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Lexis Numérique is setting its sights on its next title: Alt-Minds, a game the publisher claims will feature "a true transmedia fiction." Its first title since launching the less-than illustrious horror game Amy, the European publisher says that Alt-Minds will arrive on both PC and Mac on November 5, along with a companion app.

Alt-Minds follows the story of five young scientists working on a mysterious physics experiment. While the PC/Mac game will tell the core story, players will also be able to use the location-based app to find story clues in the real world, and get (oh so not creepy) texts and phone calls directly from the story's characters.

The experience will take place over eight weeks, with participants being given clues or missions at any time during the period. If you can't be on your computer all of the time, the game will also have a "catch-up mode," to access past missions and re-play live events. To help tell its story, Alt-Minds will have a web series of ten seven-minute episodes, explaining the scientific background of the proceedings as they unfold.

The full experience will be free for everyone for a week. After that, players will need to pay about $5 per episode or around $30 for the entire series.

We had more than a few problems with Amy, and apparently we weren't alone. Amy developer VectorCell has released a patch on XBLA and PSN that addresses some of the (many) issues present in the game. The patch revises the game's save system (our biggest gripe), now saving at every checkpoint instead of forcing players to restart an entire level if they choose to quit.

A few illogical bits have been rectified as well. Notably, dying after a checkpoint no longer removes the health-restoring syringes and powers that have been acquired up to that point. Furthermore, "most sequences can now be skipped," which is great news given Amy's generally ponderous presentation. If you happen to have Amy, it should now be more playable at the very least, though no amount of patching will repair its nonsensical story.

[Thanks, Christian!]

Video games, in general, require that we suspend our disbelief to some degree. We can forgive the unbelievable or the improbable so long as the experience remains entertaining. Games are full of trivial details that make no sense -- eating food magically heals wounds, a three-foot tall wall is insurmountable by a grown adult, etc. -- but we overlook these small annoyances for the sake of enjoyment.

The thesis of Amy, based on my experience, is very simple: Take every one of those annoyances and build an entire game out of them.

Hey, ridiculous stereotype guy! Eyes up here buddy! Also, don't talk to my daughter...ever.

The game Amy has been kicking around for a while now. Every so often, you'd hear rumblings on The PlayStation Blog about the downloadable survival horror title Vector Cell had in the works. It seemed cool enough in premise, and indeed, Amy no doubt looks good on paper. But the end result -- a suprem...

Behold the launch trailer for horrifying zombies vs woman-caring-for-little-girl game, Amy! However, the PC version will not arrive along with the tellybox versions, and instead will appear in the next couple of months. Boo, boo I say.

I have also embedded the first 18 minutes of the game being played, courtesy of the handsome CVG.(more…)

The PSN version of Amy will hit North America on Jan. 17 for $9.99, the same day and price as the XBLA version. After previously announcing the PSN price to be $3 more than the XBLA price, Developer Lexis Numerique asked the US audience through a Facebook poll if it wanted a cheaper game, but one week later. It turns out Americans are more patient than we thought, but just as frugal.

Now it's official -- Amy will launch in Europe on Jan. 11 for €9.9 (£7.99, 800 MS Points) on PSN and XBLA, and on Jan. 17 for $10 (800 MS Points) in North America on both consoles.

Amy a survival horror game from developer Vector Cell has officially been delayed for release on the PlayStation Network in North America. Initially targeted for release on Tuesday, January 10th, Amy will now be released in North America on Tuesday, January 17th. The Xbox 360 iteration is still set to come out on Wednesday, January 11th...

#psn The creepy survival-horror game Amy, about a psychic girl caught up in a zombie-like pandemic, is due for release on Wednesday on Xbox Live, where it will cost 800 Microsoft Points. Alright. It's due out on Tuesday on PlayStation Network, for a price of $12.99. That means the game is effectively $3 more on the PS3. More »

After the announcement of the price and launch date for Amy yesterday, many (including us) were perplexed as the title's pricing disparity. Specifically, the US version of the game was revealed to be 800 MS Points ($10) on Xbox Live Arcade, while the PSN version would cost $3 more at $12.99.

The reason lies in the nebulous nature of Microsoft Points, according to Lexis Numérique CEO José Sanchis. In the US, $10 will buy 800 MS Points. In Europe the cost is €10, or about $12.73. In other words, noted Sanchis, the prices of the PSN and XBLA versions are essentially equal in Europe, but the exchange rate creates a disparity in the US.

