Ask the writer. Any questions about the story in Cloudpunk?

[CalmDownTom]

I have some time so will answer the best questions here. Go!

[CalmDownTom]

Originally posted by Endymion:

I was also curious about where you would find Nivalis and Rania's homeland in the Eastern Peninsula(?) on a map.
Is this North America? - Eurasia? somewhere else?

We don't know yet. The world has changed a lot - maybe so much that a lot of it is now unrecognisable to us. And that's if it even IS our world.

[Chocohotep]

Originally posted by CalmDownTom:

Originally posted by Endymion:

I was also curious about where you would find Nivalis and Rania's homeland in the Eastern Peninsula(?) on a map.
Is this North America? - Eurasia? somewhere else?

We don't know yet. The world has changed a lot - maybe so much that a lot of it is now unrecognisable to us. And that's if it even IS our world.

Surely it's still on Earth. I can't remember which story it was in City of Ghosts that referenced people heading up to Luna (our Moon), right? - was it the Corporate someone whose indoor garden Rania was in just before she went into the safe house?

There might even have been other clues in that conversation between Hayse and the woman who was on her interstellar voyage across the galaxy. I can't remember the specifics of it now though.

[Whewbacca the Cookie]

I have just finished a second play-through of both the base game and City of Ghosts. Some choices I made differently (on purpose). All in all I can say that the story was quite enjoyable regardless of the outcome.

On a different note... I could see some parallels between the game(s) and the first volume of a fiction trilogy written by a talented author who may well be reading these lines ;) To (mis)quote him:
“Rania… in a world of dwindling light, you're a bonfire in the night.”

Keep up the good work.

[Whewbacca the Cookie]

A quick question: Have you read Stephen Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" series by any chance? It's 10 books long spanning almost four decades but a good read if you can make the time.

[CalmDownTom]

Originally posted by Whewbacca the Cookie:

To (mis)quote him:
“Rania… in a world of dwindling light, you're a bonfire in the night.”

What a corny line! ;)

[CalmDownTom]

Originally posted by Whewbacca the Cookie:

A quick question: Have you read Stephen Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" series by any chance? It's 10 books long spanning almost four decades but a good read if you can make the time.

One of the first books I read!

[BloodyPommelStudios]

Can you tell us anything you wrote that you're proud of which didn't make it in to the game for whatever reason? What major changes happened to the writing during development?

[Moisture Farmer]

Originally posted by CalmDownTom:

Originally posted by Endymion:

I was also curious about where you would find Nivalis and Rania's homeland in the Eastern Peninsula(?) on a map.
Is this North America? - Eurasia? somewhere else?

We don't know yet. The world has changed a lot - maybe so much that a lot of it is now unrecognisable to us. And that's if it even IS our world.

I would vote for India ;)

[CalmDownTom]

Originally posted by BloodyPommelStudios:

Can you tell us anything you wrote that you're proud of which didn't make it in to the game for whatever reason? What major changes happened to the writing during development?

At one point we discussed Rania's journey to Nivalis and the city in daylight, but it was beyond the scope of City of Ghosts. Thankfully we might be able to explore these ideas in other media! ;)

[Whewbacca the Cookie]

Could you share some info on:
1. Sala's history (it's linked to Nivalis' history after all) and her fate (just curious)
2. A little on Jay-K's background and her convictions (she seems to be deeply connected to Nivalis and the planet in general)
3. How old a company Cloudpunk is and the ulterior motive(s) behind its foundation
4. (with regards to the previous question) Hayse's history with Cloudpunk. I feel like he might be a bit older than we're led to believe. A Deckard-like story looming perhaps?

Thanks...

[CalmDownTom]

Originally posted by Whewbacca the Cookie:

Could you share some info on:
1. Sala's history (it's linked to Nivalis' history after all) and her fate (just curious)
2. A little on Jay-K's background and her convictions (she seems to be deeply connected to Nivalis and the planet in general)
3. How old a company Cloudpunk is and the ulterior motive(s) behind its foundation
4. (with regards to the previous question) Hayse's history with Cloudpunk. I feel like he might be a bit older than we're led to believe. A Deckard-like story looming perhaps?

