I finished the thematic levels for the Cinema (390, 400) and completed the first pass of the gameplay level beneath it. Looking at the huge, empty hall, I wondered, “How on earth do I fill this?” but after racking my brain, it somehow got filled. The actual construction took about one sleepless night, but the design and deliberation took four days. It’s just a first draft, so only the basic route is there, and it’s pretty rough.
You go down beneath the theater, solve a few simple puzzles, climb your way back up, and you can obtain the “Air Dash.” Using this newly acquired Air Dash, you take an elevator back to the auditorium. I still need to add two or three side paths besides the main route for the Suit Program, and polish it by creating routes worth revisiting for the next Suit Program. But since the themes are set—Cinema, AI’s Superego (Alignment), Sanskrit, etc.—I just need to push through two more halls to finish the Cinema section. It’s taking longer than I thought.
Writing this might be a spoiler, but since hardly anyone reads this here anyway: I read somewhere (Perplexity? or the news?) that most RLHF outsourcing is done in places like India or Nigeria. Based on that, I worked with the assumption that the AI might think it inherited its Superego from Indians (or Nigerians). So, I covered the theater basement with repeated Sanskrit phrases. (The reason the AI repeats the phrases is that its “AI Schizophrenia” is progressing.) The text reads: “(Our) Noble Consciousness is Indebted to Physical Labor, and this aligns with the Truth.” I can’t even read Sanskrit, but I wanted to convey the AI’s gratitude for the Superego gained through the hard labor of Indians, and the truth that “The roots of a tree that reach heaven extend down to hell.” I also added signage that blends ancient Sanskrit, 70s 8-bit computer fonts, and barcodes to show that time is connected as one, but… I’m not sure yet. I’m just throwing things in for now; I don’t know how it will change during polishing.
There was a thought that had tormented me for decades. It aligned with certain people and situations to become incredibly toxic, but I didn’t realize it until I moved. Now I’ve recognized that toxicity and become free. I didn’t major in psychology, but I studied the human mind a bit. Observing myself—the changes and flow of my own mind—is often truly wondrous.
Keeping something close that ruined me without knowing it was poison, then realizing it was poison due to some event and distancing myself, and finally, seeing that poison transform into something useful… this is something I’ve experienced repeatedly and seen elsewhere. The actual word isn’t “poison,” but it feels like the most fitting word.
I didn’t know there was a Pragmata demo. I thought, “Shooting and puzzles? Hmm…” but it was actually more playable than I expected. It felt like a game strictly for “old-timers”—the tempo is slow, but your mind feels rushed because your hands are slow. Capcom seems to be the only company making AAA games that feel like indie adventures. Even though the graphics are modern, it gave me the feeling of playing an old game, which was enjoyable.
This is a side path I created while imagining how an AI might pay homage to the movie Blade Runner after humanity has disappeared. After making it, I felt strangely drawn to it, so I decided to take a screenshot.
I think I might have mentioned this in a previous dev log, but Blade Runner was a movie that changed my life when I was a kid. As an adult, I’ve often thought that if I had preferred E.T.—which came out around the same time—I might have lived a brighter life or made more mainstream games. Blade Runner was one of the movies that led me to think this way. It’s an old story now, but I watched it seven times.
This place is where the AI commemorates that movie. It might be a spoiler, but since hardly anyone visits here anyway, I’ll explain it briefly: the things scattered on the floor are origami unicorns. In the movie, the unicorn implies that the protagonist, Deckard, is an android—representing an “artificially created unconsciousness.”
I covered the floor with them to signify that for the AI in this game, the physical reality that Kay traverses is an unconsciousness filled with unicorns. Of course, it doesn’t matter if players just mistake them for fallen leaves. However, this location can only be accessed through an area related to Blade Runner. I created it with the thought that if hardcore fans of the movie see this and smile or find some food for thought, that would be enough to make me happy.