To rectify the situation, Lexis Numérique has set up a Facebook poll -- an app that requires a Facebook account and your permission, incidentally -- to determine whether Amy's US PSN price should remain at $12.99 or be reduced to $9.99, the same as its XBLA counterpart. There is, however, a catch: Should the community choose to lower the price -- which seems likely, given current poll results -- the PSN release will have to be delayed at least a week "because of logistic constraints" with Sony's platform. The poll closes January 9.

Amy is also confused why you would ask consumers if they would like to pay less.

You’re right to be confused by the above headline. Heck, I still am, but here's the bottom line: who wants to pay more for anything?

Amy is an interesting looking (and hopefully scary) horror game arriving next week on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network from developer VectorCell and publisher Lexis Numérique. As it stands, the game would be several dollars more on PSN than it would be on XBLA, and understandably, people complained.

The response was to poll potential consumers about the problem.

Amy would be 800 Microsoft Points ($10) on XBLA and $12.99 on PSN. The poll asks users if $12.99, nearly $3 more, “is a good [price].” Take a wild guess at the results.

Lexis Numérique CEO José Sanchis explained the difference in a press release, citing Microsoft’s “points” system as the reason for the price discrepency. Points have the same value worldwide, even if actual currency values are not the same. Sanchis points to 800 Points being $10 in the US, but 10 Euros overseas--or $12.8.

“Because we didn’t explain the situation, we understand the reaction of certain US PSN gamers who don’t understand why they should pay a little bit more than their friends who play on XBLA,” said Numérique.

The poll stands at 464 votes, as of this writing, with 71% voting in favor of changing the PSN price.

“Because we value the opinion of the community, we commit to apply the voters’ decision,” he continued.

If users demand the price should be changed, it will be changed. If that happens, and there’s no reason to think it won’t, the PSN release will be pushed back a week, as the change ripples through Sony. The XBLA version would still come out next week, however, as it currently has the lower price, and the poll would not impact it either way.

Amy, a downloadable survival horror game coming to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade next week, appears to have a great deal of promise. But there's something decidedly odd about the pricing of the game in the United States. That's because Amy is $3 more on PSN than it is on XBLA...

Developer VectorCell may be trying to tell us that things won't be normal in Amy -- its prices and release dates are more complicated than they first appear. Amy will drop in Europe on Jan. 11 for XBLA and PSN, and the US version will launch on Jan. 11 for XBLA. The US PSN edition launches on Jan. 10.

That wasn't so hard -- but we haven't yet gotten to the prices. Amy will cost $12.99 (€9.9, £7.99) on PSN, and 800 MS Points on XBLA. 800 MS Points converts to $10 (€7.82, £6.46), which, for the mathematically challenged, is $3 less than the PSN version. It must cost a lot to come out a day early, or maybe this is just another way for VectorCell to keep us in the dark.

The game is also coming to PC, but VectorCell says it won't be until "several months after the PNS/XBLA version, and we can't announce a date yet because we haven't totally finalized our distribution deals." What a twist!

What happens when Ico, Clocktower, Silent Hill, Dead Rising 2 and Resident Evil meet in a darkened motel room, get drunk and share their genetic soup? Leading ludobiologists inform me there’s a good chance they may bring a downloadable offspring into the world by the name of Amy, whose habits include hanging out with infected children, obsessive hand-holding, a tendency to hide beneath tables and a clunky yet strangely effective technique of clobbering zombies with pieces of junk lying about the place.

Me and Jim have both written about Amy in the past, admiring the apparent emotional undercurrent that runs through its survival horror tendencies. A new video showing the combat makes me worry that we might be in for an extended escort mission interspersed with unsatisfactory combat. What do you reckon?

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First of all, we’d like to thank the PlayStation.Blog and its readers for supporting Amy for several months now. As we get closer to the release of the game, which will be early next year, we wanted answer a question that has been asked many times: what kind of survival-horror game is Amy? How do players cope with enemies? What kind of weapons can you use?

To answer those questions and more, we created the following video just for you:

As you can see, Amy is not about giving you huge power against enemies and giving players an action-oriented experience. Amy goes back to the roots of the survival-horror genre, and provides edge-of-your-seat suspense that will keep you wondering what’s around the next corner.

While most games in the genre choose to either be action- or combat-based, or instill fear by making players feel vastly less powerful than their enemies, Amy combines the best of both worlds. Paul Cuisset, the man behind Amy (and classic games such as Flashback), wanted to a new dimension, which is the cooperation between Amy and Lana.

Playing as Lana, you will have to decide whether you want to hide and avoid combat, or fight by using whatever weapons you can find. As highlighted in the last video, you can use Lana’s vulnerability to the infection to walk amongst enemies undetected, or use Amy’s special abilities, which you can see a glimpse of at the end of this video.

This makes you consider many options before trying to fight: hiding, asking Amy to go away, or using her special powers to defeat your opponents. But as we like to encourage players to exercise their right to choose, if you want to fight, go ahead and try. You won’t always be able to win, but those who don’t try will never know…

If you want to be get all the news about Amy, videos and goodies, please follow us on Facebook and click on Like. Thank you.

#amy When the world's population has been transformed into rampaging flesh-hungry monsters and the infection is spreading through your system a little psychic girl can make all the difference. More »

PlayStation fans have been following the development of AMY for some time now and have been giving us tremendous support – we sincerely thank you for that. Others are just discovering this original upcoming PSN survival-horror game for the first time. What none of you have seen is the actual gameplay that lies at the heart of the game: the very unique relationship between Amy and Lana, our lead character.

When you mention ‘a very unique relationship’ in a video game, it may bring to mind ICO, a game that many of us consider a milestone in video game history. The recent re-release of the HD version by PlayStation brought back many memories for us. The first time you finished ICO, what remained was great emotional depth and a rare feeling of empathy for Yorda, the young woman you try to protect. Before playing ICO, the simple idea of protecting a non-playable character seemed tedious and dull. And yet, in ICO, you never had the feeling of doing a long escort mission. You really wanted to protect her.

In Amy, we didn’t try to ape ICO and the two games are quite different; each developer has its own references, world, and vision. But one thing is the same: the constant effort to create empathy for the secondary character. As Lana, a young woman in a city infested by zombies and monstrous creatures, you try to protect Amy, an 8-year old girl that doesn’t seem to talk. Lana is infected and fights against a virus that threatens to transform her into a mindless beast. Only Amy, unexpectedly, can temporary heal her so that they have to stand by each other.

The bond between the two characters is made visible by the way they look at each other, by the way one can protect the other, but also by the way they hold each other’s hand.

The hand that you take when you want Amy to follow you is at the heart of the game. In many occasions, it even means salvation in your extremely hostile environment: when holding Amy’s hand, you can hear her heart beat and you can even feel it (with a rumble controller). When she feels a close danger, you can be sure that fear is conveyed directly into your hand, especially when you know you’re about to fight a fierce enemy.

In the exclusive video we’ve just made, you can see how the two behave and cooperate with each other. Our core focus was to try to make you want to keep Amy safe. If you want to learn more about Amy, you can see our previous video about Lana’s infection here. Please check out our official site for more details and support us on Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Amy is a game with zombies in it, but don’t leave just yet. I know we’re oversaturated with them, but that doesn’t mean we should be jaded about every upcoming game that involves the shambling nonliving. It’s still possible to use them in interesting ways and, for me at least, even just shooting them in the head isn’t boring quite yet. Amy’s doing something very different though. Set in an infected city of the near-future, it’s a game about survival and companionship. It would be easy to describe what I’ve seen so far as urban Ico with zombies, so that’s what I’m going to do. There’s new footage below, with developer narration to describe how infection will destroy you and how it can be staved off. It’s not the most whizzbang stuff but it’s certainly piqued my interest.

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In VectorCell's Amy, the main character Lana becomes infected with a zombie virus, which progressively worsens as the game goes on, unless she maintains contact with the title character or encounters another kind of remedy.

In the trailer above, we see what the contamination does to Lana, and we're introduced to a few methods of staving off the encroaching zombosis. Although, as the video demonstrates, there's a use for being partially zombie'd, as you can shuffle through zombie crowds unperturbed. You know, for when you want to mingle with some zombies.

In the survival horror genre there are moments every player remembers: the sound of shattering glass and the snarl of undead dogs breaking through the windows of a mysterious mansion in Resident Evil; the intensifying crackle of radio static as unseen enemies give chase through the foggy streets of Silent Hill.

With upcoming downloadable title Amy, director Paul Cuisset (best known for his work on Flashback) and his team at VectorCell hope to add their own trademark moments to the genre. First and foremost, Cuisset said his goal was to bring survival horror back to its roots while simultaneously moving the genre forward.

"I think there are many players who, like me, liked the time when survival horror games were not only about action, but also about atmosphere and feeling weak," Cuisset said. "Although the genre has evolved a lot, I'm convinced it's still possible to bring something new."

We still don't have much solid information about Amy, the survival horror/adventure title due on PSN this fall and XBLA "eventually," but thanks to the videos posted up top and down below, we do know that the game's developer is taking the human face very seriously.

Father John (above) is convinced that rampant global catastrophes and the viral outbreak affecting Silver City are sure-fire signs of the End of Days, and like any good man of the cloth he's taken it upon himself to train survivors from the safety of his "shelter-church." Professor Raymond (after the break) is shrouded in even more mystery, if you can believe it: all we know so far is that he's sometimes mentioned by the main character during phone calls, and that he looks completely unimpressed with floating through a featureless black void.

We can't help but be impressed with how much facial fidelity is being squeezed into a PSN title, but publisher Lexis Numerique claims that emotive non-verbal communication is of "critical importance" to the title's design philosophy. "If Amy sees a gruesome creature behind you, she won't have to yell: you will know."

If you’ve been following the development of Amy, you probably know that we’re trying to make a unique survival-horror game for PSN. As explained in my previous post, we’re working hard to bring a different gameplay based on a deep interaction between Lana, a young woman who is the lead character, and Amy, an eight year-old child, set in a horrific environment. Soon, we’ll give you many more details on some of the key elements of the gameplay.

But for now, we wanted to show you that, even for a downloadable game, we’re trying our best to bring you real flesh-and-blood characters. You can meet two of them in the new videos below.

First, a quick primer on the world of Amy. It’s 2035, and global warming has intensified beyond mankind’s control. Floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are claiming lives with increasing regularity. And in Silver City, the site of a recent comet impact, a mysterious viral outbreak has begun transforming a large percentage of the populace into horrific monstrosities. This is the final straw for Father John, a priest in Silver City: He’s convinced that the outbrerak is final proof that Armageddon is near. From his shelter-church, he tries to organize the human survivors to resist what he sees as a demonic invasion. The second character, Professor Raymond, is much more mysterious. Lana, the lead character of Amy, often refers to Raymond when speaking on the phone with another mysterious character, Lavigna – a woman she seems to rely on.

As you can see in the videos above, our goal is to create characters that convey emotions and that show their feelings physically, not just through dialogue or scenarios. Moreso than any other genre, horror games are based on what characters want – not just what they are doing.

For secondary characters, it might be ok to take a more traditional approach, to make them what you’d expect. But for the primary characters, facial features, expressions and the way they move are things we spent a lot of time on. Above all else, one of the most important aspects lies in their eyes. As you can see from the video, Father John’s eyes are not only highly detailed, but appear very human – at least, as close as we could get! And this is not just a technical and artistic challenge; the subtlety of human expression has a real impact in the game, especially for Amy and Lana.

As you probably already know, Amy is impaired – she doesn’t speak. Hence, in order for Amy to communicate with the player, her body language and facial expressions are of critical importance. If Amy sees a gruesome creature behind you, she won’t have to yell: you will know, just by looking at her face and body language, that she’s terrified.

Stay tuned for more details on Amy. In the meantime, support us on Facebook and check out the official website. See you soon!

See the engine behind the upcoming PlayStation Network game in action!

Since we hadn't heard anything on PSN survival horror exclusive Amy since it was announced in February, we'd let it fall comfortably off our radar. But now we've read the first gameplay details and seen new screens from the project -- headed by Flashback creator Paul Cuisset -- and it's right back there on the radar just ... you know, blooping away, or whatever it is that things on radars do.

The town of Silver City has been torn apart by a mysterious virus, and the one hope is a young girl named Amy whose presence seems to be the only cure. As Amy's protector, you'll lead her out of Silver City, holding R1 to take her hand. The tender gesture won't just be used for guiding her, you'll also be able to feel her pulse through the Dual Shock, with an increase in her heart rate providing a warning for an oncoming increase in danger. The emphasis is on stealth, or "exfiltration" as Cuisset puts it, avoiding conflict with the terrors plaguing Silver City just long enough to get Amy to safety.

There are a few other tidbits in this post on the PlayStation Blog, but none more exciting than the fact that we'll be able to start leading Amy out of Silver City at some point this summer. Just a heads up: You'll probably want to go ahead and start watching this Hootie and the Blowfish classic to prep for our inevitable review headline pun.

If you’re into new survival-horror experiences, this post is for you! After recently releasing Red Johnson’s Chronicles on PSN, we’re excited to be publishing Amy on PSN later in 2011. Amy is the upcoming game from Paul Cuisset, who may be a familiar name for some of you; In the early 90s Paul created Flashback, a classic game that is credited today as a great source of inspiration by respected game designers.

With Amy, we’re now bringing Paul’s innovative concepts to PS3 owners with a new development philosophy that bridges the gap between innovative indie PSN games and very ambitious Blu-ray titles.