Thanks...

They're all good questions, but answering them here would mean not writing about them in the future, and I'd like to explore all the possibilities!

But for number 3, I think you can guess at some of the shady goals Hayse might have had at Cloudpunk's inception ;)

[Whewbacca the Cookie]

Originally posted by CalmDownTom:

They're all good questions, but answering them here would mean not writing about them in the future, and I'd like to explore all the possibilities!

Happy to hear that you have some plans about them. Thanks for the info.

[CalmDownTom]

Originally posted by Whewbacca the Cookie:

Originally posted by CalmDownTom:

They're all good questions, but answering them here would mean not writing about them in the future, and I'd like to explore all the possibilities!

Happy to hear that you have some plans about them. Thanks for the info.

Great questions. They gave me some ideas :)

[Whewbacca the Cookie]

Originally posted by CalmDownTom:

Great questions. They gave me some ideas :)

I refuse to believe that you will run out of ideas or quirky characters :)

Speaking of which, a few more questions are in order:
* First off, that Habbis guy and his Violet Pilot. Is he an allusion to Dreamers? He keeps saying that he's a dream architect. Are we gonna learn more about him or violet pilot?
* I wonder if we'll ever come across a piece of art by the Engineer. Considering his mood, he'd probably come up with a Goya or Munch.
* The Engineer had warned us to look for signs that glow with a specific color, though it was never made known which. Maybe it was but I missed it. I tried a couple of locations but Nivalis is anything but short in colors. Was that a red herring?
* Also, last time I met him he was trying to fix stuff by following a main cable to a control system or something to that tune. Then he simply up and left. Where is that line and is it going to Corus HQ or CORA's/Orma's mainframe?
* Whatever has become of Sasha, Rubrick and Suto Dore? I wanted to find out more about Erasera. That idiot Sasha wouldn't let Suto Dore speak with Camus.
* What was Hahn's Grand Plan? Will we find out more about him/his plan or visit Sangha?
* Will we ever meet Evelyn, Pashta or some of the folks we rescued from quarantine again in Nivalis? It'd be fun to hear their stories. Also, it'd be fun to spot Hayse buying a thai-stick, while bickering with Morpho. Perhaps even seeing Rania passing by on her way to a coffee shop followed by a certain cyborg in the distance.

Last but not least a few remarks:
* Phaze Runner was fantastically quirky. I wish him the best of luck in his fight.
* Huxley is an all time favorite for many folks, myself included. As a noir character, he checks all the right boxes. Great job on that.
* I would love to see Emit and Timson in Nivalis to help me fix/upgrade my hova.
* About those guys who hijacked my hova (two guys and two girls, names escape me)... Could have lived happily without ever meeting them. It was perhaps meant to point at a location with certain properties but man, that sequence made me want to crash my hova and be done with it.
* The Butlers in the base game... I had half a mind driving straight to the Ventz and marooning them on an abandoned platform. Turned out it was not allowed. More's the pity.

[Vulmada]

If I'm not too late for this (which I may very well be) - I've just completed the DLC, which is just fantastic. Both Cloudpunk and City of Ghosts are true examples of "The perfect Gem is truly rare". And both titles are Gems.

My question is: Is any of the story / side quests or characters, residents (story critical or not story critical) / "Deep" stuff / etc based on any "Real life" experiance?

I ask this because in both titles, I came across conversations that hit me really hard, almost to the point of "this is too real, I'm playing my own past here and the game is telling me to get my act together, move on and forget about the past", some even hit me with some ptsd and flashbacks.

Such "Deep feelings" in games, are very, very, VERY rare to find, but when found, VERY difficult to get right, but here.... It felt like you (The dev team and voice actors) had taken a time machine, gone back into my past to some VERY personal experiances and taken notes, to "help" me in the future, to almost...."give hope"...to almost "extend a hand" or....

Congratulations on a fantastic and beautiful Game and DLC. I wish I could give Andrea, Mike, Cory, Jeff and Keaton a very big hug (or a muffin atleast) for their fantastic voice work.

I am looking forward with extreme joy and anticipation to your next game: Nivalis.

Thank you.