Penumbra

It all began when Frictional Games was on a thesis job, which became a 2005 platformer called Energetic. Frictional co-founder Thomas Grip explained that he cleaned up the engine (which was of course a bit rushed in some places), then in the end mostly added a 3D layer on top of the 2D. This means one could still make a tile game using the HPL engine.

The game can be downloaded here (v1.0) or here (v1.1).

To do: There's more stuff at the Penumbra Wiki.

Debugging Options#

In Penumbra/redist/settings.cfg is the following line of text:

Changing these options to true will enable the following:

• ShowHealth - Shows the player's health.
• ShowSoundsPlaying - Displays the file names of the sounds playing and how loud they are playing.
• LogResources - Creates a file named hpl.txt in the redist folder, showing resources as they're being loaded into the game.

Hunter#

The Hunter has a texture file, as well as some animations made for it. However, the model maker left Frictional before its model could be made. As a result, only the Roach is present as an enemy throughout the whole demo. Furthermore, its textures are only present in the original 1.0 release.

Unused Graphics#

A fairly detailed texture map for a corpse. However, there aren't really any corpses to speak of.

Unused Maps#

In level01_02_entrance.hps, under the "OnStart" script (runs the first time a map is loaded), there's a mentioned setup link to a nonexistent map called level01_01_tunnel.dae.

void OnStart()
{           
//----SET UP LINKS-----------------------
    /*SetupLink(    "link01", //Link name
            "level01_01_tunnel.dae", //New map
            "link02", //Positon on new map
            "","", //Stop and end sound.
            0.5f , 0.5f);//Fade out and in time (seconds).*/

Considering that "level01_02_entrance.dae" is the "second" level and when thinking of Penumbra: Overture, it is possible that the removed map was the tunnels before actually reaching the entrance where the tech demo starts.

testbana2.dae#

This test map (literally translated from Swedish) consists of a "blank document" cube, with flashlight batteries and flares on the floor. It might have been created to test if items can be picked up.

Kitchen#

There are a few completed objects, but most of them only have basic textures remaining.

Bathroom#

Slightly less complete, with no completed models.

Unused Text#

<CATEGORY Name="Misc">
    <Entry Name="Greeting">Welcome to The Hatch, a mighty fine game!</Entry>
    <Entry Name="CokeCan">Coke can</Entry>
  </CATEGORY>
  <CATEGORY Name="Tests">
    <Entry Name="Ballon">Can you get a ballon into the fancy "particle-accelerator"? If you do, hold your breath while the ballon slowly twinkles upwards.</Entry>

Under the category "Items":

<Entry Name="SteelPin01Part1">Steel pin part 1</Entry>
    <Entry Name="SteelPin01Part1Desc">Part 1 of the steel pin.</Entry>
    <Entry Name="SteelPin01Part2">Steel pin part 2</Entry>
    <Entry Name="SteelPin01Part2Desc">Part 2 of the steel pin.</Entry>

Apparently, the steel pin was to have another use considering the plate cutter in the workshop, but the two items are set to not be active in level01_06_workshop.hps, indicating this was cut for not having any particular use.

Revisional Differences#

In 2007, before Penumbra: Overture was released, a v1.1 patch for the tech demo was released which upgraded several things.

• Graphics card support, like the GeForce 3 - 4 and Radeon 8500 - 9250 series.
• French, Italian, Spanish, and German translations added.
• Nicer manual layout.
• New textures, including for props that originally only had blank-colored UV maps for textures. The background title graphic was also changed:

Original	v1.1

• Some new music (with intro song music_story.ogg changed to fit the suspense and eeriness). The main menu music was also changed a little bit:

• Support for more graphics options (anti-aliasing, anostrophic filtering, texture quality, etc.).
• Improved graphical quality (better specular, refresh rate check, etc.).
• Various bug fixes in some places, notably the Storage room, the corridor, and the second floor level.²

References#