Releasing on Nintendo Switch: Unattainable dream to reality

By Thomas Grip, Creative director

This is one of my earliest memories. Eons ago, when I was about 5, my dad took me with him to his work, a department store. He then proceeded to dump me in the electronics department.

Nowadays you can find game test booths everywhere, but back in the day this was definitely not the case. Instead every single item was locked inside a glass cupboard. Usually these cupboards remained locked unless you bought something… but that day was different. Tony, my dad’s co-worker, let me try out a game.

As I trembled with the excitement of a 5-year-old boy, he jangled his keys, and took out the showcase version of a grey box called the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Ice Climber for the NES was my first video game experience, and from that moment I was hooked.

Since that watershed moment, Nintendo games have always had a special place in my heart. Super Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Battle Toads, Blaster Master and many others were all a part of my childhood magic. The plastic feel of the controller, the chunky cartridges, and instant-booting games still evoke fuzzy feelings in me.

Because of these magical childhood memories, and how video games were perceived back in the day, Nintendo has always had a certain mysterious feel to it – like an enchanted factory in a far-away country, creating games through some sort of wizardry.

When I started making games myself, some 20 years back, I never thought the hobby would evolve into anything bigger. It felt highly unlikely that people would want to buy anything I produced. But, eventually, what started as a hobby turned into a job. That felt so surreal. There I was, with my stupid hobby, except it was suddenly a source of income to me. Game development still felt like that enchanted factory, full of people who knew a lot more than me with tech I couldn’t possibly afford to have. But it was real, as I came to realize over time.

Yet consoles, and especially Nintendo, retained a very illusory feel. While I released my games on Steam and similar stores, the birthplace of my childhood magic felt far off.
That’s why it’s so special to announce the following:

AMNESIA: COLLECTION IS NOW OUT ON THE NINTENDO SWITCH

Amnesia: Collection on Nintendo.co.uk

Finally – Frictional Games has made it to a Nintendo console! What had, for most of my life, felt like a distant and far-fetched dream, has now become reality. Sure, it’s not shipped on one of those fantastic grey cartridges, nor will it have a Nintendo “seal of quality” slapped on top, but I’ll take what I can.

If the 5-year-old me heard about this, he would never believe me.

But this is by no means the end of a journey for me – quite the opposite! It’s thrilling to think just how far the company has come, and it makes me super excited for what the future will hold.

A huge thank you to our friends at BlitWorks for making the port possible, and Evolve PR (with special thanks to Ryan!) for the great trailer!

Frictional Fan Jam 2019

Screenshot courtesy of Newsman Waterpaper and their mod The Streets of London.

#FrictionalFanJam

September is a meaningful month for Frictional Games, as it marks several of our anniversaries. This year on the 8th of September Amnesia: The Dark Descent will be turning 9, on 10th Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs will be 6 years old, and on 22nd SOMA will have been released for 4 years.

Therefore we would like to make this month special by celebrating your community creations. Please join us for Frictional’s Fan Jam of 2019!

We have recently launched an official Discord server, so you are welcome to ask questions, share ideas, and chat with other participants in the #fan_jam channel.

Overview

The goal is to create a new fan work related to one of Frictional’s games: SOMA, Amnesia games and the Penumbra series, or older titles such as Unbirth. You are free to create any transformative work: a mod, fanart and fanfiction, cosplay, or something different like a video or a plushie. The project should be at least loosely related to the given theme.

Since some projects (for example mods) can require more effort than others, you are also welcome to participate in teams.

Please see submission guidelines below!

Theme

Autumn/Decay

Deadline

The event kicks off on Friday the 6th of September. The deadline for submissions is 23:59 UTC on Sunday the 22nd of September. The jury will be going through submissions starting Monday the 23rd.

Prizes

The jury of Frictional Games employees and Frictional Games Discord moderation team will pick the winners of the jam. Jury members can participate in the event, but are disqualified from winning.

The winners will receive a poster of a game of their choosing, signed by the Frictional team members, sent to their home address (teams can decide on one address, max 4 prizes per team). The Frictional Team will also be featuring the works on a video with comments from Thomas and other employees. And finally - upon release of the next game, the winners will receive download codes for the game on an available platform of their choosing.

Contact

The jam is organised by Frictional Game’s community manager Kira together with the moderation team of the official Discord server, proposed and drafted by Draugemalf. The easiest way to contact the organisers is on the Frictional Games Discord server’s #fan_jam channel. The channel can also be used to share ideas with other community members, get feedback and look for team members.

If you don’t have a Discord account, you are also welcome to contact Frictional Games through Twitter or our Contact Form, and we will help you as soon as we can.

Submission guidelines

• The works must be related to one or more of Frictional’s games (SOMA, Amnesia: TDD, Amnesia: AMFP, Penumbra, and Unbirth, Fiend, Energetic)
• The works must be at least loosely related to the the thematic of Autumn/Decay
• The creation must be submitted on 22nd of September the latest
• The work must be your or your team’s original creation
• For mods you are free to use assets you can legally use, or have the permission to use from the creators

Submitting your work

You can submit your works through several channels, either by posting an image (for fanart, cosplay and similar) and/or a link (mods, fanfiction and similar).

• On Discord, you can share the project on the #fan_jam channel. Please make it clear that it's your final version.
• On Twitter and Tumblr, you should mention @frictionalgames and tag the submission with #FrictionalFanJam.
• If you don’t have a social media account, please send your submission to team@frictionalgames.com with the title “Frictional Fan Jam”.
• Due to Instagram and Facebook’s limited searching and tagging tools, we will not be accepting submissions through those platforms.
• All submissions will be posted by the jury on Discord’s #fan_jam_showcase channel for easier judging.

And that’s it! Go get creative! We’re looking forward to all your great projects!

If you have any questions, just let us know.