Post by Aleks Samoylov in A humble request for help

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Hey,

No worries. The puzzle is VERY esoteric. It's been haunting me for years now. I mean, it was supposed to be really obtuse, since it's technically the only puzzle in the game, but I definitely feel like I overdid it. I took it just a feeew steps further than it needed to go.

Some of the scavenger hunt stuff can be pretty hard to find as well, given how big and janky the game ended up being. I myself had to pop back into the game to figure out where the Air phrase was, which basically means I had to solve one of my own riddles over half a decade after writing it. In short, as long as you're having a good time with the vibe of the game, I don't think asking for help will invalidate your experience. I think one of the other players with a similar issue actually just ended up hacking the final door open from the files, and I honestly feel like that was a perfectly valid alternative solution.

I'll try to start off with hints, but am happy to give more direct info if requested.

The Air phrase is, as the original hint puts it, "close to home," so it isn't in the "glitched" blue city (the one that's kind of large, floaty, and ... really, really blue). It's in the "daylight" apartment area, with the diner and gallery and all that. The color blue is still very much a part of getting to it.

The Shadow phrase is, in fact, in the cave. It can be a bit tricky to spot, if I remember right. Positioning matters.

You're looking for the light phrase in the correct "region" but not quite the right spot / building. "You called for help, it came out wrong," is a bigger clue than it might at first seem. However, it is, culturally, a bit of a US centric clue, I have to admit. A bit of a Twin Peaks, Season 3 reference as well. The way to access the phrase is similar, conceptually, to the way one accesses the Shadow one.

"Gematria" is the search term you're looking for. It's a form of Kabbalistic numerology wherein letters are combined to form numbers. If I was making this game today, I'd probably have included a built in Gematria calculator in the game, but my engine/coding skills were simply not at that level at the time, so it's basically one of those "google it, find a converter online, and play around with it" kind of deals.

Hope that helps a bit, and doesn't simply cause more confusion. Again, apologies for the, um, design foibles / quirks.

Oliver With An O47 days ago

Hello,

My apologies for bringing up a puzzle that you designed many years ago which you may have some regrets over, nevertheless thank you for replying.

If the air phrase starts with “A Jar”, then I think I may have already found it. I guess I didn’t really associate it with the hint because I felt the “glitchy” city suited better since I often had to fall into that, but I also had to fall into this area too. I think the phrase being on a screen threw me off too as when I saw screens before they didn’t have any “phrases” on them, and the other ones were sort of inscribed on walls. The hint was really good, I may have just put in place some mental blockers which didn’t allow me to think of it as a phrase.

I now think the light phrase has something to do with the girl looking out the window and will further inspect that. I thought it could’ve been the underground area because it matched with the “water churning” and “electricity humming” as well as it being very dark, but on further reflection, the whole region has that. As for the Twin Peaks reference I actually watched all of the franchise earlier this year (I did get a bit excited when I noticed the recreation of the red room), admittedly the “Call for help” part didn’t read as a Return reference initially, but I assume it’s referencing what “Dougie” kept repeating… would I have to delve deeper into my Twin Peaks knowledge and is that the extent US centrism in the clue (I’m from the UK so this one may just go over my head)? Another reason why I went so far down looking the “looking in the underground” route was because I interpreted that as being possibly a hospital, which would fit with the “Call for help” part.

I’ll search the cave more, the shadow hint was the one I hadn’t done all too much investigating in to.

Thanks for the “Gematria” search term, I’ll look in to that! I did briefly find a converter with different languages, I’ll assume I want to convert it using the English converter since all the phrases are in English.

Again, thank you for replying. If Itch allowed for gifs to be sent, I’d post a Dale Cooper thumbs up here.

Oliver With An O47 days ago

Hello again,

To update, I confirmed that I did find the air phrase and also found the Shadow phrase. Your hints about it being about positioning and the line “There is no shadow without light” got me trying to cast shadows to reveal a message which ended up in me accidentally finding the message just there on the wall lol.

The light one I’m still stuck on, I’ve looked everywhere I can in the over-ground section of the region. There is a locked door in one house that I’ve been unable to open, if that’s the room with the phrase in, would I be able to request a hint on how to get the key? On my search I did find a terminal with the text “fallback. init” as well as a stool and vase, would they have anything to do with it?

Very sorry for overloading you with a bunch of questions.

Thank you!

Aleks Samoylov47 days ago

No worries. I don't mind answering these, and while I do have regrets about how obtuse the puzzle ended up being (a case of massive overcompensation, due to initial fears of it being "too easy," I think), it only occasionally keeps me up at night :).

The Light hint is tangentially inspired by the Dougie story line, and the line he repeats, but it's a more ... oblique connection, I guess. In the US, the emergency services phone number is 911, and there's a secondary (tertiary really) character in the show who is sort of in the background of the Dougie story and repeats those numbers but not quite in the correct way. Hence the "it came out wrong." That should get you pretty close to it.

I am not sure, to be honest, if there's a locked door there ... I'll have to double check.

Aleks Samoylov47 days ago

Okay, so this kind of weird me out a little bit.

I can't tell if it's a glitch in the game, or perhaps the last released build of it, or another instance of me being extra obtuse (this is currently my top bet, past me got me again), or some sort of creepypasta style anomaly / "Mandela Effect."

The houses in the residential area are supposed to be numbered. I thought they were numbered. At least I thought the important one was. B ut ... they don't seem to be? I feel like I can distinctly recall placing the numbers in Unity, and playtesting the game with them there, and there being numbers, but, well, I suppose I am misremembering?

Technically, the phrase is in "unit 119," but how one figures out that it's 119 without house numbers is ... well, my currently theory is that you're supposed to refer to one of the notes found in one of the two larger houses across the street and conclude, based on the note, that said house is the one currently being "actively investigated" and then work out the other house numbers based on that one. I haven't yet confirmed whether that actually checks out or not. Maybe I figured that it was a bit of secondary clue, and that the player would be able to figure it out without that knowledge.

In other words, it's not the house with the locked door. It can be accessed without any keys or anything like that. The "in the dark, your light grew strong" hint is ultimately much more useful, relevant, and helpful than the house number, as is the stuff about water churning and electricity. I think the "call for help" may very well have been a secondary hint that really was there for the rhyme. It's amazing how much one can forget in five or six years or so.

Oliver With An O46 days ago

Hello,

I found the phrase! Thank you for your help. I guess I was sort of on the right lines with the “help” referring to emergency services with my interpretation of the underground section being a sort of hospital. The Twin Peaks reference was quite specific, had to look it up before I remembered lol.

I revisited the ending with the context of having found all the phrases and I think I appreciated it a lot more. I love the combination of the Library and Diner, I like the aesthetics of philosophy and academia very visibly being in a sort of grounded setting, it makes the philosophy exist in less of a “bubble of intellectualism”.

Over-all, I really appreciate this game for having a very clear direction in terms of the themes and vibes it wants to capture, it lets the player feel confused and possibly frustrated whilst making sense of the world. Whilst I felt maybe the player is a bit too uncatered for here, it’s a bold design that is refreshing to see. I read in a different discussion that playtesting during development was lacking, if you one day develop a game similar to this, I’d be willing to volunteer as a play tester. I respect the design of this game and would love to see it refined more! If you have any games that inspired you I would be interested in checking them out.

Thanks for the hints and for the game!

Aleks Samoylov46 days ago

No problem! I'm glad I was able to help. Thank you so much for playing, and for the kind words.

itch.io

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