Since this year is the 10 year anniversary of the series, it felt appropriate to take a moment and shed some light on the more mysterious aspects of the story.

I do realize that I have a reputation for rambling on a bit at times, taking side tangents whenever the opportunity presents itself. I'll do my best to keep it brief and to the point this time.

As I'm writing this, I'm traveling via train to a fishing competition hosted by the legendary Aprilli Kuravesi. This works out perfectly as a deadline. I'll explain as much as I can for the duration of the journey, and whatever is on the page when I arrive is what's released. Should keep the pressure on to avoid unnecessary detail and to only focus on what's truly relevant.

Ready?

Let's go!

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The purple cat. Obviously I'm not yet ready to reveal everything regarding this mysterious entity. But, for this special occasion, I think it's time to shed some light on who/what "the purple cat" really is.

Are you ready for the reveal of a lifetime?

This being a great segue into...

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Do you ever feel like there's more to a webpage than what meets the eye?

Hypothetically, let's say you're on a page which seems to just be an endless amount of rambling paragraphs, with wild and nonsensical tangents to completely irrelevant topics and obvious hoaxes.

But as you keep reading you get this feeling that there has to be something more here. Perhaps something hidden.

Every time you come back it seems like the order of the paragraphs has changed, with some sections going completely missing. You're sure this page used to talk about penguins, but now it's about blocky apartment buildings.

There must to be some sort of order to all of it, but what is it? Where is it? Maybe if you come back enough times and let the text rearrange itself as it sees fit, a pattern will emerge.

And as you close in on the final solution, a single word keeps repeating in your head. The word of the year.

...

Just me? Eh, alright.

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

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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.

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

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Two is probably one of my favorite numbers. So many of my own personal favorite games have the number "2" in them: Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Portal 2: Peer Review, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal 2: Sixense MotionPack, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and of course: Team Fortress 2 which Reddit actually bought from Valve back in 2013.

Or at least that's what Reddit thought. It actually went the other way around, with Valve buying Reddit by sneakily changing the documents while they distracted Reddit's legal team by having one of their employees launch a squirrel with a t-shirt cannon directly onto the meeting room window from across the street. Wild stuff.

Lesson of the day: the business world can be quite cruel. Especially towards squirrels.

What was I talking about again?

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

Which actually reminds me of something...

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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!

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

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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.

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

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Eleven out of twelve people who eat burgers with their left hands have reportedly had trouble doing so, based on a study done in the 1950s.

Burger King found out about this and promptly developed and rolled out the left handed Whopper in 1957. They accomplished this feat by carefully rotating each of the condiments by exactly 180 degrees. This in turn resulted in a weight distribution much better suited for left handed eating, with less of the toppings spilling out of the burger.

A total of 94% of left handed people reported an improved burger consumption experience as a result of this change.

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

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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.

Speaking of which...

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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?

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Lumi (that being the name of cat you play as in both games) has some additional bits of lore that, while written down in the official internal story documents, haven't yet been revealed to the public.

Fun fact: the name "Lumi" isn't actually mentioned in the games. That knowledge is exclusive to the world outside the games. It seems fitting to continue this tradition, and reveal something more about Lumi in the same manner.

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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