Saturated Dreamers

From RinkuWiki

A weird flower.

Saturated Dreamers is a game I'm currently making, it's intended to be my second shareware game (my first was Immortal Defense). This design document will contain spoilers, so if you found this place and were hoping for a preview, beware as it may spoil a lot of the story of the game, for best results don't read this unless you are someone who is working on the game currently or you don't care about spoilers.

Saturated Dreamers (website)

Miscellaneous

[edit]

Crew

I (Paul Eres) am doing programming, direction, design, and procedural graphics, and the marketing. Long Dao (OCRemixer) and Walter Eres (classical composer) will both return for music, and John Thornton (The Man Who Hates Fun) will return for writing, Hardi Gosal (Fedora Spade, Missing, Boundless Ocean) has signed up for portrait art and map art, and there are a number of other people who may also be helping me make the rest of the resources, Kelly Lea Harrismith (Wingedmene) is doing the enemy design and enemy sprites. Kenneth Whitehead (Spellshard: The Black Crown of Horgoth, Weeping Wailing Grief Fear) will be doing cut-scene graphics.

[edit]

History

Ideas for our next game were tossed around by the Immortal Defense crew since that game's release, but actual planning and design work didn't really begin until late 2007, and actual work on the prototype didn't really begin until February 2008. A number of ideas were tossed around, considered, disposed of, and replaced, and likely this process will continue. Currently the game is going to be a top-down exploration game with elements of a shmup (but with no actual explosions or death to speak of) and elements of Zelda-like exploration puzzles, with an emphasis on the story.

Originally the game was going to be a strict shmup-RPG-exploration hybrid, but Wynand convinced me that that wouldn't be as interesting as if the enemies were not direct enemies, where instead the challenge of the game is learning how the creatures live and adapting to them in order to get through different areas, and where if you killed any enemy (even accidentally) the lake would reciprocate and it'd be game over. I got to thinking about a variety of non-violent "weapons" that would focus on interaction rather than attack, and found that a good game could be made around them, so we took out the idea of it being a shmup at all (although there will still be some shump elements in movement and the use of the ship's non-weapon projectiles).

Originally there were going to be five ships, one for each pilot, which would be operated with AI, but later we decided that was needlessly complex, and a single ship with all five inside would work just as well or even better for most purposes.

[edit]

Basics, Goals

The game is about the exploration of a living "lake" on another planet, it's primarily a game about exploration and interaction with the creatures in that lake; it'll have a semi-linear story: although the world can be explored in any order, there is a story that will progress from beginning to end during the course of the game.

Our goal is to create an interesting world to explore and an interesting story that happens on it, with interesting characters. The focus is on immersion and on the coherency and integration and believability of this imaginary world. The gameplay itself has no goal except to explore the game's world, gradually friending creatures and gaining more functions on the way, and the game (and the story) are completed when the player has explored almost everywhere.

Avoiding harming the creatures is paramount: killing one will cause the Lake to destroy the ship. Not only using the Weapon, but even bumping into a creature enough will damage and eventually kill it (depending on is size). In this game, touching the enemies harms them rather than you, so you want to avoid touching enemies if you can avoid it.

[edit]

Controls

The game will be controlled primarily with the mouse, the player's ship (a futuristic hovercraft) moves toward the mouse at all times, and the mouse controls the different functions that the ship is capable of using. Keyboard or joystick controls will be optional however. The player changes functions with the mouse wheel or the keyboard numbers, and uses them with the left mouse button. Functions can also usually be charged by holding the mouse button for a time and then releasing, with longer charges leading to greater effects.

In order to keep immersion as high as possible, we're going to try to keep GUI menus as limited as possible; there will be only limited use of numbers, meters, and so on appearing on the screen (the percent explored of the map and the time spent playing the game are rare exceptions). The ship itself won't have a visible health meter, but it will have an invisible one and can be destroyed if it takes enough damage (there will be no indication of this damage, and self-healing will be quick, so the damage must come in quick succession). The primary challenge is not destruction, but obstruction: creatures which make it very difficult to get through them.

There is a "camp" mode accessable by pressing escape; here the portraits are displayed, and you can speak to the different characters, who allow you to see the map and get hints about where to go next (Spare), choose the function you wish to upgrade and view the status of every function (NeoTheo), save and load and quit (there will also be an auto-save in addition to save files) (Venus), learn about the surrounding area and the creatures in the area (Icks), or change the game options (Mercedes). As in Metal Gear Solid, these selections are done through dialogue options rather to direct menu choices.

[edit]

Music & Sound

This is a list of desired music tracks written up by Wynand and edited by RinkuHero. These can be adjusted to reduce the number of necessary.

Areas: One track for each of the nine areas (see the area section above), in two version: normal and alert. (18)

Special Tracks: Title Screen, Flight Into The Lake (opening sequence), Crash Landing, Caves, "Boss" Theme, "Mini-boss" Theme, Ascent to the Science Station, Escape from the Science Station, Camp / Inside Ship Theme, People of the Archipelago (for Spare's "village"), Venus's Sacrifice (final theme), Theme for Venus and Mercedes (during Venus's collapse in the science station sequence--about their backstory), Lake Exposition Theme (for learning weird information about the lake), Ending. (14)

Character Themes: Mercedes Theme (standard theme: bolder, more "human", with a secret vulnerability), Venus's Theme ("warm", emotional), Ikks's Theme (impish, undercurrent of menace), Spare's Theme (bold but alien), NeoTheo's Theme (grimmer and quiet), Theo's Theme "Us vs. Them" (similar to NeoTheo theme but more human instruments and more belligerent). (6)

Jingles: Discover Secret, Find Function, Upgrade Function, Game Over, Save Game, Load Game, New Character Joins, Victory Tune.

