Soulstorm ARG continues - ORIGINS
 

Hello everyone!

Today we got a new Tweet from Spirit of 1029:

Our future depends on us understanding our past. We must know where we come from.

— SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) March 15, 2018

Following this the logo on 1029.io changed. It now contains more letters than just the word "MAGOG". The following were found as of now: S, I, N, O, R. The community speculates that it stands for "IRONS". Also the page contains a new comment:

"too obvious? i dunno. it's soon though. i can't wait."

After that a member noticed, that the 404 site contained new letters too. These were: N, I, G, I, O, R, S from which the word "ORIGINS" was made. This site contains another new comment:

"me neither. it's going to be great."

The meanings of these comments are currently unknown.

After this we got a second Tweet from SO1029:

We know you can hear us. We know you are ready to help. We will show you more when the time is right. Keep watching.

— SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) March 15, 2018

Currently this is where we are. OWI_Pete has been teasing that there is still stuff we have to find in "the old puzzles".

I'll keep you updated.

Don't forget the source code messages

"too obvious? i dunno. it's soon though. i can't wait." Found on the homepage

"me neither. it's going to be great" Found on the 404 error page.

Edit: Ahh you've edited them into the original post :)

My Odd, I thought I was dreaming for a second. The ARG is back, boys!

There is a new channel on the Official Oddworld Discord called "origins":


Currently it doesn't contain anything remarkable.

EDIT: Varrok and I posted some messages there, which were deleted. I assume something big is coming soon.

This was posted on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOdd...3699343667065/

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen.../origins_1.mp4

A video was posted in the channel.

The video contains rapid flickering between this sentence: "EXPLORE HIS ORIGINS" and multiple images depicting AO concept art. There is also a date in it: 2018. 03. 20.

My theory is that the Lost Archives / something else related to AO's behind-the-scenes are going to be released as a documentary/book.

I'm guessing it's the next stage in the Instagram/social media uploads; concept art relating to Abe before they nailed down the background story (so we'll probably see him as a fisherman, as a tribal, running around Monsaic etc etc?)

Here are the pictures from the video.

The way I see it, it must be something big to warrant it's own chat in the Official Oddworld Discord.

In before Soulstorm is being renamed to Abe's Origins :D

You guys, it's obviously New N Tasty DLC.

Or maybe a new art book?

Or something being done with the Abe's Oddysee source code?

Yes, it's a new art book.

We will all find out in: Now

https://i.imgur.com/CFFQ0SGl.jpg
: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ame-collection







Also no arg stuff...as far as i see...



unless they put clues in the book? hmmm

You know, I think the ARG is pretty much over at this point. It led up to the reveal of that teaser at EGX. Seems to me that story 'arc' is pretty much over.

Sadly, you're may be right. Weren't there supposed to be like 5 or six images to the ARG? Now on the Soulstorm page it only shows the four pics that were discovered and that's it, instead of showing how many more were locked.

The book will have Soulstorm images according to the campaign, however isn't set to be shipped until April 2019. I'd like to think Soulstorm would have released by then!

The book looks great, I've backed the Kickstarter. My only concern is how much of it will be reprinted material from The First Ten Years, and how much will be new material. As we've seen from the Lost Archives, a sizeable amount of artwork was included in the previous book.

We can only hope we see some new stuff, lost archives yeah but also things that owi hasn't yet posted. But having an offical physical collection bound up is still pretty cool, no?

The Kickstarter is now successfully funded after 48 hours, £45,000+. Not bad going at all. Stretch goals tba, but all book/game backers will receive all respective stretch goals.

I was frothing when I read it included "original game design documents." I'm so keen for this book.

Also of note, est. delivery is April 2019, and as the book contains Soulstorm art, it means the game will be out pretty much within the year!

Also, I assume the Lost Archives are being chosen by the same people who are choosing content for the book, so I'm not really all that sure about their judgement.

And, yes, I know this makes me a super whiny fan. But I want to see interesting new stuff, damnit.

As far as the online promotion goes, I can totally understand it, in the sense that there are lots of people who haven't seen that artwork before and who might have missed the chance to get The First Ten Years at a reasonable price.

But for this book, I would hope this would be something of a Vol 2, to complement TFTY and continue the tradition, as opposed to being essentially a 90% rerelease. From the sounds of it, there should be sufficient new content and interviews.

This isn't the case.

If not, then by who?

Indie by Design are selecting the images for their book. Internal Oddworld publishing are selecting the images for The Lost Archives.

Just backed the book yesterday evening - exactly the sort of content I want from Oddworld. Looking forward to it!

I backed it too, went for the top tier of course. I've gotta say that IndieByDesign have been really good with communication with us through both kickstarter comments and answering questions in the official discord.

I'm very strapped for cash at the moment. Is the book worth owning if I already own and regularly flick through the last art book?

Since they say it contains vastly different material, I would assume so

Independent By Design's other book is available on their website, so you'll probably be able to pick it up in the future.

Am I the only person who forgot this Kickstarter was going on? It's like they hit the target and stopped promoting it.

They said it would be available at a retail price, £30 is heavily discounted.

I suppose, being cynical, they don't really need to advertise it now they've got the money required to get it done.

Yeah, but every Kickstarter can be bigger and better.


EDIT: There was an email out today with a Twitter poll to choose one of the art cards. I suspect more than 50% of the population will choose the last one in the list, because Chicks Dig Elum.

To be fair, I think this Kickstater has been less publicised, but it's not needed the push like plush dolls did. That struggled to get over the initial hurdle, if I remember correctly. This is flying with minimal work. Sad, I always thought I'd snap up an Abe toy should one become available, but when it came to it, the asking price + postage was just too much for me to bite. Whereas this art book, I was instantly on board. *Insert Fry take my money meme*

Not to mention that the quality of the dolls was kinda lacking.

The book has done really well. I backed both campaigns (actually snapped up the remaining merch from the ECStoy store afterwards too, to get the full set). I have to say, from the outset, the communication from the book makers has been infinitely better than from ESCtoy. They're providing regular comments and updates and keeping everyone in the loop.

Interesting they've said they front-loaded the better stretch goals, so they can improve the book early on. However, that does seem to have left us in a position where the stretch goals get less and less interesting as time goes on. I mean, the jump from £92k to £110k between the last stretch goals is massive (that's like 40% of the original target) and for that, we get a digital copy of the game manual, which feels like it should be included anyway. Contrast that with the stretch goal for 20% more pages in the book, and there's no comparison really. People would much rather have more pages again!

To be honest I'm interested to see what the employee handbook is like if we get that far. Seemed like a good way to tie up the kickstarter.

The Employee Handbook is the game manual, it's been in the game box as a physical item from the beginning of the campaign. The stretch goal at £110k is just adding a digital copy of it, which I guess is nice if you want to keep the box unopened. But still feels to me like it should've been a given in the first place, since they're already providing digital copies of the actual games for that same reason :fuzconf: