Some days ago the first real information on the sequel to 2000 game American McGee’s Alice was released, among which a trailer, a bunch of screen-shots, an official website and the game’s title: Madness Returns. Although I’m going on vacation tomorrow, I just had to spend some time noting my observations of the promotional material released so far. Note that I won’t be discussing the projected quality or ‘worthiness’ of this sequel, it’ll just be observations and speculations. Also, it’s been some years since I played the original, so there’s probably going to be some things that I’ll miss out on. Please feel free to post any additions you have in the comments!

Let’s start with the trailer. You can watch it right right under here, though if you haven’t seen it yet, I advice you to watch it in HD on the website.

So, quite a bit more morbid than the original, I think (or at least as I remember it). But, for those of you who, like me, fear not, as the screenshots seem more in-tune with the original atmosphere.

Anyway, there are a lot of little details in this trailer. Let’s go from start to finish…

First of all, here’s the best shot I could get of the key at the start. I don’t really have a clue on what the key itself is about, looks like a generic fantastic Victorian key. Don’t see anything familiar of otherwise meaningful in the handle art, though through movement blur it looks somewhat like a skull. Intentional? The use of the key, however, is clear: it’s being used to hypnotise Alice. She is subsequently awoken by the sound of her name, and we are presented with a view of the therapist’s room.

Very briefly, we can see a book on the right, presumably on anatomy, with a picture of a rotting (dor)mouse carcass.

Hanging from the ceiling we see numerous arms. Though I couldn’t find anything peculiar about any of the individual arms, their collection reminds of the Mad Hatter’s occupations in the original game. He might also have made use of the anatomy book for his creations… There are many more clues coming that suggest that this room belong to the Hatter.

Such as this tea set. Note the rose decorations on the porcelain, and the Jabberwock.

Then there’s this model, half-skeleton, half-suited. Except for his face, which is half-muscles. And he’s wearing a hat.

And there’s another hat on the hatstand.

There’s a deck of cards to the right. The visible cards seem to be the Ace, Queen and Three of Hearts (FYI, the original books do not mention the Three or Ace of Hearts).

Also to the right are several glass containers holding preserved creatures. I really can’t make much out of them. The one could be a worm just as well as a horn, and the other looks like a cross between a penguin and a walrus. In the back of the room are many more of these kinds of bowls, jars and domes, which I won’t all address individually as they don’t hold significance that I can determine. There are a couple of shelves, though, that I’ll discuss.

Shrooms can’t stay absent from Alice…

A set of tools, dentist in nature? Notice the heart-shaped handles on a couple of them.

A statue of a rabbit in a scarf, and a dog skeleton. Not sure what we’re looking at below the tail of the dog, looks a bit like a wheel?

Lastly, these shelves display some interesting items. There’s the obvious chess piece, and some more clocks (one shaped like a teapot?). Additionally though, there are five or so small heads, seemingly having belonged to dolls, lying on the boards. What do these mean? Also note the empty portrait frames and the mysterious mess of brown beneath them.

Mandatory flamingo, preserved under a glass dome. Interestingly, I couldn’t find any hedgehogs.

A bunch of pipes, dials and other machinery, again reminding of the Hatter’s lair in the original game.

In the far left of the room is a painting of a person. Kudos to anyone able to figure out who that is!

A globe resides in the room. It doesn’t seem to portray Earth.

Returning to the desk, we see a book and a quill, a large hourglass, and a number of books supported by Tweedle bookends. There’s also some kind of shiny object on the corner of the desk, which I have no clue about.

Soon enough Alice starts spewing blood and her teeth fall out. Note that there is a symbol on the tooth that we see falling (more about this later), and the game logo is already briefly visible in the back.

At the end of the trailer the EA logo is shown in the form of a pocket watch (referencing Rabbit, of course). As it rotates into place, we can see the time as being just past three. I think this may be the same time as shown on the watch in the opening cut-scene of the original game, though I’m not sure whether it has any more significance. The back of the watch is revealed to be beautified with a picture of a grinning cat.

