Hello, everyone! These Amnesia Fortnight prototypes are rad and all, but also some times bugs get in the way of the charm and their radness. If you are affected by a less-than-rad bug, glitch, crash or other defect, please check out this here FAQ before posting. Many users are affected by the same problems that all have easy fixes, which is what this FAQ is all about. If you have read this FAQ and still can’t find an answer for your problem, do a quick search for other threads on the topic here. If that fails, too, then please post a new thread on the problem!

My Amnesia Fortnight prototype is doing somtheing strange and random and glitchy and none of the specific things below help, what can I do?

Computers are fickle beasts and sometimes things go wrong, but fortunately there are some easy things to try that fix a lot of the random issues. If you post about an issue, very likely we’ll ask you to try one or more of these things first.
* Reboot your computer. It’s a simple thing but it’s amazing how many problems this solves.
* Update your drivers, especially video card drivers. Just don’t try to use beta drivers as they will often cause more problems than they solve.
* Verify the Integrity of You Local Game Cache. You can do this by Right clicking on a prototypes in your library, chosing Properties, Advanced, and then clicking the Verify Integrity of Local Game Cache button.
* Manually run the DirectX and Visual Studio C++ (vc) redistributables. This ensures that you have all the support libraries installed that the prototype needs to run happily.
* Try deactivating heavy background processes like anti-virus or malware scanners. On some computers these programs are so demanding that they significantly interfere with high performance games. If this doesn’t solve your problem, though, be sure to turn your scanners back on!

Soooo, here’s a weird thing…when I try to start Happy Song, the screen just stays black and nothing happens. It does load a lot of data into RAM though, over 100 Megs, according to Windows Task Manager. Any idea what I could do to get it running? Costume Quest worked just fine, though.

Edit: Weirdly enough, it did work upon reboot! Maybe it was bothered with my open browser before, I dunno, never had issues with that previously. Well, whatever, now I can take a look at this prototype.

Is there any way I can pick anything else than the default drum loop? I can hear the previews of my selections correctly, but then when the game asks me to pick a blue, green, yellow or red riff, which I guess refers to the different musical phrases the monsters can learn, no matter what I choose the prototype always defaults back to the same loop!
Well I guess it’s only a prototype after all. The Costume Quest prototype was surprisingly stable and playable, on the other hand.

Just in case anyone else runs into this - on Windows 8 I had to install the June 2010 DirectX runtime before Happy Song would work, it seems that the included redists didn’t install everything that was needed.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=8109

Acorino - 19 November 2012 06:44 PM

Is there any way I can pick anything else than the default drum loop? I can hear the previews of my selections correctly, but then when the game asks me to pick a blue, green, yellow or red riff, which I guess refers to the different musical phrases the monsters can learn, no matter what I choose the prototype always defaults back to the same loop!
Well I guess it’s only a prototype after all. The Costume Quest prototype was surprisingly stable and playable, on the other hand.

Hey Acorino! Are you adding additional riffs into the monster’s song sequence? If not, it’s going to play the same single riff over and over again.

Trilby - 19 November 2012 07:35 PM

Just in case anyone else runs into this - on Windows 8 I had to install the June 2010 DirectX runtime before Happy Song would work, it seems that the included redists didn’t install everything that was needed.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=8109

Hey Trilby! Could you let me know your system specs? (although good job finsing a workaround already =D)

a general AF question: how many times can we vote? Can we select all ideas?

jansenjfa - 20 November 2012 12:28 AM

a general AF question: how many times can we vote? Can we select all ideas?

the point of doing that?

the point of doing not? if you like all? I dunno, I voted for all the games I would like to play, which is less inclusive than selecting all that sound great, independent of personal taste. Still, voted for eight of them.

voting for all means that you dont tell anything to DF with respect to, which game should they make.

You can vote for as many games as you like!
And yes, you can vote for all the games, but that’s kind of like voting for none of them.

