Penumbra: Black Plague - Q&A Feature

Following Frictional Games' first title, Penumbra: Overture, the team now returns with the series' final chapter in the form of Penumbra: Black Plague. Throwing the beast-evading Philip back into the action with little to defend himself but a flashlight, Black Plague promises to build the suspense until gamers will be twitching with apprehensive fear.

TVG: From what we've seen there seems to be two main types of puzzle in Penumbra. Firstly, there are physics based puzzles that remind us a bit of similar problem solving sections in Half-Life 2. Then there are also item based puzzles which are almost of a classic adventure game style. In terms of other games, where did you guys draw your influences from?

Thomas Grip: From a physics point of view, even though we checked out some Half-Life, I'm not sure if it was that big an influence for us really. We actually just played around with physics and saw what we could do. Also, we played other adventure games that had some puzzles and we thought 'Okay, how can you do this, but with physics instead?'

We tried to come up with other ideas, because we didn't want to just be influenced by Half-Life because then we'd just be copying it and I think people would notice that a lot more. Instead, we tried to look at normal puzzles and focus on making them more physics orientated. That was really our approach when it came to creating the puzzles.

TVG: Stealth is obviously a big part of the game, what with there being no weapons. What type of stealth gameplay do you have lined up for that?

Thomas Grip: There is a sneaking system that we've implemented in the game. You can also take cover in shadows and if you stay there long enough, then you will be hidden and the enemies will have a hard time seeing you. Also, when you crouch you will move more slowly, but you also make less sound.

So it's a case of hiding in the shadows and making less sound but also, if you throw a box and an enemy hears it, then you will be able to sneak past them when they go to check it out. So, we've got a sneaking system for that but, in many cases, you will need to hold the run button down (laughs).

TVG: With the puzzles, you've shown us that there are multiple ways of solving them,but what about the general path of the game? Is that entirely linear or are there multiple routes through certain sections of the game?

Jens Nilsson: It starts off quite linear, through the first six levels of the game, but then it opens up. Even though you still have to complete all the tasks, you have a free choice of what order you want to complete the puzzles in, but it doesn't effect it [the game] overall.

Thomas Grip: That's one thing we tried to make sure of in the later levels. In the first levels we want to let the player learn the gameplay and get used to the ambience before moving on to other things.

Then, later on, we want to give the player many tasks. So, they're not bound to one thing, but instead have to think 'Okay, I've got to get through that door and then that door. So, I'll start with this door and get through that somehow.' You get options of what you want to do and more freedom.

TVG: Given that the puzzles can be solved in a non-linear fashion later on in the game, will playing through a second time be completely different (in terms of story etc.) depending on the order in which you solve the puzzles?

Jens Nilsson: Yes and no. The overall story of the game is set - we have one story. However, we have several things during the game that will happen depending on what you do. It's one story, but there are things that you might or might not experience.

Thomas Grip:For example, if you have a corridor with two doors; if you take the second door then, on your way back, you might experience another event than if you had headed the other way.

For us, it's never been about making the experience different for each player. It's more about, if you go down a different path than you might pass two more corridors and we want to make that exciting as well. If a player takes one path, they might pass a corridor twice, but if they take another path they might pass it four times. In which case, we need to make those four times as interesting as two times, so we need to add more events and it's more so like that.

TVG: There's this mysterious infection in the game, which I'm guessing has something to do with the title, Black Plague. I won't press you for the ultimate resolution of that because it will obviously spoil your story. However, the game's protagonist (Philip) appears to experience a schizoid voice in his head called Clarence. What other symptoms are we going to see as a result of the infection?

Thomas Grip: Yeah, I don't want to spoil it too much, but you saw the enemy that came with the flashlight - that might be because of the infection. Also, in the previous game, we had a bunch of other critters that you encountered. Perhaps the strangeness of those critters has something to do with the infection as well. So, it's a recurring theme.

Jens Nilsson: It's a mixture of this Clarence character playing tricks that you know he's doing, with other events where something happens where perhaps it isn't obvious that it's due to the infection.