Since that was all there is to see (to my knowledge), here’s a little bit about the soundtrack of the trailer. I think on this side at least, it’s very well done. I love how, when Alice is asked about her Wonderland, all sounds seem to indicate that this question was rather a mistake. The ticking of the clock turns into a slow, demonic churning, and we hear the sounds of creaking wood, often associated with sinking or sunken ships. When we enter her mouth, we hear what seem to be the sounds of crawling insects and other horrific things. The music at the end finishes it off well and evokes the feel of the original game.

Now that we’re all done with the trailer, let’s look at some other pieces of promotional material. You can find a lot of screen-shots on the official website.

The evil card enemies have had their faces replaced by skulls. I’m not sure how I like that, but I do think the way they have the symbol of spades worked into them is really great. They also have two toes.

Another couple of images can be found on the game’s promotional Twitter account as well as American McGee’s. In particular, these pictures are:

• Allice riding a cat through a landscape of clouds and paintings
• A Rutledge Institute stamp
• A character render of the White Rabbit
• A bunch of cards portraying Wonderland characters

I’d like to use that last picture to, before I close, briefly take you away from observations and facts and closer to speculation and wild guesses.

As you can see in the picture, a number of Wonderland characters have been portrayed on playing cards. Each card also contains a symbol. These are all either Greek symbols for planets in our solar system or letters from the Greek alphabet. Assigning each symbol to the corresponding character yields the following list:

• Cheshire – Alpha (first letter of Greek alphabet)
• Duchess – Jupiter
• Hare – Saturn
• Dormouse – Saturn
• Humpty – Ceres
• Tweedles – Pluto
• Carpenter – Neptune
• Hatter – Mercury
• Caterpillar – Uranus
• Rabbit – Sun
• Alice – Omega (last letter of Greek alphabet) (she wears this sign around her neck in the original game and new promotional art)

Note the character designated as the Carpenter. I’m not sure, but I think the new character in the picture must be him, given the nail and the pencil. Also note that Saturn appears twice, both for the March Hare and the Dormouse. This might be explained by them sharing very similar, closely related roles, at least in the original game. The inclusion of Uranus as a Greek symbol is somewhat surprising, since the ancients did not know about the existence of this planet. It was only until later that it was named and a symbol was devised for it, based on the name of the discoverer: Herschel. This is also the symbol on the tooth in the trailer. Now, in dreams, teeth falling out is said to symbolize a fear of losing something. Given the Greek symbol connection, could the teeth symbolize the Wonderland characters, and is this trailer saying that Alice will lose her friends?

So much for the wild speculation. Hopefully we will soon see more of Alice: Madness Returns, and I hope you enjoyed this post!

If you don’t know what’s going on here, check this post.

A bunch of do’s and don’ts on Age Writing. Kind of practical I suppose, though most of them are pretty obvious. *looks at list so far* Oh. (what does TINA stand for? Does it come from TestiNg areA, taking the first and last characters, and two from the middle?)

Some big mushrooms, a moon in the sky and falling stars (constant meteor storm it seems? Nice idea). Should really have some lighting/darking seeing how it’s night-time. No interaction, but a little bit of atmo. Really laggy for the content it provides.

Starts off in a place of pyramids (from earth), with a ton of doors that I fail to open (good thing I can control time and space). There’s some interesting artwork outside, but the interiors are somewhat less impressive. There’s also a lot of long walks and ladders.

Great visuals and atmosphere! Unfortunately turns out to be a Chinese/Japanse (I don’t know which and so doesn’t Google Images) garden/living area, which doesn’t score well on my integration meter. There’s also no interaction whatsoever (not even a journal that I could find, which I don’t even count as interaction).

A strange laboratory with shafts leading down to a small underwater tunnel system. Not much to do, kind of disturbing to explore.

Generates a maze. I played this years ago with other people online, it’s quite fun. The concept, at least, is. To be really successful though it would need clever integration, much better graphics and the addition of atmospherics.