Tim Schafer - 20 November 2012 09:31 AM

You can vote for as many games as you like!
And yes, you can vote for all the games, but that’s kind of like voting for none of them.

This is so hard! I’m one of 30,000. How do you make these decisions in a much more definitive manner? Can’t you just make 23 games?

Acorino - 19 November 2012 06:44 PM

Is there any way I can pick anything else than the default drum loop? I can hear the previews of my selections correctly, but then when the game asks me to pick a blue, green, yellow or red riff, which I guess refers to the different musical phrases the monsters can learn, no matter what I choose the prototype always defaults back to the same loop!
Well I guess it’s only a prototype after all. The Costume Quest prototype was surprisingly stable and playable, on the other hand.

Hey, Acornio. I admit this part of the prototype is a bit confusing, but it does work. Here’s a quick summary:

Every monster knows up to 4 “riffs”, and each riff is given a color (red, green, blue, yellow). When you tech a monster their first riff, they’ll start looping that riff automatically. However, any additional riffs you teach them will need to be “sequenced” through the Riffs menu (which shows up after you highlight them and select “teach music”). If you want to simply change the loop they are playing, bind a new style/loop in the place of whichever one is currently playing. For sure this is an area that could be cleaner, but as you say, that’s why we build prototypes!

Can someone please tell me what is in the gated house on the hill in the costume quest prototype? Ive spent a long time trying to get to it, but either I hit a werewolf and cant die and cant kill him and have to restart, so I cant trick or treat all the houses, and if I sneak around the back of that house through the graveyard, Im still blocked by that damn shrubbery!!

What is in that house???? Is it a boss? Is it nothing??? AHHHH!!!
edit: thanks Tim for replying on twitter! Hopefully @tashascomic remembers! Mustve lost an hour trying to get to that darn house

I’ve managed to get stuck twice in the Costume Quest prototype in the battle screen.  I defeat the enemy, get the candy, then… Wren is just standing there.  I can get her to move around (thankfully the gate in the battle field is not solid), but clicking the mouse to interact with something does nothing (making the game impossible to beat), probably because they’re still mapped to the battle.

I have been able to finish a battle successfully once in my second playthrough (where Wren returns to the house she knocked on), but got stuck the same way.  I was wearing a different costume both times as well (fake mustache and dragon, where the dragon turned into Wren in the costume when the battle ended).

I am using the Steam version of the game on Windows 7 Pro 32-bit.  If this problem doesn’t exist in the DRM-free version, I could try that.

blahmoomoo - 21 November 2012 04:25 PM

I’ve managed to get stuck twice in the Costume Quest prototype in the battle screen.  I defeat the enemy, get the candy, then… Wren is just standing there.  I can get her to move around (thankfully the gate in the battle field is not solid), but clicking the mouse to interact with something does nothing (making the game impossible to beat), probably because they’re still mapped to the battle.

I have been able to finish a battle successfully once in my second playthrough (where Wren returns to the house she knocked on), but got stuck the same way.  I was wearing a different costume both times as well (fake mustache and dragon, where the dragon turned into Wren in the costume when the battle ended).

I am using the Steam version of the game on Windows 7 Pro 32-bit.  If this problem doesn’t exist in the DRM-free version, I could try that.

I believe this is a legit bug and in all versions of the CQ AF prototype. Several of us have played through it without experiencing this problem, so it’s probably related to play style. Knowing that it’s not costume related is helpful. I personally suspect it may be todo with “mashing” inputs a lot. Can you see if you can beat more fights if you try to only attack when the enemy is not attacking? I suspect this will be easy to fix if we can find a solid repro.

Thanks for playing and posting your problem. If we get a fix, we’ll post an updated build!

I wasn’t mashing my inputs when I played the game the second time, suspecting that might have been the problem, but I could have ended up attacking at the same time as the enemy anyway.  I tried the secondary attack of the dragon, realized that was to stun the enemy, and attacked right after the rat righted itself.

blahmoomoo - 21 November 2012 04:35 PM

I wasn’t mashing my inputs the second time, suspecting that might have been the problem, but I could have ended up attacking at the same time as the enemy.  I tried the secondary attack of the dragon, realized that was to stun the enemy, and attacked right after the rat righted itself.

Ok. We’re working on getting a reliable repro here, too, but let us know if you manage to find any common denominator.

Until then, enjoy the Brazen prototype!

I’m not entirely sure if this is where I’m supposed to post this, but here goes:

I was trying out Happy Song, and I didn’t have a controller plugged in. The button prompts looked like they were intended for a 360 controller. I managed to make things happen with the left and right mouse buttons, but couldn’t figure out how to activate the other two buttons. I also couldn’t open the options menu (considering the prototype status I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t one).

My question here is: Am I being dumb and missing something, or am I just better off using a 360 controller or equivalent?

Yarbskoo - 21 November 2012 10:29 PM

I’m not entirely sure if this is where I’m supposed to post this, but here goes:

I was trying out Happy Song, and I didn’t have a controller plugged in. The button prompts looked like they were intended for a 360 controller. I managed to make things happen with the left and right mouse buttons, but couldn’t figure out how to activate the other two buttons. I also couldn’t open the options menu (considering the prototype status I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t one).

My question here is: Am I being dumb and missing something, or am I just better off using a 360 controller or equivalent?

The prototype is playable with either a controller or mouse and keyboard. If you are only using a mouse and keyboard, the HUD in the upper left should show you 1/2/3/4 instead of A/B/X/Y. Is that not happening?

Also, there’s a pdf included with the game’s install that explains all of the controls and some other bits should you need it.

DF Nathan - 21 November 2012 10:32 PM

The prototype is playable with either a controller or mouse and keyboard. If you are only using a mouse and keyboard, the HUD in the upper left should show you 1/2/3/4 instead of A/B/X/Y. Is that not happening?

Also, there’s a pdf included with the game’s install that explains all of the controls and some other bits should you need it.

Oh wow. So it is just me being dumb. For some reason I never associated the numbers on the HUD with the ones on the keyboard.

I’ll be sure to check out the pdf next time thanks.

I assume we will be notified via email with the link to the live stream?  Will they be archived for access later?

scotty42 - 25 November 2012 12:44 PM

I assume we will be notified via email with the link to the live stream?  Will they be archived for access later?

We’re starting tomorrow at 2:00 Pacific.  The first couple streams won’t be as long as we’re going to be getting things set up for production to start.  That happens on Wednesday and the hope is that we’ll be able to stream for 8 hours a day starting then!  And the streams will indeed be saved.

DF Greg - 25 November 2012 07:08 PM

scotty42 - 25 November 2012 12:44 PM

I assume we will be notified via email with the link to the live stream?  Will they be archived for access later?

We’re starting tomorrow at 2:00 Pacific.  The first couple streams won’t be as long as we’re going to be getting things set up for production to start.  That happens on Wednesday and the hope is that we’ll be able to stream for 8 hours a day starting then!  And the streams will indeed be saved.

Oh! Thank you! I just asked about this in another thread. Will look forward to DF posting a location where we can view the saved feeds. I have to work all day and would hate to miss all the fun.

*edit*

Just found it! Thanks again!

DF Greg - 25 November 2012 07:08 PM

We’re starting tomorrow at 2:00 Pacific.  The first couple streams won’t be as long as we’re going to be getting things set up for production to start.  That happens on Wednesday and the hope is that we’ll be able to stream for 8 hours a day starting then!  And the streams will indeed be saved.

This is just GREAT ! :) As a european i can’t thank you enough for that. I thought i was gonna miss all the streams with my silly sleep. :)

to the AF happy song:

I cant hear the previews, and also how do you use the monsters that cant hold instruments???