With Amnesia: The Dark Descent Frictional Games has started from the very beginning - creating a new game engine, development tools, re-thinking and improving the physics interaction, evaluated every little part of Penumbra as to figure out the best way to create the experience.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a first person survival horror game set in the 18th century. The player is caught in the middle of the unknown as he explores an old castle, dating back as far as the 14th century. With a "hands-on" physics interaction system the player can examine objects and control his surroundings in a way that is unique to the games developed by Frictional Games, for example it's possible to slowly drag drawers open to examine the inside in search for clues. To be careful is a must as the sanity of the player could quickly falter if inhabitants of the castle were to take notice of him. Different parts of the castle has widely different architecture, reflecting the centuries that has passed since the castle was initially built. Today's two screens, gives a peak of a more modern part of the castle as well as the older and decaying part of it.

Though the project will have a large focus on freedom, story will not be neglected. Frictional Games have been hard at work to develop a multitude of new ways to tell a story and yet allow for a dynamic gameplay. The goal is to make the story and gameplay converge and create a truly engaging and unique experience.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent uses an in-house developed HPL2 game engine which includes tools for testing, creating and editing levels - all of which have been used to create the level in the teaser. The tools are used during the production of the game and are also going to be part of the final release, allowing for end-user content creation.

Frictional Games announced that Amnesia: The Dark Descent is now available as Open Source.

The decision to offer the code marks the 10-year anniversary from its launch back in 2010. The code released contains all the game code for both The Dark Descent and A Machine For Pigs. It also contains all editor code. The full source code for Amnesia: The Dark Descent will be released under GPL v3 today.

“Modding has been a huge part of Amnesia,” explains Thomas Grip, creative director at Frictional Games.“ For instance, over the years The Dark Descent has accumulated over a thousand mods and addons on ModDB. This flood of user content has been amazing to see, and we are extremely grateful for the whole community. It is time we give something back!”

While the source code will become publicly available, Amnesia: The Dark Descent will remain available for purchase on online stores. The game and all of its content is still owned by Frictional Games as it has always been, but users will now be able to use the source however they want, as long as they adhere to the GPL3 licence.