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Faces (or lack of a face) and water are very important things in the story. The world outside the box is related to the five kingdoms and their lakes. A lake is a reflection of its ruler (that will tie into Myrddin's origins and why he was created). Currently, there are only four domains since the fourth one was destroyed.
Additionally, there are some encrypted messages and easter eggs in the game. However, I wasn't able to go through all the details and secrets in it.
### Entity:
He is the silhouette and the creator of Myrddin. Myrddin was supposed to be a reflection of the Entity/book/silhouette, but the process didn't work completely. The first book Myrddin mentions talks about him, and it is the same book referenced in the encrypted message, where we learn about the Entity/book/silhouette and how it was clear what he was because of "his eyes, his nose and his mouth." Exactly the features that Myrddin does not have, which further confirms that he is a failure.
Note: this information is in "The Song in the Depths" and the encrypted message in the game files.
Ebys seems to be the name of the inhabitants of the depths. The Entity/book/silhouette is not considered an Ebys but rather the "child of both worlds," which matches the fact that Myrddin needs the player's interaction to get power or energy, even though he is not part of the player's world. Myrddin was supposed to be that same child of both worlds, but he is defective. As we can see when we talk to the Entity/book/silhouette, he is way more powerful than Myrddin, yet does not need interactions to get his powers.
- But why would the Entity/book/silhouette create Myrddin at all?
In "The Song in the Depths," each lake was a monument to its domain, something the rulers were proud of. Similarly, the Entity/book/silhouette created Myrddin to be his reflection.
In "A Deal Struck," the Entity/book/silhouette was compelled by curiosity to strike a deal with a mysterious figure, who ended up tricking him. The process of creating a reflection didn't go according to plan.
- But why doesn't the Entity/book/silhouette simply destroy Myrddin?
As mentioned before, the Entity/book/silhouette is driven by curiosity but doesn't want to endanger reality or a large portion of people, so he keeps Myrddin stuck there and conducts his experiments. Perhaps the Entity/book/silhouette also has some kind of unconscious attachment to his creation, though it's hard to say with certainty for now.
- And why would the Entity/book/silhouette care about humans being destroyed?
Once Myrddin is released, he could end up destroy a whole domain.
In many of our interactions with the book, the Entity/book/silhouette says that he sees himself as an evil that needs to do good. Going off that idea, perhaps he feels his actions of destroying a domain were necessary to balance the world. Notice that he didn't destroy all domains; he destroyed one, but four remained. He certainly had the ability to eventually destroy them all, but he didn't, although he left the other domains in terror.
However, another possibility is that the mysterious formally dressed figure who appears in "A Deal Struck" is silhouette... He appears as a very powerful figure, but since the book was first introduced to Myrddin when he first came to the box, the book that talks about the silhouette may actually be talking about the Entity/book/silhouette himself, as mentioned before. Further supporting this is the fact that the mysterious figure's face is concealed with bandages, which goes against what the silhouette is known for: showing "his nose, his mouth and his eyes," the very traits that distinguish him from being an Ebys.
### Myrddin:
Since Myrddin is a "failure", he is not completely a "child of both worlds,"(from the song in the depths) meaning he does not get energy or power from the second world (the player's world) to be strong enough as an entity. He is different from the Entity/book/silhouette. Therefore, if released, he might be dangerous to the world; not being stable, he might absorb the energy around him to compensate for the fact that he cannot naturally produce or absorb energy by himself, unlike the Entity.
That is why he is so dangerous to the depths (name of the world outside the box) and why it is a risk for Myrddin to go outside. But that also means the player is very powerful, since the we are able to provide that energy for him. That is why it is a real risk for the player to be there, and why the Entity is worried about us being there.
However, it is not completely clear why the Entity tortures Myrddin. Since Myrddin doesn't have energy by himself, perhaps the Entity is testing how much of his own energy can regenerate himself, and how that works in his body, given that Myrddin is fundamentally different from the Entity.
### The box:
It is probably inside a lake in the depths, the world of the game. We were able to see an early version of this magical structure that Myrddin is stuck in when we saw "A Deal Struck." Myrddin's story, The Entity stored Myrddin in the box so he could be isolated from all other beings in the depths, preventing him from absorbing their energy or posing a risk to them.
However, since the player is stronger than that, we are able to free him. Perhaps that is what the formally dressed mysterious figure wanted all along, making that figure potentially the main villain of the story.