Sound effects: there will be a set of general action ones, one for each function's use, one for each function's effect on something, and one or more for each type of creature. Some environmental objects will have sound effects as well, such as waterfalls.

Voices: this is undecided, and the decision of to what extent (if any) voice acting is used in the game will be decided later in the game's production.

Tentative list of music tracks matched to use follows.

[edit]

Other

(Dreams of) Sul Ponticello - New/Continue screen
Navigating to Autopilot - Preview / Attract Mode / Opening Demo
Sun Wukong - When you get a new character
Emotional Treebranch - Discovering Venus is Gone
Greenchime - New function obtained
SDJingle - New function upgraded
Lysa - Episodic Conversations 1
Melancholy Reflection - Episodic Conversations 2
Surface Release - Idle Conversations
Stradiv - Ares Chase
Celestial Dreamers - Ending 1
Dance of Paralysis - Ending 2
Everything and Nothing - Ending 3

[edit]

Areas

Trek to the Unknown - Center Lake (interior)
(Legend) Unfolds - Center Lake (north)
Mystic Current - Center Lake (exterior)
Blossom Mesas - Blossom Mesas (exterior)
Riverstream - Blossom Mesas (middle)
Vida Isla - Blossom Mesas (interior)
Lucid Lake - Creature Veld (exterior)
Lucid Lake Prelude - Creature Veld (interior)
Majestic Steps - Vine Revival (exterior)
Vine Revival - Vine Revival (interior)
Land Under Water - Whirlpool Desert (exterior)
Bleak Ice - Whirlpool Desert (interior)
Winterstory - Snow Moors (exterior)
Sunwalker - Snow Moors (interior)
New Monia - Volcanic Vents (exterior)
Polinaris - Volcanic Vents (interior)
Dance of Paralysis - Duck Blind Vicinity (exterior)
Alpha Returns - Duck Blind (interior)

[edit]

Special Areas

Dance of Paralysis Piano - Venus's Dreams
KomelRush - Challenges 1
Faris Bet - Challenges 2
Lestraum - Local Mammoths
Winds of the Living - Encounter with Aphrodite 1
Alone in the Skies - Encounter with Aphrodite 2
Second Stradiv - Encounter with Aphrodite 3 (Ares part)
Winds of the Living - Ring Caves
Arrow Pierced Through Heaven - Alpha Repo rooms
Descreto - Duck Blind Recording Room
Rain Hill - Creature Veld Villages
Vine Revival Piano - Vine Revival (neotheo's area)
Frozen Sunshine - Safe places in Snow Moors
Droplet Pattern - Spare Moment's Area
Cloudway - Cloud Oasis in Whirlpool Desert
Sunway - Sun Oasis in Whirlpool Desert
Vida Lysa - Empty Peaceful Areas
Restlesss Souls - Woods of the Lost
Second Riverstream - ???
Pollena - ???
Ledaris - ???
Lonely Lake - ???
Harmony in Clashing Seas - ???
Steam of the Lake - ???

[edit]

Graphics

Hardi Gosal will do the nine sets of map graphics for each of the nine areas. These will consist of rocks, plant life, whirlpools, and anything on the map that doesn't move around or interact with the player. Some of these float on the lake, others are stationary. Some can be hovered over by the ship and are just there for decoration, others obstruct movement of the ship. These will number several hundred, but most will have only a single frame of animation. Hardi also did the portrait graphics, six in number, also stationary (perhaps later they will be animated for blinking and talking frames).

The creature sprites will likely be done by Kelly Lea Harrismith. These will be animated and will either rotate 360 degrees along with their direction, or else they will only face downward. Most will have an animation for movement and an animation for its special behaviors. They will number about 40 to 60, each with potentially dozens of individual frame images.

Cutscene graphics (used during story scenes) will be drawn by Kenneth Whitehead. They'll be done comic book or "Phantasy Star 4" style. The count of these is unknown, but approximately 100.

The graphics for the ship, its functions, and the behavior effects of the creatures, and the graphical user interface (mouse cursor, menus, font, and the like), and special visual effects for different areas and for different creatures, will be done by Paul Eres. Effect graphics (such as weather, fog, sun rays, smoke effects, etc.) will be done procedurally, some using a particle effects designer. These effects come in two types: those tied to particular game objects and their behaviors functions, and those tied to particular rooms. The count of the former is unknown (probably one per enemy behavior plus some for each of the Leta's functions), and the count of the latter should be around 60 (although these can be combined, and reach room can have up to three effects at once, plus a sky effect and a weather effect).

[edit]

Exploration of the Lake

The lake on which the game takes place (which is actually, strictly speaking, more of a swamp or wetland that is the size of a small ocean) is an organism: the vast variety of life forms in it are so well-integrated with each other that it can be considered a total unit, and although it is not sentient or conscious, it is so evolved that it doesn't even need to be in order to have intelligence. As such, there are symbiotic relations between all of the creatures in the game, much more so than we see on earth.

As the player explores the Lake, they come across creatures and "friend" the creatures. New functions for the ship and new story scenes are displayed as new areas are reached or as certain conditions are met. Most of the activity of the game is exploring and gaining access to all of the different areas in the game through interaction with the creatures of the lake. There are nine major areas of the lake, which differ in dominant color schemes, dominant feeling, dominant creature types, dominant plant life, dominant climate, and so on.

[edit]

Area 1: Center

A rock formation.

This is the area the player starts in. It's the central hub of the game and provides access to each of the other areas. It's mostly open, grassy waters with occasional rock formations and small caves. Pink lotus flowers, lily pads, dark blue water, grass, trees, bushes, and gray and light brown rock formations. The creatures tend the flowers and float on lily pads. Danmaku-shooting Argus have to be avoided and dominate much of the area. Because it's the center, it has a little bit of each of the other areas in the game mixed in, and is the least specialized area in terms of the Lake's being.

There are also clay-like map artifacts which tend to clot together and block narrow passageways, and which can be slowly pushed around or towed by the player's ship, the Leta. This can also interact with the Argus, because these block the danmaku fire of the Argus.

The local mammoth of the Center area guards the Net function.

[edit]

Area 2: Creature Veld

This area has a large variety of creatures and most of the landmarks are also just very large creatures. The character Ikks can be found here. This is where most of the creatures of the lake perform their productive activities, such as building temple-like structures and playing with each other in team sports like activities.

The most highly intelligent creatures, such as Ikks, live in this area. There are extremely tall gray spires in this area scattered about, but for the most part it's open area with creatures, large and small, populating it in dense numbers. Mermaids and clouds of wasps are particularly common, as are giant red turtles which are so large they can't fit on one screen, and which serve as the homes of some of the more intelligent creatures in this area. Dominant colors are darker golds and grays.

The local mammoth of the Creature Veld (Jewel) guards the Fireflies/Bait function.

[edit]

Area 3: Whirlpool Jungle

A flower on the water.

This area is a large area of shifting whirlpools and sifting creatures which live at the bottom of them, it is here that the water of the entire lake is kept purified and clean, this area operates analogously as a liver or kidneys for the entire lake. The whirlpools come in all sizes and are mostly light blue, on nearly black water.

Currents are a big problem, and this area can only really be travailed and explored with an upgraded engine and an upgraded Line shot. There are a number of flying creatures here, as well as scylla creatures at the bottom of some of the whirlpools. Dominant colors are the "CGA" trinity: magenta, cyan, and yellow.

The Sound function is found here, guarded by the local mammoth.

[edit]

Area 4: Vine Revival

This area is where the creatures of the Lake go to die and be reanimated; emulated humans like Venus, and reanimated humans like NeoTheo, were created here and have this as their base. Most creatures in the game can be found here, in repair and reanimation; most of the creatures of the lake, unless they have an accident, are immortal, some are millions of years old, they've just been reanimated and repaired in this area every few years, for millions of years.

The area has lots of vines and pods containing creatures being repaired. The vines tend to hold the player and to swing around, creating rotating snake-like obstacles. Scylla grab onto your ship with long tongues, and there are drifting clouds which can make the Leta visible to all creatures if it moves into them. There are also a number of Argus. Dominant colors are dark green and indigo.

This is where the player finds NeoTheo, as well as the Weapon function which NeoTheo installs.

[edit]

Area 5: Volcanic Vents

Pink tree.

Volcanic fire caves, high diversity of creatures. Lava flows need to be leaped over with an upgraded engine. Large worms that tunnel under the water, eel-like, periodically leap out at you, and can spit acid, and there are creatures which tend the worms and regulate their movements. Noxious geysers. Dominant colors are gray and red-orange. This is a very inhospitable place, the player should explore cautiously.

The most difficult function to acquire, the Fade, can be found in the depths of this area, guarded by the local mammoth, and gaining that function requires the use of many other highly upgraded functions to reach, although as always there are alternate paths to reach it.

[edit]

Area 6: Snow Moors

Flatwaters, with icebergs and snowstorms; things below the ice are invisible to the eye, allowing surprising leaps. Unseen regions require "ducking under", a more maze-like environment. Frogger-like rivers with long snakes that you have to wait to pass. Grass sticking out of the snow that slows the player. Dominant "colors" are black and white.

The Sight function is found here, and it's also very useful here, as it can see through a lot of the fog and snow and other limited visibility effects in this area.

[edit]

Area 7: Blossom Mesas

A big tree on the water.

Flower blossoms drop from trees and then float on the water. Constant dust storms of those flower blossoms. High mesas which rise out of the clouds and form islands. Flying creatures, reversing currents, narrow passages, constant winds, vultures and eagles and small birds. Eggs everywhere, especially large ones, floating in the water. Dominant colors are teal and pink pastels.

The Light function is found here, and can be obtained by sneaking through the area holding the local mammoth.

