Endings

[Scarab]

With regards to your previous comments in other threads about Cthulhu not being planned (are you kidding? You worked that all out ON THE FLY? That is nothing short of amazing.)

...Did you actually have a specific ending in mind when you started? You say the Cthulhu thing wasn't planned, so what eventually elad to that being such a big part of the story? Did you have any other ideas as for a huge climax, or were you making bits of it up as you went?

[Connor Fallon]

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=860&p=36669#p36669

Essentially, the Cabal/Mr. A conflict being resolved one way or another. Initially designed around players picking sides and racing against each other. Though... cordially.

I really do like what we wound up doing with Cthulhu, though =)

[Tom]

We had eight days to write, shoot, edit, and animate Cthulhu. Alex did not sleep. He is a goddamn hero.

I go into more detail about Cthulhu in the Improvisation thread.

viewtopic.php?p=36673#p36673

[Dana]

We knew we wanted to use Cthulhu, but it was pretty late in the game where we figured out EXACTLY how to do that...which meant a lot of rushing, videos filmed in three different states, and me in a blonde wig looking like a LARPer in the woods.

[Scarab]

We knew we wanted to use Cthulhu, but it was pretty late in the game where we figured out EXACTLY how to do that...which meant a lot of rushing, videos filmed in three different states, and me in a blonde wig looking like a LARPer in the woods.

Wait waaait, that was YOU?

How did we MISS that?

[Tom]

I was the Phantom standing next to her, too. Dana and I had tons of cameos in the ARG and some major roles, too, and no one ever noticed we were Tom or Dana from Echo Chamber. Cause WE = GOOD AT ACCENTS

Also, Connor voiced like, everybody.

[Scarab]

I was the Phantom standing next to her, too. Dana and I had tons of cameos in the ARG and some major roles, too, and no one ever noticed we were Tom or Dana from Echo Chamber. Cause WE = GOOD AT ACCENTS

Also, Connor voiced like, everybody.

...Good at accents. Yeah. We can see that.

[Alexander Moser]

We knew we wanted to use Cthulhu, but it was pretty late in the game where we figured out EXACTLY how to do that...which meant a lot of rushing, videos filmed in three different states, and me in a blonde wig looking like a LARPer in the woods.

Wait waaait, that was YOU?

How did we MISS that?

The same way you missed that Joe was also the Witch, probably.

Also, Tom was Don Quixote (wearing the same mail armor he wore in Echo Chamber's season 1 finale, no less), and the video sent to Joe from "Zack" really was from that Zack (it was discussed but dismissed among players, to all of our surprise, as it had both his voice and Dana's voice delivering the much-talked-about "flowers are so pretty" line).

[Sicon112]

We knew we wanted to use Cthulhu, but it was pretty late in the game where we figured out EXACTLY how to do that...which meant a lot of rushing, videos filmed in three different states, and me in a blonde wig looking like a LARPer in the woods.

Wait waaait, that was YOU?

How did we MISS that?

The same way you missed that Joe was also the Witch, probably.

Actually, my mother and I both commented on how we could tell the Witch was male.

[Tom]

I had to listen to that falsetto for several hours while I edited the very real recording Sicon took when the Witch attacked him.

[Scarab]

Actually, my mother and I both commented on how we could tell the Witch was male.

Yeah that was pretty obvious even to me , which is why I kind of assumed Mimsy had done something with regards to it: I mean listen to Mimsy and TELL ME you can't see him doing the witch's voice.

I had to listen to that falsetto for several hours while I edited the very real recording Sicon took when the Witch attacked him.

And we are all exceptionally grateful for that [/sincerity mode].

[Alexander Moser]

Actually, my mother and I both commented on how we could tell the Witch was male.

That barely counts because as soon as you first heard it I asked you, under my real name, after you already knew I was Joe, if you were happy with the Witch

[Sicon112]

Actually, my mother and I both commented on how we could tell the Witch was male.

That barely counts because as soon as you first heard it I asked you, under my real name, after you already knew I was Joe, if you were happy with the Witch

OK, OK, valid point, but my mother didn't know about that. The cackling evil of it was still quite good though. She thinks she should have done the part anyway though. (and DANG she is good at that creepy evil voice.... I need to record her sometime.)

[Jeroic9]

Also, Tom was Don Quixote (wearing the same mail armor he wore in Echo Chamber's season 1 finale, no less), and the video sent to Joe from "Zack" really was from that Zack (it was discussed but dismissed among players, to all of our surprise, as it had both his voice and Dana's voice delivering the much-talked-about "flowers are so pretty" line).

While I did miss Quixote being Tom in the old video, I did assume that they were both the same characters and the same actors. I just never wound up being somewhere that it was being discussed. I figured since they were the same voices in what was plainly the same universe, and the dude randomly has a camera in a vehicle, then why not?

On to my actual question:

When you had the "Cabal Wins vs. Mr. A wins" dual endings, were either of them going to set a plotline for EC3 in motion, and if so how much was that shaken when you made the "unified ending?"

[Tom]

We have gotten pretty good at making branching stories that give us something to work with no matter how it ends. Echo Chamber Season 3 was never in any danger.

If you want to know more about my philosophies regarding branching stories, I suggest you check out The Game I Never Stop Talking About.

Once you play that, I'd be more than happy to discuss how it's possible to write branching stories without having to handle combinatorical explosion of possibilities.

[Dana]

It's actually much easier to write a branching story for something like this. Unlike Tom's game that he linked to, we can plot out all of the varieties of where the story can go without actually writing them until we need to.

[Jeroic9]

We have gotten pretty good at making branching stories that give us something to work with no matter how it ends. Echo Chamber Season 3 was never in any danger.

If you want to know more about my philosophies regarding branching stories, I suggest you check out The Game I Never Stop Talking About.

Once you play that, I'd be more than happy to discuss how it's possible to write branching stories without having to handle combinatorical explosion of possibilities.

Boomarked, I'll get going on that when I'm done forumsweeping for ALL TEH INFOES. Yrch, I'll never talk like that again.

[Connor Fallon]

Tom, Dana, and I actually met through an Interactive Narrative Class. Tom wrote an epic space opera, which is that damn story he keeps linking too because he hasn't done anything else worthwhile since just kidding love you tom but really. Dana wrote a sci-fi thriller. And I wrote some story about an artist with cancer trying to reconnect with his family.

...I swear I was not depressed at the time.

[Tom]

That made my day just now, Connor.

[Dana]

Yeah, he literally laughed so hard that I think my eardrum is bleeding. THANKS TOM.

LITERALLY.