### Endings:
Aside from the early endings in which the player can simply give up on interacting with Myrddin, there will likely be at least two main ones: freeing Myrddin or not freeing Myrddin. There might be slight variations depending on whether we were honest and trustworthy with him. I'm assuming that if we trusted him and promised to help him, but then decided against it out of fear of destroying the depths, he will be particularly affected by that.
Perhaps this main moral dillemma: help someone who genuinely just wants to live a life without being tortured, or keep him stuck there because he poses a risk to the depths, not through any fault of his own, but simply because he is, as the book puts it, a "failure."
Perhaps there might also be an ending in which we convince or change the Entity, or perhaps even defeat him, so that the Entity no longer tortures Myrddin and his life inside the box becomes a little more "enjoyable"... Or at least somehow expanded. Which is probably unlikely to be such a better situation for Myrddin, though. However, the game might have a canonical ending, so we will have to wait and see what state of the world is actually referenced in possible future stories, if there are any.
The game folows Freytag’s Pyramid, so chapter 4 will be the "Climax" of the story. Meaning, our main strong choices regarding both the Entity and Myrddin wil be there.
Anyway, those were just theories... Game theories! Thanks for reading.
Note: Myrddin calling out those who theorize:
XD
Thank you for the fixes! I started getting sick that day, so I only managed to warn you about the bug, and then I had to log off. I'm still not feeling 100%, but I'm happy the message came across. I was able to play the new chapter twice, not counting loading some save slots to explore some choices... which led to a very interesting/funny experience with the new chapter that I'll mention more below. Do not worry, I'm aware that every piece of software, when it gets publicly released, has a certain amount of bugs. It is to be expected.
Before talking about the chapter itself, I wanted to mention some technical details/suggestions, since you did mention in the update post that we could give feedback so that the game gets better and better, so those are my initial ideas. If they match your vision, of course, I hope they are useful (either way, possible spoilers below, read at your own risk, everyone!):
- I think being able to name save pages would be very useful! Currently, save pages go until page 9, after that we can add more save slots, obviously, but they are not named.
Yes, we can see the pagination in the save files inside the saves folder, but I think it would be more accessible if we could name our save pages. I've seen that enabled in many VNs, so I believe it is not difficult. I say that because sometimes I like organizing my saves by name so that I can pick up from specific moments, since the story is getting longer!
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- This recommendation might not align with what you want for the story, feel free to skip it if it does not: skipping enabled (only for passages we have already read).
In many VNs, we have a skip setting that offers to skip read text or force skip. I believe force skip is outside your vision, but maybe read text skipping would be useful.
I say this because I had to replay the game, and although I can decrease the auto forward time so that the dialogue rolls quicker, it is still slower than skipping. (Again, it could allow for only skipping the already read text.) If it is something you don't feel matches the idea of the game, it is totally okay, though!
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Finally:
- Tweakable text size for the text box, it would increase accessibility. But if you feel it does not fit well with the text box, it is okay, it is kind of an extra point.
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Another point related to a problem I ran into:
Starting from when Myrddin gets his normal form back, every time I save in the middle of a conversation/interaction and load that specific save, I dont go back to that specific conversation: I go to the home interaction section in which I hadn't selected any interaction yet.
I believe someone was mentioning a save/load problem on the main page, but I'm not sure it is the same problem. This one kind of doesn't remember we were in the middle of an interaction (say, tic tac toe) and loads me into the home interaction section when Myrddin and the interaction options show up.
Anohte rpoint: possible typo below? Or maybe it is a normal English sentence, since I'm not an expert, I'll just report it here:
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(Possible spoilers below, read at your own risk, everyone!)
Regarding chapter 3: what an intriguing chapter!!
This is not going to be my comment related to theories yet, I plan on commenting on the main page about it, but I like the new update! I don't know what you were worried about, this is great work, developer.
Silly series of reactions of mine to some of the situations:
- We finally got the answer to the enigmatic sentence in the game description: "...and with every moment you spend together, he only gets— " And it was so obvious; I cant believe I didn't think of it... Great reveal! I thought, at that time, right before the reveal, he was going to say the game itself, the structure of it, but I digress. Myrddin's actions are looking very intriguing, to say the least, what with our interaction with him giving him power. But I'll leave my theories to another comment.
- While I was playing this update i got reminded of a song by Bo Burnham called: Look Who’s Inside Again. Although the song has a whole very interesting context inside the album and the movie/songs special, hah... the lyrics and the game situation got me, hah. In case you are curious, this is the song:
It reminded me of Myrddin and his situation. If you listened to it, I'm very curious to know what you thought of it in relation to Myrddin\the game.
- Oh, I really liked the dynamic season change! [Even though it is not my real season, I liked the coded detail you added there. ;) ]
- The silhouette was mentioned by Myrddin! That was very interesting, to say the least. I like the beginnings of possible endings/branches with being straightforward with Myrddin or not.
- When the "book"\Outer(?) says day 5475, I thought: wait, what if it was the exact same number of books Myrddin said he read? Then all the numbers mentioned in the game would be related and--
I was spiraling, hahaga. Anyway, that scene was tense. The warnings are especially important now, just like you said in the previous update (so I was already aware this chapter woul have someting similar), so I hope everyone pays attention to the warnings before playing the game. And, well, I cannot deny that I felt for the guy.
The "book"/Outer did raise some interesting concerns. However, I raise a question to him: right at that moment, in front of us (the player), which entity is the torturer and which one is the torturee? Not denying any past sins committed by the torturee, nor some logical arguments from the torturer, though. Logically speaking, we are witnessing torture, no matter how it is spun. And, also logically speaking: Myrddin has omitted the truth multiple times. What I mean to say is: I like the concepts you are playing with in this chapter.
- Now, developer, I'm shocked, no, devastated, by how you treated your playerbase...
How can you call us out that way?!
Conspiracy theories? But whatever are you talking about?
Oh, I almost forgot to talk about my funny experience with the chapter: I played from the beginning after that bug situation in the new 0.3.1 version. Chapter three went by very quickly (I felt it was shorter than previous chapters), then I noticed I didn't get to the snow globe section at all, not even a new one about the deal story that I later found out. I think what happened was that I wasted too many interactions playing tic tac toe? Hahah, that was funny. Anyway, playing for a second time, I got the new story with Myrddin's beautiful handcrafted art pieces and was able to craft items with him.
Edit: extra comment here. I dont know if it was intentional (it probably was not, haha), but right after Myrddin screams (that was a very sad scene :\ ) there was a sound that reminded me of Deltarune/Undertale game sounds. That was very interesting! Anyway, the use of sound in this game is very good even with the limitations of free-to-use sound assets.
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Anyway, jokes aside, congratulations! It was a funny and intense chapter, which I theorize was what you wanted it to be. Additionally, I did find a very interesting song that needed some translating... Ebys... ?
(Ill have to log off, so im typing this on quick mode, i believe i found a quite severe bug? Ill put under the read more section, but it prevents the player form proceeding in the beginning of the new chapter!
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Chibi Myrddin is stuck in a cycle and i cant proceed even after asking the questions and reading the advise sections. Sometimes Normal Myrddin shows up in the "Joke", "Fact" interactions. It makes Normal Myrddin show up in Chibi Myrddin sections:
That advice never is marked as asked and i cannot proceed in the game.
Just letting you know, here is the history, the repertoire text is the one that makes Normal Myrddin show up:
Sorry and Ill answer\talk about the game at a later moment, in summary: thank you for your beautiful message! ^^
No, no, I agree there is something at least suspicious with how he introduces himself:
The three dots are interesting. He started off with a simple sentence, but didn't finish it.
Regarding this comment:
"Or does it feel like something that got handed to you and you just... kept it?"
Maybe it is related to Myrddin not knowing his origins, more specifically, not remembering his past. Like I theorized before, his past and future are nonexistent, like he said himself when he had a breakdown: he has no past (memories) or future (he's stuck in the cube). Maybe he showed up in the cube or was transferred there without much memory, but the Outer or a third party told him his name and that was it. That's why he asks us if his name feels like it belongs to us. And no matter what answer we give to him, there is a strange noise that plays out in that moment (maybe it is a reversed audio? I don't have experience with those, but I don't know if we already have such a thing in the game yet), and then Myrddin just brushes off the comment and continues. Very weird behavior, I wonder if the Voices scared him or pressured him to change the subject or something like that.
And you probably read what I said about his mythological name being related to a mad man who got prophecy powers, so that is very interesting. Currently, it looks like Myrddin is hiding things from us, but I honestly do think parts of his memories are missing since at some points of the story he gets very philosophical regarding why he is in the cube and about himself.
Someone who is simply hiding who they are from us usually wouldn't go as far as creating those minor moments of existential crisis. In summary, I think the name Myrddin is very intentional and has meaning, yes. And he is looking for the meaning of his name, since he doesn't have a "past."
Additionally, I believe a nice way to get into his psyche is to analyze his questions that happen before his future/past breakdown:
Some of those questions show two interesting things, at least initially, to me (and I'm curious to know what you think of them as well):
The last question shown in the screenshot I think is more directed at us, in a way. Like how powerful our words can be and how we can destroy or help Myrddin. Probably related to future endings.
The previous questions, though, they are more intimate:
Like he is testing or exploring our morality, or perhaps ending up leaking his own. I think the questions above show us that Myrddin is trying to fit into something he does not know what it is, and he wants to know if the Player would be willing to give him those chances, eventually. But those questions, I don't think they relate to endings directly, because apparently there are no variables being stored for those, if I recall correctly. (Yes, I just checked again, no variables for those answers.)
Finally, I wanted to mention this sentence he says right before his first breakdown/altercation with the Outer/The Voices in a direct way:
"YOU WILL MAKE IT STOP SOON"
That really stood out to me. What does he mean? Hmm, perhaps he did think ever since the beginning that the player might help him. But do you think he was manipulative since the beginning? I do think he is suspicious, definitely. But perhaps it is early to say with certainty if he is malicious, especially because it does seem like he doesn't want us near the Outer/the Voices, meaning perhaps he does want to protect the player, or at least the connection with the player.
But here is the thing: there is a moment he mentions something crawling in his mouth, something like that. Like it was using his face. I wonder if the Outer/the Voices can pretend to be Myrddin? If they already did it at some point? Interesting and worth keeping in mind.
Sounds like a solid plan for now . From what I have seen so far, at least, I'd be interested in an enhanced version, if there's ever one. It's a joy to help indie games, when possible\viable.
i gotta say, I'm truly happy there seem to be more people engaging with the page and the game lately. Granted, I only found out about the project 4 days ago XD , but it is good to see it getting more traction. Now I'll wait until June; cannot wait to see what's in store! I cannot say I'll be that free in June, though. But when I do get some free time, I'll definitely play the update when it comes.
Now, on to a small discussion regarding the Merlin show, since you mentioned it and i have some free time for now, at least:
(I apologize if some of my sentences are a bit weird... English is not my native language.)
Spoilers for BBC Merlin below:
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Dear developer, whatever do you mean by "the effects and cinematography have not aged perfectly"?! 
Well...
I wonder, when Myrddin said it takes a lot to scare him, how he would fare against the Diamair. (Even wilder thought: how would a BBC Merlin and Myrddin interaction go? Ahahaga)
Anyway, the creature above spooked/surprised me a little the first time I saw her, honestly. Anyway, she helped Gwaine, which is great! She is a good one, just has a design that made me stare at the screen for some solid seconds until I hit play again.
But jokes aside, I really enjoy the practical effects the show had. The fantastical creatures, "the almost-Queen" troll, for example. And even though the dragons' CGI wasn't the best, due to the environment and look of the show ( Plus the great voice acting! ), things did look more magical. (And do not even get me started with the medieval clothing! I love that aesthetic, and even though it is not 100% accurate, it looked very good and intune during the show.)
Very often older shows have that style that's similar to comparing homemade food to restaurant food. One is shiny and popular, the other is made with time and care. Newer shows don't have that "charm," I would say. I do notice care and time invested in Interact With Me! so, naturally, people would connect deeply to projects as such.
And since we were talking about actors, let me mention Morgana's actress: Katie McGrath. Whenever I find any interactive fiction game or story about Arthurian legends, I very often see her as Morganaa. She really impacted how the character is envisioned in many future related projects, I believe.
Which brings me to a silly question that occurred tome right now, If you could choose a voice actor for Myrddin, who would it be? Or rather, how do you imagine his voice? Aside from the bleeping sound and humming in the main menu or courese, haha.
Now, a funny detail I decided to mention for last: I haven't actually finished the show yet!
So I'm glad you didn't mention the ending directly, hahaahha. Funnily enough, I have known the show ever since i was younger, having tried to watch it with a family member back then. Years later, i managed to start it, but I didn't finish it because I didn't want it to end yet... if that makes any sense, aaaha. As I said, maybe it is the nostalgic nature of it all, but i stopped at episode 9 of season 5: "With All My Heart." And i'm waiting for the day I'll rewatch it once again and finally finish it. (Yes, I've managed to avoid big spoilers to this day... at least in general.)
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Those were my two cents. I'm sorry to diverge from Interact With Me!, but don't worry, after the next update, I'm sure I willhave a lot to talk about regarding the game. Thank you for your attentive words, developer, have a great one!
That is great to hear! (And, yeah, I really like Alice in Wonderland as well, it is my favorite Disney tale, hahjhaa, what a nice coincidence. Myrddin and I are pals in that regard.)