[edit]

Area 8: Ring Caves

The Ring Caves are a network of caves which surround the Lake, blocking it in from the otherwise barren planet outside. It operates as a great wall but also as a circulatory system, with strong currents pulling in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions around the Lake. Dark caves, bats, waterfalls, light and darkness alternate, falling rocks, obstacle corridors, auto-scrolling, can only travel in one direction, one clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. Enemies hidden in the dark walls of the corridor. Faster-paced than most areas. Full of scylla creatures. Dominant colors are purple and bronze.

Some out-of-the-way areas can only be entered by traveling through the Ring Caves. The Ring Caves also hold the Shield function, which is useful in many situations, especially against enemy projectiles like those of the Argus.

[edit]

Area 9: Duck Blind and Vicinity

The Duck Blind is a large space craft that the humans arrived in, and it is surrounded by a 'vicinity' of an area which looks much like the starting area, except that its colors are altered toward dark grays, blues, and silvers. Plenty of empty machines, though some have Lake Humans operating them. Abandoned. The space station itself is largely floating and aquatic, flooded, and traversable with the ship. Electrically charged walls and fences. Most machines look like the ship itself in style, rather than like the creatures. Robotic arms, robot sentries, even "Quick Man-like death lasers that fire out of walls". The major part of this area can only be entered with the Fade function.

The game ends only when the Leta reaches a specific point in this area.

[edit]

Obstacles

Areas have different obstacles. These are part of the lake's terrain which the player can interact with.

[edit]

Walls

Walls are static objects which are impassable by the creatures and the player (unless they are airborne). These vary in width. They can be faded with the Fade function and then become passable. They can also be pushed by certain enemies. These include rocks and land.

[edit]

Floats

Floats are floating objects which slowly move along the surface of the water. They operate as moving walls. They include large flowers. The player and the creatures can either fly above or dive below them, but cannot move onto them while on the surface of the water.

[edit]

Decorations

Decorations do not interact with the player or any creature except visually, and are just there for decoration. Underwater textures and water grass are examples.

[edit]

Decorative Floats

There also exist things which float along the surface of the water but do not interact with the player or any creature, these are merely decorative floating objects. They include lilypads.

[edit]

Water Currents

Water currents push things on them in certain directions with a certain speed. These are not visible but can be detected by the decofloats they move along themselves.

[edit]

Lake Oil

Lake oil is impassable by the player and by the creatures unless they are flying. It works much like walls, except that it cannot be faded.

[edit]

Function Blocks

Certain objects can be moved, destroyed, or bypassed by certain functions, opening new areas. Here is a list of at least one for each function:

- Bushes: can be gotten through using the Weapon

- Immobile Purple Flowers: can be gotten through using the Line to drag them

- Dark areas: hard to navigate without Light

- Particular Creatures: not able to get past them without Bait, much like Grumble, Grumble...

- Projectile Curtains: hard to get through without the Shield

- Fireball-like Creatures: not able to get past them without the Net to slow them and navigate between them.

- Small single-object barriers: not able to get past them without the Fade.

- Invisible walls and creatures (such as the Nurikabe): hard to navigate through them without the Sight.

- Tunnels: not able to enter them (which can warp you to inaccessible areas) without the Zig Engine's dive function.

[edit]

Friending the Creatures of the Lake

The number of different types of creature in the game is undecided, but I'm aiming for it to be in the area of forty, including unique creatures which only appear once in the game (local mammoths). I want each of them to have unique behaviors, unique interaction with other creatures, and differing reactions to each of the Leta's functions. Each of which will be listed here as they're designed and developed.

Most of the creatures can be "friended" -- when a creature is friended, it behaves differently toward the player. This is a key mechanic in the game, perhaps the key mechanic: friending creatures is what the player will spend more time doing than anything else, and what the primary challenge of the game is. Creatures can also be unfriended if they are attacked by the Leta's weapon, but there is usually no reason to unfriend a creature (although there might be exceptions on some rare maps). Two creatures which cannot be friended are the Memory Cell and the Lake Humans. (Even three of the party members -- Ikks, Spare Moment, and NeoTheo -- can be friended by the player.)

The challenge of each little area of the map -- there are 9 major areas and about 800 subareas within -- is to figure out how to friend the creatures in it (and virtually all areas have creatures in them). It will often be impossible near the beginning of the game to friend every creature the player comes across, but as their functions are upgraded it will become possible. It is not necessary to friend every creature in the game in order to complete the game, but the "best ending" can only be achieved in that way.

[edit]

Creature 1: Argus

Argus

Nature: This is a static creature. It might be mistaken as part of the terrain or a plant, but it's actually a hive-like creature composed of a loose bag of numerous tiny insect-sized creatures. Its role is to maintain the currents of the lake.

Behavior: Its primary behavior is to repel and move creatures and the player. It does this in a "danmaku" pattern of tiny particles. It cannot be towed with the line function, and never moves.

Friending: It is the simplest creature to make friendly: one merely has to move near it and then stay there for a few seconds. Doing that can be difficult, because its danmaku pattern often pushes the Leta in directions it doesn't want to go to, so depending on the terrain enclosure it can be difficult to friend. Once friended, it no longer fires (as many) danmaku effects, because it's more peaceful.