Has some interesting concepts and starts for puzzles, but is only partly finished (none of the puzzles seem actually operative yet). Fun to explore but suffers from long travelling distances. No atmospherics.

Whilyam’s home Age, it seems. Contains links to his other Ages, as well as several journals with notes, stories and such. Nice graphics and lighting, though I like his other Ages better. According to one journal, the outdoor environment of the Age is snowy, but I missed snowy footprints and howling winds at the door.

A set of sandstone cubes in the sea, creating a relaxing Zen-like feel. Showcases assorted items of visual and audible interest. I would like to see this quality applied to more integrated concepts, though, and was missing any interaction. I also found it a pity that jumping from cube to cube is prohibited.

Although it suffers from the textures, it’s got a nice back-story and a lab that, at least to me, feels more realistic than most so far. The musical cues (which seem self-composed?) are very Myst-like and help a lot with the atmosphere. Unfortunately, there’s a humongous cave system/maze attached. Here’s a picture:

I mean, seriously, right? Also, there’s a map, but it’s in the middle of the maze! How do you find the map? And even if you find the map, how do you know where you are on the map? Plus, the map isn’t very helpful anyway; it’s just confusing to look at…

Nice textures and interesting spaces. General location (a hydropower-dam) is also interesting, seems like it could make for cool puzzles. Suffers from long walks and climbs and lack of interactivity.

A bunch of not unattractive tropical-ish islands. Unfortunately borrows the bulk of its content from Cyan Ages. Kinda heavy on the hardware, too, and there’s really not anything to do.

This Age has a mouse (a rodent at least) and a pool of water (is Tyndior the name of the mouse? Or… maybe the pool?). Obviously a test.

Visually not bad, especially has something to offer in the way of textures. Also has nice atmospherics. Small and non-interactive though.

From the same people who brought us Setal Gahmarin..? A big mountain with nothing to do.

Somewhat more interesting than Vaiskor (Area 1, supposedly). After finding a journal with a dramatic storyline outset, there’s some low-quality buildings and a ruin. Inside the ruin is a hole in the earth, leading to another world under the first, where there’s huge buildings made up out of primitive shapes. There seem to be some interesting ideas here, but graphics, atmosphere and interaction are very lacking.

A desert mansion and a long cave system leading nowhere…

A bunch of mountains in a box. Nothing to do. Footsteps and wind make for atmo++.

I was hoping for this to be a bit better, since it’s supposedly a kind of the headquarters of the GoW… It’s huge, missing lighting and confusing to navigate. I thought I might be in some sort of spaceship until I got to the view of the Cavern. I like most of the ideas for the rooms though, but the overall execution, not so much. Do love the music that plays in one of the rooms.

And last and sadly one of the least, another Age that crashes soon after link-in. I was able to get this shot, but if I move around that first rock, Nvidia goes kaboom.

And that’s the end of the ratings! Keep an eye out for part 5/5, which will contain ‘top score lists’ and probably some thoughts.

Alice’s Theme:

Oh, Alice dear, where have you been?
So near, so far, so in-between.
What have you heard, what have you seen?
Alice. Alice. Please, Alice.

Oh, tell us, are you big or small?
To try this one, or try them all.
It’s such a long, long way to fall.
Alice. Alice. Oh, Alice.

How can you know, this way, not that?
You choose the door, you choose the path.
Perhaps you should be coming back.
Another day. Another day.
And nothing is quite what it seems.
You’re dreaming, are you dreaming?
Oh, Alice.

Alice.

Oh, how will you find your way? (2x)
No time for tears today. (4x)

So many doors, how did you choose?
So much to win, so much to lose.
So many things got in your way.
No time today. No time today.
Be careful not to lose your head.
Remember what the dormouse said.
Alice.

Did someone pull you by the hand?
How many miles to Wonderland?
Please tell us, so we’ll understand.
Alice. Alice. Oh, Alice.

Oh, how will you find your way? (2x)

Alice Reprise #1:

Oh, how will you find your way? (2x)

Alice Reprise #2:

Oh, Alice dear, where have you been?
So near, so far, so in-between.
What have you heard, what have you seen?
Alice. Alice. Please, Alice.

