Chapter 9: Inside the Tower - NOTES

o   I didn’t really interact that much with Uncle Friendly in the game, but I got the impression that he was kind of pompous and if they Vendors and Street Spirits needed a leader I imagined he would be the one to do it. It helps that he’s one of the only named Vendors in Ur.

o   I also assumed the Vendors were much more organized than the Glitchen and would probably make plans for an emergency situation like the world only partly ending.

o   The whole Wine of the Dead idea was another abandoned plot point. I originally wanted to have Wonder purposefully die and explore Naraka to bring back the Wine of the Dead, but it felt unnecessary. I also considered bringing Hell’s Bartender into the scene, but he got axed when I didn’t end up using the Wine of the Dead at all.

o   I took some liberties with the layout of the tower. The Mezzanine isn’t actually connected to the rooms accessible by the main entrance at all, but there were several areas marked “Under Construction” in the actual tower, so I used them to my advantage to make getting around the tower easier.

o   The Interrogation Room is an actual area that was under development in the game at one time. According to the devs it was a room where misbehaving Glitchen would be taken and interrogated and persuaded to behave or else. Here is a screenshot and a video.

o   All of the rooms in the Mezzanine are real rooms in the tower. The Hall of Records, as far as I know, was never accessible. The Hall of Rejected Concepts was a room added shortly before the shutdown to showcase ideas that were considered for the game, but ultimately were never implemented for one reason or another.

o   The log with a face and arms lying on the floor of the Rook Museum is, of course, Greeterbot Sentry G-42.

o   If you never experienced the Rook Museum quest, or would like to relive it, here is the video I used for most of my research while writing this chapter. It’s got the entire quest from the beginning, but the actual museum bit starts around 1:40.

o   I knew from the very beginning that Wonder would freak out when she/he learned about the Rook and I knew I wanted that to happen after visiting the Rook Museum. It wasn’t until I was watching the video and listening to the audio for all of the exhibits that I got the idea to intersperse their dialogue with the voice over. It was a total last-minute idea, but I think it worked well to end the chapter.