Strategy: Usually the player will avoid these in an attempt to get through its area without being repelled. When a repel object touches the player, it moves the player along with it on its pattern. Some strategies to help reach it are: the Weapon deflects danmaku effects, the Net slows danmaku effects down, the Line can be used to maintain your position even if a danmaku effect is pushing you, the fade can be useful to get through obstacles when nearing it, and the Zig engine helps because the speed of the Leta allows it to traverse the danmaku patterns more easily -- diving under the water is another strategy. Shooting light on its eyes also stops its emission of danmaku, temporarily, although it will not affect the danmaku themselves.

Properties: Different colors of Argii have different danmaku patterns and types.

Sound: Its sound allows the player to fire a few danmaku out. These danmaku however still move the player around, so its usefulness is limited (although it is not totally useless either). To record the sound, the player merely has to go near an Argus which is friendly, friendly Argii occasionally make their sound.

"Though I wrote down that insects come out and go into it, it's also potentially the "gun turrets" or the "cacti that shoot in ortho dirrections". But most likely they'll be the beehives for the insects that swarm you." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 2: Ember Fly

Nature: The purpose of the ember fly is to provide light to the creatures of the lake, especially at night and in caves. They are very numerous, probably the most common creature in the game (not counting the Memory Cell).

Behavior: This slowly drifting creature provides light to dark areas for other creatures. It usually lives on a lily pad, but can be scared into the water with a loud sound. When in the water it'll search for a lily pad to move onto and produce more light. This light causes certain other creatures to move toward it, and scares certain other creatures off.

Friending: Friending ember flies can be done by shining light on them in a pattern (on, off, on, off, on off), similar to how they turn their light on and off -- when their light is off, shine your Light on them, when their light is on, don't shine your Light on them, and after a bit of this they will become friendly.

Strategy: In general if a creature reacts to the Leta's Light function, it'll react in the same way to the Ember Fly, and in the early parts of the game using light (which is often needed to friend creatures or to get them to react in certain ways, or to navigate dark areas) will often involve towing or "scaring" the Ember Fly towards what you want to use light on, because the light function doesn't become available until later in the game.

Properties: The types of these vary on the radius, strength, and color of their light (although color is merely cosmetic).

Sound: Their sound calls any local Ember flies and causes them to follow the player. Useful in low-visibility areas. Their sound can be obtained from friendly Ember Flies.

[edit]

Creature 3: Unicorn

Unicorn

Nature: The unicorn is a small flying creature. It is very common, and its has a mixed variety of roles, many of them mysterious. A unicorn leaves behind streaks of color as it moves, and a flock of them can often paint intricate patterns of colors on the screen, colors which have a role in the Lake: trapping different forms of sunlight and serving as a notice to the creatures that they are in their correct area. Creatures of the lake stay in the area designated to them based primarily on the color of the lake, the colors are not natural but a sort of code the Lake uses for self-organization. The unicorns also give color to map objects and creatures. In a way, the unicorn is the "Rainbow Brite" of the game, giving everything correct colors. It has a finely tuned visual system tens of thousands of times more sensitive than the human eye is, yet it has very small eyes (eight of them, which aren't visible on the sprite, but are visible on Jewel). The color is generated from the wings.

Behavior: Flies around. Leaves colors behind. Flies to creatures and paints them their own color. Flies to map objects and paints them their own color. Flies away from the Leta if it sees it. When friended, it will follow the Leta sometimes and paint the Leta its own color.

Friending: It can be friended by using the Line function to connect to it, and then holding it for long enough for the color effect to move through the Line to the Leta, but since it's extremely fast, and avoids the Leta, it's often hard to catch with the Line. It is in fact the only creature which can be friended with the Line, making it (along with the Argus) one of the early friendship targets in the game.

Strategy: You can surprise if it you sneak up to it invisibly (with the Sight, or underwater with the Zig) or if you use a Net or the Fireflies as bait, and then get close and use the Sound on it before it can fly away. It's easier to catch earlier in the game when the invisibility feature of the ship has a greater range.

"Yes, it looks like it has two horns, but only the top one is counted as a horn. The bottom one is counted as part of the head shield." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 4: Firefly

Firefly

Nature: The firefly doesn't actually fly so much as float, although it does use its wings for a small propulsion in order to change direction and speed. Its main role is to pollinate flowers.

Behavior: It will move between the lotus flowers, remaining at each for a few seconds and sucking nourishment from it, before searching for the next. It will fly away if the player gets too close. It will not return to a flower which it has been to, however. It will also move away from any creature, because it knows that it can easily burst into flame if jostled too hard. There may be different varieties of firefly, which vary by color, each with a different speed and motion behavior.

Friending: They can be friended by bringing a number of flowers to them (about three, number subject to balance), using the Line or simply by bumping the flowers towards them. Once friended, they will no longer detonate on impact with the player, perhaps because they start to fly at a greater height and now fly over the player. They will also follow the player (roughly) but will still prefer flowers to the player.

Strategy: Take care not to hit them with the Weapon, or even to bump into them, or they'll burst into flame, consuming the player as well. The main strategy is to bring lotus flowers to them, which can be difficult depending on the map layout and on the other creatures in the area.