The Cheshire Cat:

Oh, how will you find your way?

Alice Reprise #3:

[Latin (?) to the tune of "How can you know" through "are you dreaming?" from Alice's Theme]
Alice.

Alice Decides

[Latin (?) to the tune of "So many doors" through "lose your head" from Alice's Theme]

Alice Reprise #4:

Oh, Alice dear, where have you been?
So near, so far, so in-between.
What have you heard, what have you seen?
Alice. Alice. Please, Alice.

Oh, tell us, are you big or small?
To try this one, or try them all.
It’s such a long, long way to fall.
Alice. Alice. Please, Alice.

Alice Reprise #5:

['Lalala' to the tune of "Oh, Alice dear" through "what have you seen?" from Alice's Theme]
Alice. Alice. Please, Alice.

['Lalala' to the tune of "Oh, tell us" through "long way to fall" from Alice's Theme]
Alice. Alice. Oh, Alice.

Oh, how will you find your way? (2x)

[Latin (?) to the tune of "How can you know" through "are you dreaming?" from Alice's Theme]
Alice.

Did someone pull you by the hand?
How many miles to Wonderland?
Please tell us, so we’ll understand.
Alice. Alice. Oh, Alice

Oh, how will you find your way? (2x)

If you don’t know what’s going on here, check this post.

From the makers of Enobmort: some sort of insane maze with countless tunnels and ladders.

Violently crashes Uru and/or my computer soon after link-in. I managed to get this one promising shot, while I got the chance to turn around 90 degrees to face an interesting building before crashing. It’s a shame I can’t explore it.

Features a massive unsolvable maze with some kind of puzzle attached that ultimately seems to lead only to a two-page journal about the Age. Not very impressive visuals and minor atmospherics.

Some unattractive volcanoes and tiny creatures from the beginnings of life on earth. Note the ‘on earth’.

Has some quite interesting elements. Kind of small, but at least there’s no hours of running between places. Has an interesting back-story in a journal. Visually mediocre. The overall location is also a bit questionable; it appears to be an island floating in a large valley of rock.

A long corridor of ice leading to a large open space with interesting visual concepts, though not very well executed (shadows would probably help a lot here). Not much to do but read a story-journal. Also a somewhat hidden corridor that leads to a dead end. Plus on atmo for footprints.

The buildings look like stacks of playing cards, hence the name, I guess. There’s a tower to climb up and a link to Ae’gura. The end.

This small Age is just disturbing. First it disables your Relto book and there are psychedelic seashell kickables. Then you touch a crystal and it turns to nighttime, and there’s a journal which reveals that the creator of the Age has turned into a plant that wasn’t there before. The midi music doesn’t help preserve my sanity.

I guess this is another Age in the series ‘what did the Earth use to look like’. By now you should know that any review containing the word ‘earth’ gets a low integration rating. There’s also a weirdly moving chunk of ice.

This starts off as a weird physics puzzle, floating in the sky, but then there’s a hole in the sky and a cave system leading to a sort of huge ice-sailing arena, which is actually kind of nicely executed. There’s stands and VIP seats and everything, then there are these hills connected by gondola-like things. Not bad, though the place is absolutely ginormous. There’s countless cave systems and the arena itself is pretty much immeasurable. Then when you find the end of the cave system you fall through a shaft and are suddenly back at the physics puzzle between the clouds. Freaky.

This Age is quite enjoyable. It’s fun to explore and contains a puzzle or two, one of which has a cool reward ride. Graphically it suffers somewhat from the purple fog, but has some good modelling and nice textures. At the end is a very, very, VERY long walk, though.

From the creator of First Age of Dustin comes a place where you can find a hole in the ground into a strange frictionless control-room. Not very spectacular overall.

