Quarto
Unknown Enemy
So... first up, thanks to everyone who voted for us in the Fan Project of the Year contest! Mind you, I wouldn't be the arrogant jerk that I am if I didn't admit that, you know, I would've been rather disappointed (shocked/horrified/surprised... and I'd sulk!) if we didn't win, what with Episode 5 and all that .
By the way, 2009 was the last year that we were eligible - for sure, we'll be releasing a patch or two during 2010 (there's still a couple of unfinished issues, like the sim), but hopefully the CIC will not allow us to be nominated again - or if they do, hopefully you guys will have the good sense to vote for a project that's actually active. Having worked on Standoff (and before that, UE) for so many years, our team has collected up a disturbing number of Fan Project of the Year and Website of the Year awards over the years (not all winners, there was some runner-ups, as well) - in fact, far, far too many, given that each award actually implied another year of development. But, here's an interesting bit of info for all those of you that sit on the sidelines and cheer us fan project folks on - by far the most motivating award we ever got was the one we received in the 2006 competition... where we won nothing at all, and indeed, weren't even nominated for anything. Ouch - that really pushes you to make better progress the next year. So, think about that when you vote again at the end of this year - you don't only get to reward the active fan projects, but you can also motivate the less active ones by ignoring them .
Now, moving on to the actual subject of this thread. Sometimes, as we approach a release, we actually have time to add one or two easter eggs into the game. Usually, these are just silly things - click on something, and get a weird sound or voiceover. Episode 5, however, featured an easter egg that, I believe, might actually be more interesting to some people than the rest of the game. Amazingly enough, while Iceblade hinted at finding this easter egg just two days after the initial release... nobody else ever found it (or, at least, nobody ever posted about it). At first, I waited, waited, waited... then, what with my wedding, honeymoon, and life in general, I just plain forgot about it (and, I suspect, in the process I will have made a few people mad, for sitting on this kind of thing for so many months - my apologies!). I was reminded about it recently by that Kilrathi language thread - but decided not to post about it while the voting was still going on (...and nearly forgot about it again, in the process).
So, here's the challenge - there's a few easter eggs in the final Standoff release, can you find the one I'm talking about, near the end of the game? It's not, let me assure you, gibberish - so the second challege is, can you decrypt it? Plus, a bonus question - can you identify the song clip in the background and who's playing it?
Just one detail - when you find the easter egg, please post about how to find it (and show a screenshot) in this thread before you get to work on decrypting it. Looking for easter eggs is enjoyable, but in this particular case, it's the decryption that's gonna be the real fun, so don't forget to share!
(besides, there's no reward for being the first - and you may need help decrypting )
By the way, 2009 was the last year that we were eligible - for sure, we'll be releasing a patch or two during 2010 (there's still a couple of unfinished issues, like the sim), but hopefully the CIC will not allow us to be nominated again - or if they do, hopefully you guys will have the good sense to vote for a project that's actually active. Having worked on Standoff (and before that, UE) for so many years, our team has collected up a disturbing number of Fan Project of the Year and Website of the Year awards over the years (not all winners, there was some runner-ups, as well) - in fact, far, far too many, given that each award actually implied another year of development. But, here's an interesting bit of info for all those of you that sit on the sidelines and cheer us fan project folks on - by far the most motivating award we ever got was the one we received in the 2006 competition... where we won nothing at all, and indeed, weren't even nominated for anything. Ouch - that really pushes you to make better progress the next year. So, think about that when you vote again at the end of this year - you don't only get to reward the active fan projects, but you can also motivate the less active ones by ignoring them .
Now, moving on to the actual subject of this thread. Sometimes, as we approach a release, we actually have time to add one or two easter eggs into the game. Usually, these are just silly things - click on something, and get a weird sound or voiceover. Episode 5, however, featured an easter egg that, I believe, might actually be more interesting to some people than the rest of the game. Amazingly enough, while Iceblade hinted at finding this easter egg just two days after the initial release... nobody else ever found it (or, at least, nobody ever posted about it). At first, I waited, waited, waited... then, what with my wedding, honeymoon, and life in general, I just plain forgot about it (and, I suspect, in the process I will have made a few people mad, for sitting on this kind of thing for so many months - my apologies!). I was reminded about it recently by that Kilrathi language thread - but decided not to post about it while the voting was still going on (...and nearly forgot about it again, in the process).
So, here's the challenge - there's a few easter eggs in the final Standoff release, can you find the one I'm talking about, near the end of the game? It's not, let me assure you, gibberish - so the second challege is, can you decrypt it? Plus, a bonus question - can you identify the song clip in the background and who's playing it?
Just one detail - when you find the easter egg, please post about how to find it (and show a screenshot) in this thread before you get to work on decrypting it. Looking for easter eggs is enjoyable, but in this particular case, it's the decryption that's gonna be the real fun, so don't forget to share!
(besides, there's no reward for being the first - and you may need help decrypting )