"Like the Hindenburg, the fireflies are filled with hydrogen to float. When their gas sacs are ruptured, they burst into flames. Making them "real" fireflies, I guess. The "wings" are not for flying, they're for maneuvering." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 5: Pegasus [Shield]

Nature: The Pegasus moves very slowly. Its role in the organization of the Lake is a sort of border guard: it guards the exits and entrances to center of the lake. The Lake doesn't like creatures crossing these areas, because every creature is supposed to stay in its dedicated area and perform its dedicated role (with some exceptions for creatures which travel between areas for specific purposes). Borders between areas are some of the most challenging spots to get through. It is large and hard to miss, but also hard to get past. It is not in one set place, but appears anywhere that the center area transitions into another area.

Behavior: It scares and eventually attacks anything which attempts to travel between areas. Unlike most creatures in the Lake, the Pegasus can destroy the Leta (although that will only result in the player having to try the local area again from its entrance), although it prefers to scare rather than attack. Any other creature which comes near it will be scared off. It has a preference for fast-moving objects, but will scare even slow moving objects if they're close enough. When a creature is scared (with a loud sound) it moves away from the source of that sound as quickly as possible in fright. Note: you an capture and store this sound, and use it on other creatures. The sound even causes the Leta to move away out of fear against the volition of its pilots, although the effect is less than on creatures. It will shoot out a harpoon tongue if it has tried the sound several times with no success. The tongue will hook onto the Leta and drag it in to its destruction. The Weapon function can damage the tongue, causing it to pull back in surprise -- but only once, and if it uses its tongue after it's been hit by the Weapon, it won't work a second time.

Friending: Friending the Pegasus is often a good way to get past it. Unfortunately, it can't be friended by anything except the Fade function, which can only be obtained very late in the game. Simply get close enough to use fade on it (approach it slowly so that it doesn't scare you off) and friendship is easy. Thankfully, you can sneak past it without having to friend it.

Strategy: Move slowly when trying to get past it, and keep your distance. If you see its harpoon tongue moving toward you, it's a good idea to use dash or dive. However, even if you dive, it will move toward the spot that you dived at, and you cannot remain underwater for long (especially at the lower levels of Zig). The Net will slow the movement speed of its tongue as well. It will also sometimes try to capture the object created by the Firefly Bait function, so that can be used as a diversion. Some transitional areas are easier to sneak past it than others, particularly areas with dark places to hide.

"So named because two of the helm's horns are shaped like wings. It doesn't move much, and when it does it tires easily. The helm is impenetrable (sp?) while the tail is soft. So it spends most of its time with its tail in a hole and its helm facing out. You might think you could just pass by without anything happening... but it has a harpoon tongue." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 6: Jewel [Icks, Zig Engine]

Jewel

Nature: Jewel is a huge creature, the "local mammoth" of that area of the lake. The purpose of local mammoths is defense against "cancers" -- foreign entities (which includes the Leta) and mutations. Each of the nine areas of the lake has a local mammoth. The way local mammoths work is that they are last resort creatures, they are only put to use when the lower-level immune system (which is composed of other, smaller creatures) fails, or when there is an emergency situation. Local mammoths like Jewel are brought into action and targeted/directed by the semi-intelligent creatures, such as the race Ikks comes from, at other times they just sleep. Some local mammoths don't appear until certain conditions have been met, others are always in specific locations. After friending Jewel, Icks joins the party; after friending Jewel, you obtain the Zig Engine function.

Behavior: Jewel is the first "boss" in the game, and is holding Ikks in its mouth, and attacks the Leta. The party, in an attempt to save Ikks from it and avoid being destroyed, scares it off. Jewel chases the player, but it is slow, and can be blocked by objects in its path (which might be pushed away when Jewel approaches them). Its nose breaths acid gas packets, which attach to and slow the player. If too many of them attach to the player, it can eat the player.

Friending: Jewel can only be friended in the second encounter, by the use of its own call sound (see below). Gaining that sound can be difficult however: it only makes that sound when it has almost eaten the player, so the player will need to get very close to capture a sample of the sound, and the player can't have the Zig engine on in order to dash away until it captures the sound, so the player must get close with the Sound function set, get the sound, and then quickly change to Zig and dash away before the Leta is eaten.

Strategy (first): Jewel encounters the player twice. The first time, light must be used on its eight eyes (brightening each). If all eight reach full brightness, it becomes blinded, during which you can use the Weapon on it to damage it. The player mus repeat this three times (and each chase sequence is faster than the last) before it is defeated. Because the player will most likely not have the Light function in this first encounter, the eyes will have to be lighted with ember flies (although, because this is a non-linear game, it is possible to get the Light function prior to the first battle). There is also a second strategy to win the first encounter without using the Weapon: when it is stunned, the player can use the Line to pull Ikks out of its mouth and then leave the room. This will also trigger the victory scene.

Strategy (second): The second time the player confronts it, the strategy is much the same, except that it is no longer holding Ikks, and the arena is set up differently, and that instead of using the Weapon when it is stunned, you must use its own sound on it, and you can use the Light function in addition to the ember flies. If you use the weapon during the second encounter, it simply runs away again as per the first encounter (and will re-appear if you exit and enter the room). The hard part about Jewel is avoiding the gas packets while running from it while shining light on its eyes.

Strategy (gas packets): The Net and the Shield will help with the gas packets to some degree, and the Weapon will destroy the gas packets, even after they have attached to the Leta (if they player spins around with the Weapon on).

