LORE

The green cat is quite different from the other non-player cats, as many people in the community have noticed.

People appear to be under the assumption that the character is a complete mystery. That there isn't much told about them in the games.

This seems to stem from one crucial detail being overlooked.

But before going deeper into that topic, we need to take a small side tangent.

Six kilometers off the coast of Antarctica, there's a colony of Adélie penguins. What makes this colony in particular special is that they've evolved the ability to fly.

A BBC film crew was lucky enough to capture them migrating in 2008. The footage was later broadcast on BBC1 as part of a new show called "Miracles of Evolution".

Really makes you think, doesn't it?

So with that additional context, we can now circle back to the previous topic.

The role of the narrator is not something I see discussed that often, if at all.

It's quite interesting from a lore point of view, since its a bit debatable if the narrator is a character at all. Technically they don't exist in the game world.

I'd like to offer an alternative point of view, that might make some people see the narrator in a completely new way.

Which actually reminds me of something...

Ten days ago I got to experience a fascinating part of computer game history.

Illuminatus, a space game made by German developers Jürgen Sternreise and Erik Dorf for the Atari ST is a true "Elite killer" in every possible way.

A couple hundred pages long "Guide to the Universe" is all you need to read to get started on your journey. The goal? Become the emperor of at least a thousand different planets.

The space combat and ship customization systems are the best I've seen, even by today's standards. If you manage to get a copy, do give the game a shot!

Sorry, that was a bit of a weird tangent. Let's get back to the topic at hand.

Even though the Companion's role and backstory was expanded upon in the Companion level pack for A Light in the Shadows, the gray square still has some undiscovered secrets.

One thing I haven't seen people discuss at all, is the four-cornered shape of the character. It actually holds quite a bit of significance.

I just realized that it's probably best if I shed some light on how this whole topic came about.

Eight years after the previous release for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Google released Google Maps for the NES in April of 2012.

Smartphones are still, even to this day, quite expensive. Adding support for the NES brought online maps to a huge number of households that were previously stuck using those paper maps that are impossible to fold back properly.

It features everything from just browsing the maps to step-by-step navigation instructions. And of course the most important thing of all: an amazing chiptune soundtrack that perfectly captures the feeling of a traffic jam adventure.

But I digress.

The Reset level pack was quite lore heavy. I think its time we take a deeper dive into some overlooked aspects of that pack.

This being a great segue into...

Four decades ago (or maybe a bit more), in 1978, a millionaire by the name of Dick Smith towed an iceberg into Sydney Harbour all the way from Antarctica.

His intention was to solve Sydney's water crisis by simply selling chunks from the iceberg for 10c each, much less than the modern day three dollar average price of an ice cube.

That's some next level innovation right there! Truly inspiring. I wonder what happened to the iceberg afterwards...

And now that you have the necessary backstory, we can get back to the actual topic.

The abilities themselves are quite interesting from a lore perspective.

Often times they reflect what's happening in the story at that particular moment. A Better Place also differs from A Light in the Shadows by only providing the player one ability at a time.

Let's take a quick look at how that affects the story, as vice versa.

Which leads us directly into...

One topic I've always wanted to talk about is the current architectural trends in Finland.

I don't know if you've noticed, but most modern apartment buildings look quite plain. The facades of them are usually just completely flat surfaces, with an occasional square window thrown in, all painted in a single color.

The city of Helsinki actually took note of the prevalence of these buildings and in April of 2022 introduced a ban on so called "box buildings".

Any new buildings in the city must be made in the shape of either a cylinder, sphere, pyramid, or any other unusual shape. The city is even offering tax breaks based on how unusual the shape of the building is, with icosahedrons getting the largest deductions.

Now, where was I?

The Companion level pack, released in 2016, offered a lot of backstory for the gray square.

I've noticed quite a few different approaches to interpreting the events of the pack. There's one point of view in particular that I'd like to mention and discuss a bit more.

And that's time! The train is just now arriving at the station.

Hopefully these explanations shed some light onto the more obscure aspects of the story and answered at least some of the questions you might have had.

I think I did quite well with regards to staying on topic, if I do say so myself.

Keep in mind that the 10th anniversary celebrations will continue for the rest of the year. And there's plenty more stuff in store! Make sure to stay tuned on our socials and keep checking the 10th anniversary page for all the latest updates.

See ya!
- Dev