Warning of long text below, I apologize. You don't even need to go through it all, honestly. (Only perhaps the bug report, but they are minor.)
And I'll try to share what I've thought so far, even though I am probably missing details for my theories, hahah. Although, I do plan on theorizing more after the big update in June.
But before that, I did notice possible bugs in the game, and I will use this chance to mention them:
- The furniture question does not disappear even after the player has already asked it. ( If I'm not mistaken, the question is something along these lines: "How did the furniture get in here?" )
- (Possible bug) Myrddin does not react accordingly when the player changes the ambiance sound. He always says we picked the same one (granted, I only tested with two sounds: rain and wind, if I'm not mistaken). But I don't know if it is intentional or not. Maybe he doesn't identify the different sounds for lore reasons?
- In the Linux version, the cube CG is missing! At least in my case, that's what happened. I had played on the browser first, though. So I knew the CG was supposed to show up. In the end, I installed the Windows version and used Wine to run it on Linux. I managed to get to the scene with the CG, so I'm guessing it is only related to the Linux version:
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That's it regarding bugs.
Now, regarding my initial silly theories
- Myrddin: his name has an interesting meaning. It is related to a semilegend of a mad man who ended up having prophecy powers... Interesting.
"While there his insanity only grew until he finally reached enlightenment and recieved the gift of prophecy."
Plus, he had a twin sister. Reaching very poorly here, but maybe his sister is involved in all this or is part of the voices? I have no proof, just found it interesting to know that he haas a twin sister. He was also reinvented as Merlin in some books and legends. ( Which is such a nice detail since I really like the Arthurian tales. ^^ )
Myrddin does have special abilities inside the cube: some could say he behaves like a warlock or wizard. Additionally, being stuck in the cube might drive him "mad" like in the legend. However, my problem here is that he doesn't seem to have much memory, when he mentions he doesn't have a past or future. Still, his predicament does look like a magical prison of sorts. So whoever locked him there was probably an equally (or more) powerful wizard...
- The ASCII85 code: his first sentences are a short poem mentioning him being trapped, but also a door which dreams of being opened. Interesting that he was muttering that right at the moment we arrived. Also interesting that he mentioned at some point in the game that he does know how we got there. I wonder if his mutterings are part of a spell that would create our connection, and he was simply waiting to see if the idea would work out or not, giving him a chance to finally talk and interact with someone. That does reinforce the wizard side as well.
Finally, the sentence in the game description is related to the last one we got in the current version of the game: the false messiah. Since Legend Myrddin is a "prophet" of sorts... Hmm... someone does not want us trusting him, huh? Perhaps the voices and dark eyes do think they are in the right.
So far im leaning towards the idea that Myrddin is the Messiah. and the voices believe he is in the wrong, or, at the very least, is untrustworthy.
- Whenever the voices or weird sounds show up: I tried to correlate all the times the weird sounds show up, and one got my attention:
When we mention if we feel strongly toward our name or not. In that instance, no matter what answer we give, Myrddin responds the same, and that caught my attention. While that does happen in other moments as well (due to the limitation of variations in a game, of course), the fact that the weird sound was there as well makes me believe that Myrddin's name is important and in tune to who, or what, he is. And the voices agree with that. That is also why we can add more meaning to the Legend Myrddin tale.
- The first book: okay, when I first heard it, my immediate thought was: Myrddin is or was that silhouette. Perhaps they took away his memories and he was stuck in the cube as a means to not destroy the world anymore. That line of thought is, in a way, related to the odd questions he asks us before his past/future breakdown: he asks for how long can someone suffer until what they did is excused, and if someone is being good only because is being watched.
However, that was just my first thought. Honestly, I believe Myrddin isnot going to end up being completely, 100% evil. B ecause I can see there are sides of good in the way he is written in the story so far. So, now I'm more inclined to the idea of Myrddin being the prophet who tried to warn the other kingdoms of the upcoming attacks from the silhouette, OR he is merely a part of the silhouette, who could, perhaps, receive a second chance, atonement! Anyway, early theories here, of course.
In any case, I do think that first book is VERY related to Myrddin's nature and past. Like he theorized, maybe he did create the book with his unconscious memory. But, at least regarding him trusting the player and wanting to be free, I don't think he is lying about those. So far it appears he really trusts the player in a way that gives him hope. So I hope we can help the good side of the story.
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I'll stop now hahaa, im probably missing a lot, but it was a nice thinking exercise. In the next update, I'll come back to my theories and see if any of them were useful.
Thanks again for creating this very enjoyable game!