"Like Pegasus, this is a boss. It really really really is based on the Unicorn. And omg is my anime side showing?" - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 7: Ares

Nature: Ares was the first attempt of the lake to understand humans, by creating one of its own. It failed and created Ares instead. A prototype, it has no role in the Lake, and has very little role in the story either, except as a hidden creature only discovered by the vigilant. Although humanoid, it is much larger than any human, almost as large as the Leta itself. He represents the contradictory nature of the humans and the Lake, because both exist in him, and both sides do not work in harmony in him.

Behavior: Ares is drawn to the Leta, and follows it around in secret for most of the game without the player's notice. When the player has friended a certain percentage of the creatures in the game, it shows itself to the player, and then again at another certain percentage, and so on. At higher percentage levels, after around 50%, it attacks, and must be scared off, or you must avoid touching it until it gets tired and leaves. It attacks again and must be scared off at further points in the percentage. Only when the percentage is nearly at 100% can it be friended.

Friending: It can only be friended when every other creature in the lake besides Ares has been friended. After it is friended, it follows the Leta around in plain view.

Strategy: Each of its encounters is unique. Communication is attempted in each, but it usually breaks down and it attacks. It usually must be fled from. It will follow the player for several rooms, but the player can eventually lose it by traveling through twisty areas that it can't path-find correctly through. It moves slightly faster than the player however in its later appearances, so slowing it down with Light, the Net, etc., becomes important. It can be fought with the Weapon as well, but should not be, for it will not again re-appear if it's fought off with the Weapon.

"Maybe he was the lake's first attempt at making humans, and he wasn't quite passable... or maybe the lake wanted to improve upon humans. Either way, Ares can't pass as a real human. He's got a lot of aggression, which may have inspired his name. Luckily there's only one of him." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 8: Harpy

Nature: The harpy's role is to clean up wastes, so it's kind of the lymph system of the Lake. They exist in dedicated graveyard/junkyard areas, and decompose bodies back to base materials. Theirs is a sad role, but a necessary one.

Behavior: Breaks down waste. Usually near a dead (monochrome-colored, and floating upside down) body of some creature. Fears living things and will move away from the Leta if it sees it. When touched, its waste-blend covers the Leta, which temporarily disables all of the Leta's functions, which can be annoying if it happens in a challenging area. Diving underwater with the Zig engine (which is not disabled) can fix this however.

Friending: Bring it the sound of the nearest dead creature. This can be difficult for some of them, because corpses often travel long distances before reaching a waste disposal area, so the player may have to look for a while before an appropriate sound can be found. Although one alternative is to tow the Harpy toward a more accessible dead creature, or wait until it moves to one, and use that sound, although this will not always be possible.

Strategy: Finding the appropriate sound for them is tedious, but usually not difficult. Acquiring sounds from some creatures can be difficult, though, because some creatures do not make their sound except under certain rare circumstances, which can only be discovered through trial and error and experimentation. If covered in its goo, just dive underwater (provided that has been upgraded into the Leta).

"So named because they spend so much time in filth and decaying matter. Though unlike the mythological harpies which created the filth, these harpies clean it up. Their sacks are filled with the appropriate bacteria to break down matter." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 9: Scylla

Scylla

Nature: Scylla is one of the more complex creatures. It dwells in unexpected places, and can emerge suddenly from the waters. Its exact role is mysterious, its behavior seems to make no sense at first. It will just hold on to creatures (and the Leta) for a while, and eventually release them. What it's actually doing is identifying them and counting them in a "census" manner, and reporting that information via memory cells. It also operates as the immune system of the lake, because it will hold any unidentified creature forever rather than releasing it.

Behavior: It moves like a snake, and can expand and contract as well as turn. It can It's bipolar with respect to light: its head is attracted to light and its tail is repelled by light. If it sees the player, it will go after the player and capture it. It works similarly to the Line, and holds the player in place, except that it cannot be broken and will pull the player more strongly than the Line does. It will drag the player down and hold it and will just be held there perpetually. It will also even capture other creatures, although it will let them go after holding them for some time. Its tail is often attached to a rock, but it will sometimes release the rock and move somewhere else like a snake.

Friending: It cannot be friended until late in the game. The friendship process involves storing the sound of a creature, getting that creature captured by the scylla, and then playing that sound to the scylla while it is captured. This is tricky to do because it will often capture the player instead of the creature if the player isn't careful (it prefers the player if it sees both).

Strategy: Generally you want to avoid it. Use the sight to detect it (it's not very visible on the normal map) and keep away. If the scylla captures the Leta, the player can escape with the Zig (dashing repeatedly) or with the Line (pulling yourself away). There should always be a way to escape, it's never hopeless, although it'll be a lot easier to escape later in the game (after you have more functions) than earlier (where you'll have to rely on the Line, sometimes waiting until a lotus flower comes into range to Line yourself out using the flower.

"Anyway this guy blocks tunnels, and to get past it you either need to pull it out of its tunnel (not easy because of those hooks on the end of its tail) or get it to retreat farther into its tunnel (and hope the path you need to take isn't right at the very end where Scylla will wind up blocking you)." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 10: The Muses

Nature: A creature which sings. It would have been called a Siren, except that the sound sometimes repels creatures as well as attracts them. Its role in the Lake has to do with keeping a good flow of creatures spread out evenly across the surface of the lake, instead of allowing them to bunch up in a single place, so as such they are similar in role to the Argus (which also moves creatures around).