TVG: In that sense a big part of this game, due to the lack of combat, is going to be suspense. In what ways are you going to produce that air of suspense in terms of music, dialogue and set-pieces - anything like that?

Jens Nilsson: Music wise, we have over one hour of music in the game. That's quite a lot because it's a short game.

Thomas Grip: I just want to point out that the music depends on the situation. When an enemy is near, certain music is playing, if he attacks then there's certain music as well. So, we want to create a mood that's dynamic.

Jens Nilsson: We work a lot with music, ambience and sound to create this tension, and I think lighting overall as well.

Thomas Grip: We try to make a lot of contrasts as well. You can be in a room where there's nice music and it's bright, then you open a door and it's pitch black with this haunting music playing. We don't believe that you can have just dark areas, because then the player will get use to that, so we and make contrasts throughout the game.

So, when it's really dark and haunting, it really feels that dark and haunting instead of having this constant bombardment of one type of emotion on the player. We try to vary that as much as possible.

TVG: Then I suppose that, perhaps even more so than other types of game, the directing is going to play a big part in the game's production to build up the suspense...

Thomas Grip: During the design process, we really tried to speak to each other and say 'We're in this situation. What could happen that would be scary and how would a player feel in this situation.'

We tried to take that all into consideration when confronting a certain situation in the game, so we thought 'If we do this and then if we, perhaps, make it darker here,' while always trying to improve by saying things like 'Perhaps we had too much darkness here. Let's have a bright area there and then we'll make it really dark.'

We really tried to picture ourselves playing it for the first time, as much as that is possible, but that's really what we're trying to do in terms of directing, so we're really putting a lot of work into that. Jens here has been the sound designer from the start so he's had a lot of experience with that.

TVG: The AI enemy we saw earlier, that may or may not have been infected. You mentioned how these enemies aren't scripted, but are these zombie-like creatures the only enemies we're likely to encounter in the game, or will there be others such as security guards tracking you down?

Thomas Grip: We don't want to spoil it too much, because much of the experience is trying to figure things out. But, there are other people in the base as well who are human and some of them will be hostile to you, or are perhaps beginning to be infected and that sort of thing, so you never really know what to expect.

TVG: How much is this new storyline dependent on what's happened in Penumbra: Overture and how much continuity is there between the two games?

Jens Nilsson: You can play this game, it's going to be a great game, and you absolutely do not need experience of the previous game. However, if you have played the previous game, a lot of things in this game are put in another context.

Thomas Grip: We reference a lot of places. For example, you can search through a computer and find some research files where you'll think 'Oh! That's a photo of somewhere I was in the previous game.' Perhaps you'll wonder there're strange boxes in one place and what's that strange writing, then you have an explanation of that. It gives you a bit more depth to the game if you've played the previous one.

TVG: In terms of storytelling, there certainly is an adventure game style to it. In that sense, are you fans of games like Fahrenheit, for example?

Thomas Grip: I liked the first bit of Fahrenheit. I mainly play adventure games for story, but I thought the beginning of Fahrenheit was amazing. So, that influences us in terms of what puzzles you can do and so on. But the main influence is actually interactive fiction games, when it comes to writing and so on, because we want to have good descriptions and environments etc.

Also, in terms of puzzles as well, I think that interactive fiction games are better at having the puzzles as part of the game world. Some of the more conservative adventure games are like, 'Okay, this is a puzzle. Solve puzzle...' While interactive fiction games are more like 'Okay! I'll solve the puzzle!', and that's the feeling we want to have. It's one of, 'I'll go here, do what I normally do and solve puzzles while doing that.' So, it's not like: 'Puzzle moment; other speaking to character moment; puzzle moment; walking around moment.' We want the continuity and flow of the whole experience where the puzzles are integrated in the game.

TVG would like to thank the Frictional Games team of Thomas Grip (Co-founder and Programmer) and Jens Nilsson (Co-founder, Level Programmer and Sound Designer) for taking the time to speak to us about their upcoming game Penumbra: Black Plague, due out during February 2008.