Well done visually (except for the treetops and missing footprints). The atmosphere is also quite nice, with gentle snowfall and a good ambient sound (though it gets quite repetitive after a while, plus there are howling/barking wolves… Not quite what I think of as ‘serene’). Unfortunately no interaction, rendering it enjoyable only for a short visit.

A huge, huge mountainscape that you can explore and find nothing in. The dense fog doesn’t help.

A Writer’s ‘home age’, with a library, study, book-room etc. I like the ‘shinelight’, but that’s about as far as my liking of the visuals goes. No atmo and interactivity is limited to opening a door.

Has nice visuals, interesting puzzles and also some sounds. Somewhat bogged down by the travelling times between places. Two of the puzzles I failed to solve, so perhaps there were more wonders than I was able to behold.

A place for testing footstep/ladder sounds.

A bunch of sprites with different degrees of rotational freedom. Again probably useful for testing purposes. Also creepy eyes that follow you around.

SuitUp (0/5)
Puts you in an EV-suit and immediately links you to Relto. Gb2Gahreesen.

That was it for this time! Go on to Part 4.

If you don’t know what’s going on here, check this post.

Another long walk to nothing. Some visually interesting concepts, but not adequately executed. This was, I think, the first fan Age I visited online in the old times. Ah, the memories…

A freaking lot of long, long corridors and ladders leading absolutely nowhere.

Re-utilizes part of Dragon’s Tooth to create a lava cave. Largely the same as its predecessor, but still somewhat interesting to explore.

Has some promising modelling and texturing work, but the Age as a whole is not very appealing (the green fog doesn’t help). The idea is nice; it’s a collection of mainly flora and some fauna from other fan Ages.

Outstanding visuals and great integration; a great story attached via the notebook. Shamefully, no interaction and low atmospherics.

A large area to explore with many interesting sights and sounds. Good integration, with detailed life-forms and an explorer-driven research journal. Great atmospherics make up for a lack of interactivity.

Not really being up for consideration, this seems merely a test Age. My first (and thus far only) Age looked a lot like this!

More long walks to nothing, except a nice vista when you reach the top. Graphics are very static, better textures might go a long way in this case. No atmospherics or interaction.

A big mountain with some cave systems in it, with MS Paint drawings on the walls. Comes with a big cone kickable! Not much else to it.

Sci-fi references, skeletons, UFOs, penguins, balloons… Man, this place has everything! Oh wait, what was that about integration? And… visual appeal?

Graphically a lot like the previous one. Seems to have some kind of puzzle to it, though. Also has a more realistic geography. There’s some attempt at integration as there are research reports and the like. The place is huge though, flymode is a must. There’s also another one of those earth-like ships, containing a map of… earth! It has a night version which I didn’t check out so much because it was pitch-black.

This Age’s visuals remind me a lot of American McGee’s Alice. Which might only be a good thing when talking about American McGee’s Alice. Well, at least the looks are very unique. There’s also quit some stuff to do in the way of pushing buttons and exploring. Atmospherically, not so much, and the integration with D’ni is limited to a couple of numerals here and there.

Apparently an attempt at creating a D’ni neighbourhood. Nice visuals, and many areas to explore (‘hood, cave system with platforming gameplay, garden with basic puzzle, cool reward area at the end…). Atmospherically lacking, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

Achieves a nice look by using mostly Cyan content, but lacks shadows. Utilizes some imagers which interface with the KI. Not much more to it.

Not visually appealing, and the geometry is just weird in most places. Has a notebook though, with stories about Kato exploring the Age.

A lot of running between places. Contains a puzzle where you need to input the info from one place, in another place, revealing the contents of a box. Well… It’s interaction, at least.

This visually appealing Age tries the player in the field of platforming. It fails to be fun, however, due to some physics unkindness. I.e.; it’s too hard. Add to that the fact that the reward for going through the parcourse is hugely disappointing (spoiler: there is none).

Not remarkable in any way… Has a boat that travels extremely slow and ‘quicksand’ where you fall through the Age. Is connected to the Botan Age, but not to D’ni in any apparent way.

