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Frictional Games

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Frictional Games AB
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded1 January 2007;17 years ago(2007-01-01)inHelsingborg,Sweden
Founders
  • Thomas Grip
  • Jens Nilsson
Headquarters
Malmö
,
Sweden
Key people
Products
Number of employees
25 (2023)
Websitefrictionalgames

Frictional Games ABis a Swedishindependent video game developerbased inMalmö,founded in January 2007 by Thomas Grip and Jens Nilsson. The company specialises in the development ofsurvival horrorgames with very little or no combat gameplay mechanics. It is best known for its gamesAmnesia: The Dark DescentandSoma.

History

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Thomas Grip, the co-founder of Frictional Games, at the 2016Game Developers Conference

Frictional Games was founded by Thomas Grip and Jens Nilsson.[1]Before founding the company, both had little professional experience in thevideo game industry,having only had done some freelance jobs.[1]The two began co-operating when Nilsson joined Grip onUnbirth,a hobby project that was later cancelled.[2]They subsequently collaborated on other projects and formally established Frictional on 1 January 2007.[2]The company was established inHelsingborg,Sweden, although most members worked remotely from other parts of Europe.[3]Frictional's first game wasPenumbra: Overture,based on atech demotitledPenumbraand released in 2007.[4][5]It was originally planned to be the first episode in a trilogy, however, due to problems with publisher Lexicon Entertainment, Frictional shifted to a partnership withParadox Interactive.[5][6]Under Paradox, the two remaining games in the trilogy were released as one game under the titlePenumbra: Black Plaguein 2008, followed by an additional expansion pack titledPenumbra: Requiemthe same year.[5]

Over an exactly three-year-long timespan, Frictional created and self-publishedAmnesia: The Dark Descent.[7][8]The game was released on 8 September 2010 to generally favourable reviews, however, Frictional noted that it expected the game to struggle becoming popular and profitable given its lack of a third-party publisher.[9]Amnesia: The Dark Descentsold 36,000 copies within its first month of release,[10]and a total of 1,360,000 copies within the first two years, earning the company a total revenue of aboutUS$3.6 millionin contrast to theirUS$360,000development budget.[11]According to Nilsson, the Frictional team did not know how to continue theAmnesiaseries and feared that a misattemptedAmnesiagame would "fail miserably".[12]Instead, the team opted to draftThe Chinese Roomas a third-party developer to develop a second game, giving them advice on the horror aspects, while The Chinese Room was responsible for the plot and gameplay development.[12]The game,Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs,was released by Frictional in 2013.[13]

During the time ofA Machine for Pigs'development, Frictional itself started working on a new game, which eventually becameSoma,announced shortly after the release ofAmnesia: A Machine for Pigs.[14]Somawas self-released by Frictional on 22 September 2015 to generally favourable reviews and initial sales higher than those ofAmnesia: The Dark Descentwithin the first days:Somasold 92,000 units within ten days (in contrast to the 20,000 first-week sales ofAmnesia: The Dark Descent),[15]and 450,000 units in its first year (in contrast to the 390,000 first-year sales ofAmnesia: The Dark Descent).[16]

In 2016, Frictional Games announced that it began the production of two new, yet unannounced games, as a result of the high profitability ofSoma.[17]By 2019, it also planned to start pre-production on a third unannounced game.[3]In August 2017, Frictional moved from Helsingborg to new offices on Stora Nygatan inMalmö.[18]Around this time, the company had 16 employees.[19]The Malmö offices housed half of its 25 staff members.[3]Amnesia: Rebirth,a follow-up toThe Dark Descent,was announced with a trailer in March 2020 and was released in October 2020.[20]

Frictional Games releasedAmnesia: The Bunkeron 6 June 2023 which marks the fourth installment of the Amnesia series.

HPL Engine

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TheHPL Engineis Frictional's in-housegame engine.It is named after writerH. P. Lovecraft.[21]The first iteration of the engine,HPL Engine 1,was used for thePenumbraseries. This iteration was released asopen-source softwareon 12 May 2010, with most of the codelicensedunder theGNU GPL-3.0-or-laterlicence.[22]HPL Engine 2was used forAmnesia: The Dark DescentandAmnesia: A Machine for Pigs,as well as prototype versions ofGone Home.[23][24]It was also released under theGNU GPL-3.0-or-laterlicence, on 23 September 2020.[25]

Games

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Year Title Developed Published Platform(s)
2007 Penumbra: Overture Yes No[a] Linux,macOS,Windows
2008 Penumbra: Black Plague Yes No[a] Linux, macOS, Windows
Penumbra: Requiem Yes No[a] Linux, macOS, Windows
2010 Amnesia: The Dark Descent Yes Yes Linux, macOS,Nintendo Switch,PlayStation 4,Windows,Xbox One
2013 Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs No[b] Yes Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
2015 Soma Yes Yes Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
2020 Amnesia: Rebirth Yes Yes Linux, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One,Xbox Series X/S
2023 Amnesia: The Bunker Yes Yes PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
  1. ^abcPublished byParadox Interactive.
  2. ^Developed byThe Chinese Room.

