Sam's Memories was going to be a 20-50 minute Nintendo 64 styled walking simulatour. You play as a gender ambiguous figure roaming through a foggy island of varying landscape after waking up from your home. You would've passed through different kinds, desert, mountains, hills, snow, forests, etc. while also listening to a philosophical and/or sad backstory about the figure rambling about a person named Sam and talking about their memories.

That's really all I had planned that was "100% going to be in the final game". Everything else were... Things that I did have planned but weren't confident they'd end up being in a complete release. Since the game took place in a "Nintendo 64 styled fog world", I thought of making it similar to Silent Hill where you are in an open world full of danger and enemies you have to fight with clunky combat, but instead of surreal monsters, you'd see realistic animal predators that you would see in real life. Wolves, rhinos, tigers, bears, wild boars, etc. I also had thoughts of putting alternate routes the player can take where they can take a different route for the sake of variety, have more context of the lore (Just like Silent Hill, eh?), or have a chance at a new ending. I also planned for it to be kinda rogue like where you have to fight using clunky combat that's easy to learn but hard to master, and when you die, you restart all the way to the start. Again, these were plans I had, but nothing I really thought would've made it to the completed version.

The initial pitch for this game was when I first saw The Chinese Room's (Creator of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs) first game: "Dear Esther" which involved a philosophical and deep story about a narrator and the death of his wife, Esther while wondering in the Hebridean Islands near Scotland, and I thought of wanting to do something similar to that, but less boring. You see, Dear Esther was considered a "walking simulatour". And that's not because it has "shallow gameplay", but because it... Well... Really doesn't have any. The "gameplay" consists of you pressing W and moving the mouse around. Really, the main focus of the game is its story, atmosphere, and the experience itself. I thought of trying that too, but making the game fun and something you want to try and try again (which is where the "uncertain planned features" came in).

I don't know if the game will ever see light since, I'm not into philosophical or dark stuff as MUCH as I was then, and while I still have respect for Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry, the main head of the Chinese Room, I don't find Dear Esther that interesting these days. The only thing it has that stands out from other "walking simulatours" was that it was one of, if not, the first, and for having randomly generated moments. But besides that, that's it. And, I just do not want to make a game based off of something I don't have much of a passion for anymore. I might rework it again with the right people, but I'm not too sure.

So, for now, this game is cancelled or on indefinite hiatus. It may come back, but don't have too much hope.

~Philip from Nyctodream