Somewhat interesting to explore the landscape and find the entrance to the underground tunnels (which sadly end rather abruptly). Integration-wise sets up a nice restoration story by scattering books and notes to discover. Visually not outstanding and no interaction.

That was it for this set. Go on to Part 3.

Since Uru is going open source, there’s been a lot of speculation about the standards that fan-created content should keep to, if any, and how to make sure these standards are kept to (well, at least in my mind there has…). In an effort to entertain people, perhaps teach them some things, and at least do something to try and help OSUru move towards a good future, I’m starting a small series of blogposts where I grade and briefly review all the available fan Ages out there right now (that’s to say, those on the Drizzle list of downloadable Ages). If you want to try any of the Ages yourself, follow the instructions here.

Initially I graded the Ages on a scale of 0-10, where 10 would be (at least) Cyan quality, on several categories. The grading categories that I used were Visual Appeal, for anything concerning the graphics, layout etc. of the Age; Integration, meaning how well it fit with the existing Uru Ages and how closely it kept to the D’ni lore, the rules of Writing, etc.; Atmospheric, grading on sound and such; and Enjoyability, a kind of overall modifier that just says how much I enjoyed the Age.

The scores displayed here are on a scale of 0-5 Journey Cloths, where 5 is the Age that came out as the one with the highest grade on the 0-10 scale (which was a pretty low high) and 0 the lowest. So, they’re a simplified reflection of the above criteria. Obviously, these are all based entirely on my own opinion, which may or may not hold any value. Please don’t hate me if I give your Age a low rating and/or a bad review. I’m not trying to insult anyone personally. If you want to lift your Age to a higher level based on my opinion, I can give more detailed criticism if requested.

This review will come in 5 parts. Four parts with each 19 Age gradings/reviews, and an additional part with listings of the top Ages and such. Well, let’s get going!

The ship bothers me a lot, because it strongly resembles a 17th century earth ship, not something that the D’ni or native inhabitants of the Age would be likely to construct. There’s not much to do in the Age, besides jumping into the fissure and ending up in an empty cavern.

Would probably look quite okay with better lighting. Regardless of that, this Age seems to have no connection with D’ni at all.

This Age has puzzles! Although they’re not integrated naturally into the environment as would be optimal, it does have them. Graphically perhaps not beautiful, its visuals are interesting at least. Also features some sounds, adding to the atmosphere.

A replacement for the normal Nexus, but missing some important Links (such as a Book to the normal Nexus). Visually not too bad! What’s the Goblet of Fire doing there, though…?

A memorial Age. Not much to do other than read the (incomplete) list of lost Explorers. Visually not impressive.

Nothing!

Interesting sights and sounds, though no apparent integration with the lore (the statue looks like it could be from a medieval game, the bridge is very surfacey).

Very well done on the atmospheric side, graphically also stands out (except for the rainbow explosion around the statue), as well as integrated into the lore. However, no interaction whatsoever.

Quite a lot of interesting interactivity and commendable attempts at creating lore for the Age’s flora/fauna. Graphically not especially appealing.

Obviously not meant to be considered a real Age. But for such a simple project, the Writer could have created a way to get the ball back up on top without re-Linking (unless I’m missing something).

Box Age
Violently crashes upon Link.

Separate versions for day and night exist. Interesting concept (teaching Maintainers the kind of errors to look for in Ages) although not applicable from an IC point of view (as these errors are mostly technical, for example graphical mistakes). The Age itself features interesting visuals though the design is again very earth-like rather than D’ni. It does have some nice atmospheric features.

Outstanding visuals and a very well-done integration into the lore. Lacks atmospheric features and features no interaction.

Very large Age with not so much in it. A lot of long walks to places where there is nothing. Some areas seem to have potential but then there is a random spaceship.

Makes for an interesting experience, at least if you flymode-skip through the long, long walks and swims. Some interesting aspects graphically. A tiny bit of interaction.

An Age with dinosaurs! I doubt the Writer made those themselves because of the lack of quality in the rest of the Age, but they walk and swim around and stuff, pretty cool. The whole thing makes no sense in terms of integration.

