SoulStorm ARG

[Xavier]

I'm getting a feeling we are missing something here and I wanted to have a thread just to have a look at what might potentially be an ARG.

But first things first: I want to make clear that if I find anyone trolling in this theard they will be infracted without a warning, so please keep it clean. Also if you don't believe there is an ARG going on, fine, you don't have to post about it in this thread.

So let's start, when going on the announcement page (http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/) you can see the following message at the end of the page:

Template: Overflow, by HTML5 UP (@n33co) | modified in-house | CCA 3.0

When opening up the html code of the page you can find funny comments such as (note: I had to remove the '<' character so it's visible here):

!-- Far too many video game characters were harmed extremely badly in the making of this experience. In a sane world this would never have happened. We're sorry. -->
!-- INTRODUCTION -->!-- <<< INTREODTICcc >>> -->
!-- HELL04==five -->!-- L1PS -->
!-- <<< TRYING TO BRE===== -lostqmwaittypo- >>> -->
!-- <<< CAN ANYBO============================================ NEED TO TREYR ====== so thirsty need brew fol==== -->

When digging in the code I found references to those images:

http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal4.jpg
http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal3.jpg
http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal2.jpg

I thus extrapolated and took a look at http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal1.jpg and found this:



This looks like the start of an ARG trail to me.

And now we got a picture of Abe's hand and OWI's tweet asks us if we "notice anything":

@OddworldInc here's that hands shot in detail - https://t.co/C1Ix25cLYP - notice anything?

— Oddworld @ GDC (@OddworldInc) March 15, 2016

Can't say I see something maybe you have more luck than I do. To help here is a link to the high res version of the hand:
http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/handfull.jpg

By the way I saved all the media files on TOGG if you want to have a look:
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...?/category/101
I also saved a copy of the announcement page on my server here:
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...Soulstorm.html

[Varrok]

Frankly I can'y see anything extraordinary about the hand render.

At some point I was thinking the tatoo might be different.


But it's not, really.

[32degrees]

i haven't notice anything extraordinary about the hand maybe I should take a closer look at it

[Xavier]

Thinking of it maybe the hand isn't the best place to start. They could also have hidden loads of stuff in those glitching animations:
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...?/category/102

[Varrok]

I don't really think there's *anything* there.

I'm having doubts there really is a ARG here. You know, web developers more often than not add easter eggs to the sites they make without ARGs

[Manco]

!-- HELL04==five -->!-- L1PS -->

This snippet of code contains the numbers 0, 4, 5 and 1. If there’s an ARG going on, then they could be needed for a password or cypher at some point.

I’m playing with the reveal1.jpg in an image editor, so far not seeing much – although the image itself is definitely an obscured shot of Abe’s chest, with the dark splotch below the word “can” looking suspiciously like a heart.

Regarding the hand reveal – the only things noteworthy that I can see are the patterns on the tattoo, the scar above the pinky, and the pinky’s lack of visible tip/nail.

EDIT: Not sure if this is just some weird redirecting, but appending a number string to the oddworld.com/soulstorm/ URL will redirect to this page: http://www.oddworld.com/2013/04/soul...ter-today/451/

Doing this to the oddworld.com URL just results in a 404.


EDIT2: Is this guy in the footer of oddworld.com new? I’m sure this used to be just Abe, and the image URL is even abestanding.png:

[Xavier]

Hey Manco, thanks for your contribution

That's some weird redirecting indeed but I'm sure this image was there before, that's where I got it from when putting it up on TOGG months ago.

[Crashpunk]

Is this guy in the footer of oddworld.com new? I’m sure this used to be just Abe, and the image URL is even abestanding.png:

That's always been there. I saved that image a while ago when trying to find images for my thumbnails ect.

It used to be transparent though. I guess they just updated it.

[abe619]

I'm definitely thinking it could be an ARG, I'm not too good at this but I'd think the rate at which the animations glitch could be morse code.

EDIT:
In Manco's post, I just noticed the numbers he discovered with the exception of the zero are all there in sequence in the exact same order in the redirected page he linked to.

[Manco]

Yeah, I figured it was a long shot, but mentioned it anyways.

