Dear Readers,
Now to try out the Longest Night supplental! There's a nice introduction to it and how it was developed early on and at what stage the developers were at with the Kickstarter and everything. I love learning about this kind of stuff. Could be important for the future of game development in general!
The game has nice title art and it plays... what I think is the music from Mallard's Tomb. Or at least it sounds similar. The scene is a campfire and it's Gregg, Angus, Bea and Mae sitting around it, looking up at the stars. Looks like it was before Bea took up smoking too! Once again, I'm Mae!
I wondered aloud why I wasn't cold. Gregg said fire, that we had a fire. Angus said we have reached that level as a civilisation. I said oh... before saying I was bored. It felt like we had been here forever. Bea said we should do the Longest Night constellation thing. She seemed a lot more enthusiastic than she normally is... maybe her personality developed that way later. I was like wow, really? and Gregg said he hadn't done that since he was 6. I said no one had done that since they were 6. Bea said she didn't remember being 6. Gregg and I both said really? and she said yeah, that she didn't remember much before 8 and a half. Angus said that was very specific. Gregg said Bea was a synthetic lifeform created at age 8.5. It seems like the rest of us had slightly different personalities here too! We're very sarcastic here :)
Gregg and I joked about Bea being some kind of robot for a moment :) Then we were done. She asked if we could just do this thing and Gregg said none of us knew enough about the constellations to even do it. I was like yeah, Bea! Then, after a pause, Angus said he did. Gregg asked since when and he said since forever.
Angus then said to listen up dummies, as we were going to school! Bea said space school!
The camera then zoomed out to show the stars all around us. Bea said she couldn't see anything. Angus said we were pattern-finders and to find some patterns!
With this, the sky filled up with more stars and I was able to use a cursor to join them up. They made different sounds and I could only join up the ones that sounded similar to others of that constellation.
The first one I joined was Corvin, the Thief. Angus said he stole the diamond from the crown of Rubello, the fire-breathing pope. They got arrowed to death 200 feet from the palace. I said he didn't get to be a constellation for being a great thief, then. Bea said he did not and Angus said screw the man. Steal their diamonds. Bea observed the revolutionary zeal of kids from the suburbs in Gregg. I told her Possum Springs wasn't the suburbs. Angus said yeah, that you needed to have a city to have suburbs. I said we were in the dead centre of nowhere and that it was a 40 minute drive if you wanted to buy shoes. Angus then said he was 21 and that he wasn't a kid, telling Bea he thinks she's younger than him. Gregg said he was 21 too and that they both had full time jobs. Angus said it was as close to full time as they could get before they had to start giving them health insurance. I said I'd be 20 in 4 months! Bea then said fine, that we were all very serious adults. Angus and Gregg both said thank you.
Nice little way of establishing characters and the world here :) though there are differences between them here and how they are in the main game.
I joined more stars to make the Mice Writers, inventors of written language. Bea asked weren't there supposed to be thousands of them and I said there was only so much sky. Gregg said the Mice Writers were his sign. I said "I think that means you're thousands of geniuses." and he said accurate. So there are choices to make here too! Nice :) Also, this seems a bit like Gemini, since there are two of them...
I went anti-clockwise and joined up Ibon, the first singer. Bea asked if we ever saw the opera based on this. I said "No?" and she said it was brilliant and it was like 21 hours long and that 100 years ago it played in Bright Harbour. The stage exploded during the part where Ibon crashes his balloon into the Wyrld Wyrm. Gregg said sweeet and I asked if anyone was killed. Bea said a lot of people! Angus said oh... Bea then said if we couldn't laugh at that, she had bad news about the rest of history!
Next up was Marmanodes, the Little King. Angus said he was a king who was little and he didn't know anything else other than that. Bea said that apparently a little king was big news back then. She didn't think he was even supposed to be all that small. Angus and Bea then imagined a big news report from back then about the king being immortalised in the night sky, just for having small shoes! I said I was kinda short and Gregg said Mae Borowski: Constellation. Bea said naw, that everyone who picked the constellations was dead now.
Lucio next. Gregg was like aw yeah! and I was like "Who?". He said it was Lucio the fox and they had to spear him to the ground to keep him down. I asked how so and he said in general. Angus said you could see why this one was so popular. Looks a bit gruesome to me! The spear is there and all!
Next was Quinona, who was executed by some king somewhere. Angus said her head continued to speak against her murderers for years. I said that was pretty sweet. Bea said ugh, you'd think, right? But in the story she was portrayed as annoying, like she was being a martyr about literally being martyred. She said they eventually put her head in a trunk and threw it in a river. I was like "Geez!" and Bea said ikr? Angus then said that supposedly if you put your head underwater in some river in Italy, she'll tell you about her murder. They renamed it the River of Guilt. Bea said it wasn't like the guilt of her murderers, it was more like she's giving you a guilt trip for something stupid. I said this constellation was garbage. Bea then said if I chopped her head off, she'd bite mine off! Gregg then said Happy Longest Night, everyone!
Next was Invenerus, the inventor of music. Bea said they had a nice beak and it reminded her of Germ. Angus laughed a bit and Gregg said Germ wasn't even musical, like at all. I said "Who?" and Gregg said it was Germ, that hangs out! Germ! Bea asked where he was and Gregg said he was doing gosh knows what with whatever weird family he had. Bea imagined him secretly being some kind of trickster wizard. I said I had no idea who they were talking about. Gregg said I had space sickness and that it took away my memory! Angus joked to eject me from the airlock! Bea said seriously, that I knew Germ! I said wait, and asked if we were in space and why wasn't I cold?
A Fish next. I asked about anything else and Angus just said it was a fish. He gave a fun fact though, saying Fish was his sign! I said "I think that means you're adaptable and smelly.". The other choice I had wasn't nice either. Gregg said I got one of those right, huh cap'n? Angus responded by saying it was a manly musk he had going on here. Gregg said he smelled like that stuff he got him finally. Gregg said it was Ice Hawk. It had a picture of an ice hawk on it. Angus said he smelled quite masculine. And Gregg added that it was like an ice hawk. Bea graciously said she thought Angus smelled nice and he thanked her for saying it. I asked what an ice hawk was.
Next up was Tollmetron. Angus said it rings at the end of the world and Mundy shakes everything off her back. He also thought that it all catches fire too. Gregg said it all made sense back then. I added that it was back when people were like wicked dumb. Bea agreed, saying she didn't mean to sound like a jerk, but people were super dumb back then. Angus said it was all relative and I said it was also full of dumb people. Angus said beautiful, dumb people.
Big one next. Mundy, the World Fish. He said back then they thought whales were fish and that the world was on one. I said Mundy was my sign. Bea was like oh gosh, of course it was. I was like hey! What did she mean by that! Gregg then made some kind of weird noise. I said if any of this meant anything then it might mean something but it doesn't so... it doesn't. Gregg made the weird sound again and Bea made it too. I asked them what they were doing and Gregg said they were making whale noises.
Much smaller one next called Harmonium, the head of the singing orders of angels. Bea was like ugh and said her mom always said she thought she looked like this one. I said I could see it! She said she sure couldn't. I said she was leading so many cranky angels, grouching hard, across the sky. Bea just made ellipses before saying ok and Angus jumped in with saying we were moving on. Bea really does look like that constellation :)
The famous Rubello next, pope sometime in the 1400s. Angus said they were crazy times. Bea said she loved this one. Angus said there were two rival popes and Rubello won by opening his mouth and consuming them with fire. And then he ate them. I was like what, Bea was like Bwaaah! and Gregg said he knew this one! I said that was amazing. Angus then said that historically, his extended family poisoned one and stabbed the other before throwing him into a canal. Bea added that he did eat them and Angus confirmed that yes, that part was true. I said that was the raddest thing I had ever heard! Bea made some chomping noises and pretended whoops! I ate you. Now I'm the pope!
Tiniest one next called the Broken Snake, the first thing that talked. Bea said that this story had always made her so annoyed. I said I was totally the kid in Sunday school who pitched a fit over this story. Bea said she remembered me getting sent out to adult church to sit with my parents. I said there was no punch and cookies for me! Gregg said he missed out on all of that. Angus said he didn't even!
And that was it! All 13 of them! The wheel of constellations spun around and made all their different instrument noises as the scene zoomed out. Bea thanked Angus and I said that was pretty great! Gregg said he was a big 'ol nerd, cap'n :) and Angus said yes. Yes he was :) Gregg said he should be a professor and Angus said he liked to think he filled that role at the video store.
Bea said she should probably get home and I said wait and that I just realised that I hadn't hung out with her in years. She said what? and I said "Yeah, not since like 7th grade?". She then said she remembered as she was there and I was being a massive jerk. I then said but why was I at a Longest Night bonfire with her? and she said it was because I just missed her so much!
Things got all lucid and weird then! I said wait, were we actually in space? Angus made an ellipsis. I continued, saying but I was warm, and breathing? What was I sitting on? Angus said tyrannosaurus pattern and I said what? I then said oh gosh... I hadn't seen Gregg or Angus for a year and a half. Gregg said regret and emptiness! I said I didn't go home for Longest Night. Bea said laundry day! Gregg said apple juice taste from when I threw up earlier. Bea said I had to call home. Gregg said I didn't want to call home. Angus said it was too late to take the bus. Bea asked me what made me think of her today? Gregg said I didn't want to take the bus and this was my new life. Bea asked if it was still new after a year and a half? Angus said underwear adjust! Gregg said next year would be new again! Bea said next me would be new again! Angus said leg stretch!
Finally, I said come on, this was getting stupid. Was I seriously...
All of a sudden an annoying cell phone alarm went off. The only thing on screen was my face, me opening my eyes, thinking well, home's not gonna call itself...
That was the supplemental game! It was all a dream! I thought maybe it was sometime in the past but no it was a dream from when I was being miserable in my college dorm room! Just before going home too. It just showed my face, eyes half open. Dark all around.
So this supplemental game was released a few years before the game itself? I guess that still checks out and makes sense. I only knew what this game was like after it came out. Imagine being an excited Kickstarter backer back then!
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