The Duck Knee Skydiving Club? Seems to be about what I guess is supposed to be an airplane in the sky and you can jump off it to end up on Relto…

There seems to be a tediously complex puzzle attached to this one, which I couldn’t be bothered to solve. Other than that there’s just mountains and grass? Contrary to what one might expect, the ‘Classic’ version of this one is actually a bit more interesting, as it features a large underground cave with some interesting geometry to look at and explore.

I quite like this one. It looks pretty good overall, and it’s interesting to explore. It’s somewhat integrated into the lore and features a few pieces of interaction. The surrounding world is also quite nicely done. The little gondola is, shamefully, not functional (yet).

That was it for the first batch! Go on to Part 2.

In addition to that, I did some research on the name ‘Terabithia’. I already wrote about this on the A Place For Us forums, but I thought I’d also post them here because I thought the results were rather interesting, and maybe Terabithia fans will come across it here (also, it’s a good enough reason to do a blog post). There’s also a treat for Myst fans at the end, so those of you who fall into that category; keep reading!

So let’s start our journey through the history of the name Terabithia. The author of the book on which the movie is based, Katherine Paterson, says on her website that, when she had nearly finished the book, she discovered that she probably unconsciously copied the name from the island called Terebinthia, from C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third (or fifth depending on which numbering convention is used) book in the Narnia series. In the book, a sickness on the island prevented Prince Caspian and his men from going ashore.

Interestingly, in Paterson’s book it is noted that Leslie, who named Terabithia, is very fond of Narnia herself. It’s probable that Lewis in turn got the name from the biblical terebinth tree. This is just one of the many biblical references and metaphors in the Chronicles of Narnia. The tree referred to as the terebinth actually exists, under the scientific name of pistacia palaestina. Note the Palastine reference for now.

Now for some lessons in etymology. The word terebinth originates from the Middle English terebinthe, from the Old French terebinte, from the Latin terebinthus, from the Greek terebinthos. Now the Greek suffix -inthos is used to refer to places (for example labyrinthos, place of axes; the first labyrinth was a palace full of axes).

Disappointingly, tereb does not bear any meaning in Greek, or any other language that I could find. However, it is an ancient name for a place now known as Tel el-Athrib, near Aleppo in Syria, now an archaeological site. Notice the Palestine connection here. In fact, there was once a part of Syria that was specifically called Palaestina; the Holy Land. The area of Aleppo is also said to be one of the oldest inhabited places on earth.

Going from these facts, the Greek terebinthos could mean “tereb-place”: the place Tereb. If this would truly be what the word Terabithia originates from, it might mean it is the Holy Land, as well as one of the earliest homes to man.

There is another interpretation of the name Terabithia. The Latin terra refers to earth, place or land, and there’s the English Bithiah, from Hebrew batya, meaning “daughter of god”. As such Terrabithiah or Terabithia is the land of the daughter of God. For those who have seen the movie or read the book, that should seem quite fitting.

The land of the daughter of God, the Holy Land, and the origin of man. I guess my work here is done. Of course I don’t really believe that these explanations are very plausible or intentionally crafted by the author or anyone involved, and there are a lot of gaps and guesses, but I still thought it interested that I ended up with these explanations.

Now for the part the Myst fans have all been waiting for. I went into the A Place For Us chat today and met someone who had played some of the Myst games and seemed to have been quite into it for a while. He told me a fun story, which I’ll quote here:

when we were kids we use to have this game where atrus would leav notes in the garden
and then we’d have to do what the notes said to save cathrine
it was good fun
i don’t think the puzzles i made up were very good though.
actually what i’d do is i had this tape recorder
because my voice was so high, i sounded nothing like atrus
so what we did was you know how those tape recorders have a slow thing
to slow your voice down
we slowed it down to make it sound deep, and it was so hilarious
so yeah, it was either a note or a recorded message, then then u had to go and find all these things in the park

I thought that was fun. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!