I thus extrapolated and took a look at http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal1.jpg

If there’s anything then getting all of this text is probably important. I can read:

CAN YOU SE
HARD TO KN
BREAKING
THROUGH H
ON NEED A

Combining this with the text in the HTML code, it looks like there’s someone trying to “break through” and communicate with us.

EDIT:

@livebyfoma

— Oddworld @ GDC (@OddworldInc) March 15, 2016

Whoever’s running the Twitter account is a tease.

[Scrabaniac]

I literally cannot see anything in that hand picture. The only things I could possible suggest they are hinting towards is either the pattern in the hand scar, or the stitches scar with the dots on the right. Other than that, no idea.

[Manco]

Thinking of it maybe the hand isn't the best place to start. They could also have hidden loads of stuff in those glitching animations:
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...?/category/102

I’ve gone frame-by-frame through the videos (and the GIF versions), there’s nothing in plain sight.


Assuming there is an ARG, I’m starting to think either it hasn’t started yet (and we need to wait for more info), or there’s some more complex techniques being used to hide clues. Trouble is, there’s a lot of possibilities.

[abe619]

I gave importing the hand reveal image in audacity as raw data a try but nothing impressive happened, although I didn't give it too much time.

But I'm still thinking they probably hid something inside one of the files themselves instead of the content, although in one of the glitchy videos I could've sworn I saw very pixelated, very low res text but didn't know how to enhance it but I could be wrong.

[Manco]

Made the text clearer.

I gave importing the hand reveal image in audacity as raw data a try but nothing impressive happened, although I didn't give it too much time.

Can you try that with the reveal images in Xavier’s post? I don’t have Audacity installed.


EDIT: Xavier, there’s another HTML comment you missed on line 33:

!-- <<< ON >>> -->

EDIT2: TREYR is an anagram for retry.

[STM]

Itd be really cool if this was some sort of build up or reveal for teasers about the game, but I really don't care for an Oddworld ARG...

[Manco]

Trying out more URLs. oddworld.com/soulstorm/scrab redirects to: http://www.oddworld.com/2013/01/scrab-cakes-anyone/

EDIT: So does oddworld.com/scrab, and oddworld.com/soulstorm/alf redirects to http://www.oddworld.com/alf/. This may be a red herring.

[Xavier]

I wonder if the dots in this image could align and point out some letters:
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...8/category/103

I'd do it but I don't have the appropriate software.

[FrustratedAssassin]

Didn't that image say "Monday"? I doubt it's relevant to the current phase.

[Manco]

No dice:



It aligns with I, E and K, but not well enough with any of the other letters for it to be a 100% positive result. Could just be coincidence.

[abe619]

Wasn't that an E?
Just tried taking another look at the image in audacity, I couldn't figure it out exactly but I think I got close to finding something, could be just my imagination, but when you view the pitch map/graph/whatever for the track from the image, it almost looks like the dots are supposed to spell something or have some sort of symbol.

[Manco]

Yeah, that’s an E.

Can you show us a screenshot? What image are you putting into Audacity?

[abe619]

Using this image and importing it into audacity using A-Law, when set to show pitch instead of waveform, at lower sample rates, I get what looks like this.

[Scrabaniac]

I personally cannot see anything in that audacity picture

[Manco]

Using this image and importing it into audacity using A-Law, when set to show pitch instead of waveform, at lower sample rates, I get what looks like this.

I can almost see some vertical lines in there, but i’s too spread out. Is there any way to squash that down?

It could very easily just be confirmation bias, though.

EDIT: Have you tried other images? What about the MP4 videos on the site, maybe there’s some hidden audio in those?

[Scrabaniac]

I was just messing around in my photo editor too

NOTE: This is NOT official, I was just messing around with some colour tools

[Varrok]

So you added a green sort-of tint and stars, right?

[Scrabaniac]

it was a blue and green hue, no idea where the stars came from

[Varrok]

They weren't there before.

[Scrabaniac]

I know, it is probably a light setting in the colour tool.

[abe619]

....Wait, maybe they were hidden there? they kind of seem vaguely reminiscent of the possession orbs, or those horrible stars when using some wells in MO.