are they and why?
Thomas: Silent Hill - cause it is scary as hell.
Beyond Good and Evil - great story, game play, etc.
Resident Evil - just love shooting zombies.
Super Mario Bros 3 - awesome game that still rocks.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - great hybrid action / platform / rpg.
Anton: Silent Hill 2 - best visuals and story I ever seen in a videogame.
Street Fighter 2 - a classic but I still play it after more than 10 years.
Final Fantasy 7 – Squares’ masterpiece. Has everything that the other FF don’t have. Hope there will be a remake.
Wario Ware - had so many funny drinking parties with this one. It’s so easy that you don’t have to be sober and you can play it with drunk friends.
Tetris - simple but genius.
Jens: Deus Ex - it's a FPS but then again it's so much not FPS.
New Star Soccer - excellent soccer game: when I first got it I spent the whole day playing it and pretended to work on Penumbra to not get into trouble.
Golden Sun - quality all over: if you have not played a typical adventure RPG this is the one to test.
Street Fighter 2 - these type of games seem to be all about "combos" these days, I miss the more simple but controlled fighting as in SF2.
Tactical Ops - I did work on it myself but I also spent 3 years playing the game in a nice friendly clan.
Thanks for your time guys. It’s been a pleasure.
Frictional Games' Website.