Amnesia: The Dark Descent's co-founder explained the 'the dynamic of Steam' to Red Barrels after Outlast's sales slowed down

Three of the most influential games from my childhood were Pokémon HeartGold, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Outlast. Knowing this, you could probably piece together the kind of person I have become—let's just say it explains a lot. So it brought a smile to my face when I learned that without one of these influential games, I wouldn't have had the other—no, Pokémon HeartGold has nothing to do with anything—it's actually Amnesia which helped bring Outlast to the world.

Red Barrels, the Outlast devs, already discussed how difficult it was to pitch Outlast to publishers in an interview with GameSpot. But they also mentioned how Amnesia: The Dark Descent was something of a lodestar for the team.

Not only did the success of Amnesia reassure Red Barrels that there was in fact a market for the kind of game they were trying to make, but the fact that no one else had really tried to ride its coattails meant there …