For Programming for Artists class, I made this little Flash game and thought I’d put it up here for the whole world to play. Because of compatibility issues though, it’s going to be an .exe file (or .hqx if you’re of the Mac variety). So sorry about that. I also didn’t include the music because that would have been crap or would have made the files 120 times larger, so instead you can stream it from here under the track name of Ñubes.

Here’s a little screenshot to warm you up, hopefully:

Draw land for The Guy so he can pass the obstacles and reach the exit!

Download here:

Windows (1.8 Mb)
Mac (3.3 Mb)

I don’t know if this is possible on Mac, but for the best playing experience, select View > Fullscreen from the header bar menu. Other than that, there’s a tutorial and everything, so nothing more to explain :)

I hope you enjoy it! Post your high scores! ^^

EDIT 24-10-2008

I found myself able to compress Landwriter with music to only 3.9 Mb. There have also been some bugfixes. Download it for PC here!

Two of the books have indexes. In one of them, I found the word “Myst”. Interesting! I thought I’d copy what the books say about Myst to here for everyone to read. The book is called ‘Rules of Play – Game Design Fundamentals’ by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. The first mention is on page 270:

As game designers, it is important to understand the range of player types that encounter your game, and the kinds of relationships they have to the rules, goals, and magic circle that your game delineates. Some games clearly appeal to both standard and dedicated players, such as Scrabble. Scrabble is often played as casual family fare, but it also supports an international tournament culture of hardcore players. Other kinds of games tend to attract one kind of player over another. The players that enjoy the low-pressure, exploratory pacing of Myst are generally not the same kind of dedicated player audience that would spend the many hours required to understand and master Myth: The Fallen Lords. There is a similar divide off the computer between players of party games such as Pictionary and fans of complex wargames and role-playing games.

I can’t say I totally agree with this piece, as it can take a player many upon many of dedicated hours to understand a single puzzle, let alone understand the complex workings of some of the Ages or the history of the D’ni race.

The next mention is on pages 354-355:

There is a reason why Myst was superior to all of the CD-ROM multimedia game clones that followed it, or why Super Mario 64 is still better than the scores of 3D over-the-shoulder, character-based console games that are released every year. Myst and Super Mario 64, although very different in the experiences they provide, have one thing in common: they both treat the player with a tremendous amount of care. From the moment the game begins, the player has clear directions and purpose. As players explore their expansive worlds, both games provide a satisfying increase in challenge, while never leaving the player feeling lost or confused. There is clarity to the way that these games construct player pleasure.

??? How can the authors say directions are given from the start of Myst? Almost nothing could be further from the truth! The player has no idea whatsoever about what is happening to them, what they have to do or what character they are playing.

The final mention is on page 394:

Although games have been played in real-world spaces for millennia, the appearance of electronic and digital games in the last few decades have provided new kinds of game spaces: playgrounds that exist only on the screens of computer monitors and televisions. These game spaces take a multitude of forms from blocky 2D grids to expansive 3D worlds. One useful taxonomy for describing the range of these digital spaces comes from Mark J. P. Wolf, in his essay “Space in the Video Game.” Wolf lists eleven ways that video games operate to structure and represent space. We paraphrase these categories below, with examples from Wolf’s essay:

Text-only space: text adventure games such as Zork and Planetfall

[...]

“Mapped” Spaces: Defender, Myst (both have a seperate radar or map display)

Why was Myst listed under ‘”Mapped” Spaces’? Is it because the pictures are ‘mapped’ onto the screen in stead of the player actually walking through it? Or is it just because Myst had maps of the Ages that people could look at? (Myst Masterpiece had them, at least) Either way, it seems hardly appropriate to me that it is listed under this category.

And that ends our little trip through Rules of Play! There are no further mentions of Myst, Uru or Cyan in the index (well, it is in the “Games Mentioned in the Book” chapter). From these three quotes though, it doesn’t seem like authors had a really good idea of what Myst is about. Or maybe I have a wrong idea of it!

Now I can go back to reading one of my other books – “A Theory of Fun” by Raph Koster…