Dark Days

The story begins on a rainy December day in 2034. Global warming is in full swing, spreading diseases and natural disasters all around the world. You play as Lana, a character who regains consciousness following a comet impact in the small town of Silver City. Upon awakening, you discover that Silver City has descended into chaos. Violence, fury, rage, wreckage and death: the world you knew has been torn to Hell.

Struck by a mysterious virus, most of the townspeople have transformed into gruesome creatures and now prowl the streets as a wild horde. You’re wounded and you know you must escape, but you’re infected and the viral process has already begun: Hell is now pumping through your veins. There are only two ways to survive the infection. One is by locating special medical equipment found on the corpses of soldiers who have invaded Silver City. The other lies with Amy.

Unlikely Alliance

By your side is a strange little girl named Amy, who can’t speak but whose face expresses both fear and sadness. While you’re fleeing and trying to protect her, you realize that being close to her stops the contamination and even temporarily heals you. That might be the reason why infected humans, grisly creatures, Special Forces combatants and even other survivors are after the two of you. To stay alive, you will have to help each other.

But contrary to many games with a secondary character, Amy is neither a super warrior nor a docile character that follows you. You can use her small size and weight to reach inaccessible areas and ask her to do specific actions. Being a child, Amy is also naturally curious and will explore the environment with you – sometimes she might even draw your attention to something you would have missed.

More importantly, Amy possesses several special abilities. By pressing R1, you can hold her hand. This enables you to heal, but also lets you feel Amy’s heartbeat through the rumble of the DualShock 3, which lets you feel her stress level while you explore dangerous locations. This might be very useful, even if holding her hand slows you down. Amy also has several other special abilities that I’m not going to detail now…but trust me, you will like them.

Survival Stealth

Your overall goal is to escape with Amy, and find a safe shelter to save her (we call this mechanic “exfiltration”). You’ll hide, run, fight, solve puzzles and use cunning, and you will often be free to choose your tactics. In addition, while you progress, you will meet different characters and explore the special bond between Amy and Lana.

One of our goals is to make you feel the fragility of Lana and Amy. Lana is not trained to fight; Amy is just a kid. But you can try to avoid your enemies, for example, by hiding in a closet or under a table. While hiding, you can spy on your pursuers…but be careful!

Another option is to use your infection to your advantage. When you show signs of infection, most of the enemies won’t attack you if you move slowly. But you will have to avoid the soldiers, who will shoot you on sight, and you’ll need to stop the infection before it‘s too late. Most of the enemies are able to communicate with each other so if one spots you, the others will rush in to attack. If you’re clever, you can exploit their intelligence to deceive them and trigger a fight between soldiers and infected humans.

But being smart won’t be enough. When cornered, you’ll need to gather your courage and fight back tooth and nail because your enemies are fierce. Although you have an inventory, you won’t be choosing between tons of items: You will have to make do with small weapons: clubs, crowbars and the like. Lana only carries light items with her and uses only one weapon at a time. In a pinch, you can sometimes use the environment to your advantage, for instance by attracting an enemy into a water puddle and electrifying it.

Amy’s Atmosphere

We’ve also worked hard on the script to provide you with a fully coherent experience. From a train station, to a hospital, going through a subway or the dark streets of Silver City, you will discover a unique atmosphere with Amy.

Finally, I’d like to share a worldwide exclusive video with you, a video we’ve just made to show off the game’s visuals and atmosphere. We will soon be releasing a new video demonstrating certain gameplay moments, so stay tuned! You can watch the video at the top of this blog post.

If you want to follow us, check out our Facebook page. See you soon!

IGN are reporting that Amy, Vector Cell’s game that had previously only been confirmed for PSN, has now been spotted on the radar of other formats, including Steam. It’s a game about a zombie contagion and Amy, a little girl who is resistant to it. You play a woman intent on rescuing the titular zombie survivor, who must lead the little girl through dangerous environments. But this woman is not resistant to the infection: she is slowly turning into a zombie and have to deal with it by scavenging medical supplies or hugging Amy herself to stave off the march of zombification for a few moments. There’s a video below.(more…)

Here's a funny story: six years ago I interviewed for a receptionist job at Insomniac Games. As part of the interview I met with Ted Price and he tested my creative aptitude by asking me what kind of game I'd want to make if I had unlimited resources. I told him a hand-holding game. I didn't get the...

Known fact: in the horror genre, little kids of unknown origin are downright terrifying. Having to rely on them to prevent your own zombiefication only exacerbates the situation. But such is the basic premise of Amy, an inventive new entry in the survival horror genre from developer Lexis Numerique...