#second maze

This is Duke Crabtree, from ZapDramatic's Ambition series.

The Rules: Duke is armed with a tire iron, while the protagonists have whatever weapon they typically have in game. It's not a fight to the death, but has to end in some kind of defeat (no running away). The fight takes place in a generic street setting in the challenger's universe, and must stay outside. Characters cannot get other characters to assist them unless that is an ability they have in game.

Greetings casual RL fans and theorists alike. Lake Devotees of the Lore here!

In the introductory post of ours we mentioned some RL related projects. Well, here comes the first one. Behold!

Grand Rusty Lake Analysis Mind Map

Link to a full map! →

Enjoy!

Here are some screenshots so you get the idea:

What is the map for?

This mind map was created for various goals:

- To help digesting the story of the series;

- To help representing different points of view on it (e.g. theories) with their pros, cons, points of disagreement and evolution in time;

- To help memorizing major and minor details and some trivia as well;

- And last but hopefully not least to be a framework for new theories.

What is a mind map in general?

It’s a scheme containing written thoughts and drawings that helps to understand connections between various things. We think it’s the best way to visualize and explain theories.

What is Miro?

Miro is a platform for different forms of corporate organizing and presentations. Mind map is one of these forms.

Do I need to sign up so I can use the map?

No, if you are just exploring while using a desktop version. However If you want to make or edit maps, you do.

For mobile devices a free app is required no matter what.

What games can I find on the mind map of yours?

Unfortunately, for now we’ve managed to map the original Samsara Room only which also isn’t technically canon. It took a long way before we understood how to organize this amount of information so for this experimental project we rather needed a truly experimental game.

However in the future we’d like to add all the Rusty Lake lore pieces including Paradox short movie, The White Door ARG and even official blog posts.

The map is way too confusing, how can I fix it?

First of all, you are highly recommended to read a short instruction on the main screen. It also suggests sections easy to start with.

It’s also good get familiar with the notation keys of the section you are going to explore.

The map is still confusing or inconvenient to use.

Then, please, let us know. A suggestion of how to fix it would also be appreciated.

What is the next game you are going to map?

It’s The Lake. For several reasons.

To set things up we’ve decided to map content in the release order which would help to better understand the historical background. And despite Rusty Lake wanting us to play The Lake after Seasons, it was accidentally released few days before.

Another thing is, we don’t really expect the analysis of the OG Samsara Room being much anticipated among the community so we’d better map the next part pretty quick and such short game as The Lake is ideal for that.

What about theories and content provided by the unmapped games?

For the historical background sake we originally planned to ignore everything we can’t see or know without playing the upcoming games. To pretend we don’t know anything until we rediscover it. It would certainly help us step aside from our current theories and recreate them as well as their alternatives from scratch.

However for those who're eager to immediately get all the answers (which seems a majority) this approach wouldn’t be so exciting to follow so we’re not sure yet.

Expect some compromise and definitely feel free to suggest your solution in the comments below!

How can I help with the project?

You can share your lore-related questions, theories, participate in their discussions, report bugs and broken links and also leave suggestions on how to improve the map and its experience.

Soon we’ll make a separate post where we’re hoping to gather as many questions related to The Lake as possible. Feel free to join us there.

The Games: Rusty Lake by Rusty Lake + Second Maze

Score: I love them

Oh, what’s that? Rusty Lake is a Twin Peaks-inspired setting created by a small Dutch studio--and they make simply the best room escape games I’ve ever played. The series has enormous intelligence and personality, both charming and disturbing, mysterious but not insubstantial. It also stands out for varied and high-quality puzzles, and an overarching story that keeps exploration interesting. The lake is home to quests for immortality and reincarnation, memories stored in strange cubes, time travel, shapeshifting, weird machines, magic rituals, murder investigations, and Vincent Van Gogh.

There are a lot of games! The studio has just celebrated their 5th anniversary, and has released 15 games in the world of Rusty Lake. The link I provided above lists the games newest to oldest. I think the best order is the one they were released in--so, starting with Cube Escape: Seasons. The Cube Escape games from Seasons to The Cave, the first act of Cube Escape: Paradox, and Samsara Room are free; Hotel, Roots, Paradise, Paradox Act 2, and The White Door are less than $5 each. If you bought the Itch Bundle for Racial Justice, you own The White Door, and you’ll be fine playing it first! The player character(s) and time period bounce around from game to game, no matter what order you choose.

(From Rusty Lake Hotel.)

You said it’s a horror series--content warnings? The big ones are themes of surreality, murder, and suicide. There is some gore, some animal harm, and a variety of disturbing images and situations, but the horror is mostly effected by building an atmosphere of wrongness. If you begin with The White Door, know that the player character has initially been trapped by an organization posing as a mental health institute.

Hearing disorder corner: I don’t remember any puzzle or clue relying on sound--spoken dialogue is accompanied by speech bubbles, and musical puzzles are accompanied by visible music notes. I’ve sometimes found the music puzzles difficult, but never in a way that writing out the clues didn’t fix. If you begin with Seasons, the first speech you will reach will sound distorted. It’s not your ears acting up! It was recorded using the same “spoken backward, played forward” technique used by Michael J. Anderson when he played The Man from Another Place in Twin Peaks.

Anything else? Only that I’ve followed the series for most of five years, and enjoyed each game enough to play them repeatedly, my interpretation of events growing and changing with each new release!

GROUNDED

No fishing in this game, though I'd admit that I haven't played through the whole story yet. There is a pond which contains a fish, but it is a prized Koi Carp that the owner appears fond of, which is kind of the opposite of fishing if you think about it. And since the whole premise of the game is that you've been shrunk down very small, the fish is actually very big by comparison. You might think this excludes the possibility of fishing entirely, but you're forgetting the wide variety of other pond dwelling creatures that would still be tiny on that scale. Tardigrades, for example. 0/5

There are no trains involved in the game so far, though I'm not ruling out the possibility of a miniaturised train in one of the miniaturised science labs. No spoilers, but for now, it's also a 0/5

RAFT

Fishing features heavily in this game, both as a means of obtaining food and catching rare fish to sell for coins. You also use a hook to catch floating debris, and attack hostile fish with a spear which is sort of spear fishing in a way. 5/5

No trains though. 0/5

COOKIE CLICKER

Other than a fish shaped cookie you can buy, there are no fish in this game at all. There is the mention of fish flakes, suggesting real fish exist, but you cannot catch them, even in the small pool of milk you dunk your cookie into. 0/5

No trains here, either. Even the Mine building doesn't appear to have a mine cart installed. 0/5

FOLLOW THE MEANING

A small indie game from Second Maze, this is a point-and-click mystery with a surrealist vibe similar to (not coincidentally) the Rusty Lake franchise. I'm only mentioning this because I think it's the most obscure game on this list. No actual fishing, but there is a fisherman and you do go underwater at one point. 1/5

Still no trains. 0/5

HALF-LIFE 2

I really only started the game up so I could get the achievements from Episode 1 and Episode 2 again after the anniversary update. Since they're all part of the same game now, I'll count them all.

Gordon Freeman is too busy for fishing, unfortunately. There aren't even the same underwater enemies in this game that were in Half-Life 1, so it couldn't even get a point for that. 0/5