References

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  1. ^abRose, Mike (1 February 2011)."Road To The IGF: Thomas Grip of Frictional Games TalksAmnesia".Gamasutra.Archivedfrom the original on 10 April 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  2. ^abPickering, Chris (21 October 2010)."The Making of Frictional Games".Bit-Tech.Archivedfrom the original on 23 October 2012.Retrieved7 May2017.
  3. ^abc"About Frictional".Frictional Games.20 December 2019.Archivedfrom the original on 26 April 2021.Retrieved6 January2020.
  4. ^Reed, Ashley (18 September 2015)."The creators of Amnesia want to fix what Resident Evil and Silent Hill broke".GamesRadar+.Archivedfrom the original on 31 October 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  5. ^abcAlexander, Leigh (30 October 2008)."Interview: How Frictional Games Does Frightening Without Fighting".Gamasutra.Archivedfrom the original on 10 April 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  6. ^Walker, John (17 February 2009)."Frictional Games On Penumbra And The Future".Rock, Paper, Shotgun.Archivedfrom the original on 30 September 2017.Retrieved7 May2017.
  7. ^Graft, Kris (8 May 2014)."Four ways to design for horror, fromAmnesiadev Frictional Games ".Gamasutra.Archivedfrom the original on 27 March 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  8. ^Paget, Mat (22 January 2017)."How Resident Evil became the 'guiding light' for SOMA and Amnesia".PC Gamer.Archivedfrom the original on 29 August 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  9. ^Mattas, Jeff (17 September 2010)."Frictional Games Examines Amnesia: The Dark Descent's Awesome Reception and Decent Sales".Shacknews.Archivedfrom the original on 27 March 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  10. ^Mattas, Jeff (25 October 2010)."Amnesia Developers Discuss Sales, Piracy, and Future of Frictional Games".Shacknews.Archivedfrom the original on 10 January 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  11. ^Weber, Rachel (11 September 2012)."Amnesia earns Frictional Games over $3.6 million".GamesIndustry.biz.Archivedfrom the original on 27 March 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  12. ^abRose, Mike (10 September 2013)."Why Frictional passedAmnesiatoDear Esther'sdeveloper ".Gamasutra.Archivedfrom the original on 27 March 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  13. ^McElroy, Griffin (22 February 2012)."Amnesia follow-up coming from Frictional Games and Dear Esther developer".Polygon.Archivedfrom the original on 8 October 2017.Retrieved7 May2017.
  14. ^Nunneley, Stephany (11 October 2013)."SOMA debut trailer released by Frictional Games, out on PC and PS4 in 2015".VG247.Archivedfrom the original on 19 February 2017.Retrieved7 May2017.
  15. ^Makuch, Eddie (1 October 2015)."PS4/PC Horror Game SOMA Sells 92k Copies, Enough to Pay Bills for Two Years".GameSpot.Archivedfrom the original on 8 October 2017.Retrieved7 May2017.
  16. ^Favis, Elise (26 September 2016)."Soma Turns A Profit After Selling Nearly Half A Million Copies".Game Informer.Archived fromthe originalon 30 August 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  17. ^Bertz, Matt (24 March 2016)."With Soma Approaching Profitability, Frictional Games Expands Scope To Two New Projects".Game Informer.Archived fromthe originalon 26 August 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  18. ^Wahlstedt, Sally (10 August 2017)."Malmös spelvärld växer – hyllad studio öppnar kontor vid Hansa"[Malmö's gaming world is growing - acclaimed studio opens office at Hansa].Sydsvenskan(in Swedish).Archivedfrom the original on 13 August 2017.Retrieved6 January2020.
  19. ^Chalk, Andy (28 September 2017)."Soma studio's next game is in full production and will be 'horrific'".PC Gamer.Archivedfrom the original on 22 August 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  20. ^Carpenter, Nicole (6 March 2020)."Amnesia: Rebirth, a direct sequel to the original, coming this fall".Polygon.Archivedfrom the original on 7 March 2020.Retrieved6 March2020.
  21. ^Moser, AJ (16 August 2016)."How H.P. Lovecraft's Horror Crafted A Subgenre Of Video Games".Game Informer.Archived fromthe originalon 23 August 2019.Retrieved5 January2020.
  22. ^Frictional Games (12 May 2010)."FrictionalGames/HPL1Engine: A real time 3D engine".GitHub.Archivedfrom the original on 8 June 2018.Retrieved8 May2017.
  23. ^de Matos, Xav (22 February 2012)."Building A Machine for Pigs and expanding the universe of Amnesia".Engadget.Archivedfrom the original on 26 April 2021.Retrieved1 December2020.
  24. ^Green, Holly (1 August 2017)."Tacoma Pursues New Paths for Game Narratives".Paste.Archivedfrom the original on 26 April 2021.Retrieved1 December2020.
  25. ^Frictional Games (23 September 2020)."Amnesia is now open source!".Frictional Games.Archivedfrom the original on 18 June 2022.Retrieved18 June2022.
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