Behavior: Periodically makes a singing sound which either attracts or repels other creatures, periodically, making them appear to dance around. This sound can be recorded by the player's Sound function and used to the same effect.

Friending: Hit them with the Shield.

Strategy: The Shield may take a while to get. Until then, avoid them.

"... strikes it makes it produce a tone that attracts or repels other creatures. It can be found near..." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 11: Pegais

Nature: They hop around.

Behavior: Hopping. They can attach to, and slow, the ship (diving, shining light on them, spinning around, etc., will remove them). They can also attach to and slow other enemies. The longer they remain attached, and the more of them are attached, the slower something becomes. They remain attached even if a player leaves a room (and thus, like Ares, are one of the few creatures that can follow the player between rooms).

Friending: Once attached to the ship, they can go along with the ship between rooms. If the player friends a creature while a Pegais is attached to that creature, the Pegais becomes friended as well. This is obviously easier with some creatures than others. If for some reason you've friended every creature in the game before friending all of the Pegais first, the Pegais would automatically become friended when you approach them.

Strategy: If there's a creature in the room that can be friended easily, first get the Pegais to attach itself to that creature. Once it's attached to that creature, friend that creature as per normal. If there are no creatures in that room, bring it to another that has a creature to friend. Or just wait until the end of the game and just go to them.

"They hop around a lot." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 12: Redcap

Nature: The Redcap is a mischief-making creature, which likes to alter the other creatures occasionally. Its role is to keep creatures happy by jostling out of their daily routines occasionally, making life more interesting.

Behavior: The Redcap plays a different "trick" on each creature, sometimes altering its behavior, but has no real behavior of its own besides changing other creatures. When confronted by the player, it will simply mirror the player's movements and behavior, even producing its own crude versions of the player's functions.

Friending: If the Redcap is able to trick all the creatures on the map, it becomes satisfied and friendly to the Leta. The exception is that two Redcaps, when moved very closed together, become friended.

Strategy: Getting creatures in range of it can sometimes be difficult, with some you can use the line, others will chase or flee the player, others can be pulled with the Muse's sound, and many other means.

"I'm not happy with the rear legs, but it makes more sense to me than the kangaroo or grasshopper legs I keep picturing." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 13: Catoblepas

Nature: This creature keeps its head low, staring at the water, but doesn't need to look around to get a sense for its surroundings. If a creature is nearby, it will stubbornly and loyally guard it from all dangers, treating it as a dog treats its master.

Behavior: After the Catoblepas has chosen a creature to guard (usually the nearest creature near its starting position), it will prevent the player from approaching that creature by going after the player and pushing the player away if the player gets too near to the creature it's guarding. It will also put up / fire shield particle effects which can block many of the ship's functions from affecting creatures, for instance it will block Light with Darkness, and will eat the Bait so that its master isn't tricked by it, and it intercept the Line before it hits its master. It cannot intercept Sound, however. If the player angers it enough, and tries to approach its master too often, it will finally raise its head look at the player's ship, and call on the Lake's Wrath.

Friending: If you manage to friend the master of a Catoblepas, it too will friend you. When friended, it will no longer guard its master, just follow it around. Or it will protect the player as if it were its master.

Strategy: It can be troublesome to deal with, but there are a number of ways to get through its loyalty. One big way is to be sneaky: sneak up invisibly on the creature it's guarding, or go under water, and then do whatever you intend to do (usually friending actions) on the creature it's guarding before it can push you away. Another alternative is to use the various Sound effects, when available, because the Catoblepas cannot guard against those.

Properties: Catoblepas differ in their coloring, which indicates their protection range. Darker colored ones have longer ranges, and will keep their master at a safer distance from the player.

Sound: Catoblepas's make a barking sound when they are just about to call down the Lake's Wrath on the player, so getting that sound requires angering the Catoblepas, collecting the sound after it gets sufficiently angered, and then surviving the Lake's Wrath and escaping the room (for when a player is killed by the Lake they return to the recorded game state they had when they entered the room).

"Although it's named that because of how low its head is, the "bull" connection I think is the emphasis. An impassable stubborn bull. This is also a potential for the "blow gun wielding lotus ranchers"." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 14: Catoblepas V2

Behavior: After the Catoblepas has chosen a creature to guard (usually the nearest creature near its starting position), it will prevent the player from approaching that creature by going after the player and pushing the player away if the player gets too near to the creature it's guarding. It will also put up shield effects which can block many of the ship's functions from affecting the player, for instance it will block Light with Darkness, and will eat the Bait so that its master isn't tricked by it, and it intercept the Line before it hits its master. It cannot intercept Sound, however. If the player angers it enough, and tries to approach its master too often, it will finally raise its head look at the player's ship, and call on the Lake's Wrath.

Friending: If you manage to friend the master of a Catoblepas, it too will friend you. When friended, it will no longer guard its master, just follow it around. This is harder when they are invisible, though. The trick is to move the Catoblepas 2 away from its master (through distractions and such) and quickly friend the master while they are away.

"I like this version for Catoblepas better. But maybe you'd like two different versions?" - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 15: Charybdis

Nature: Charybdis is an elusive, rare creature which you will not see often until exploring far from the beaten paths. But as it has one of the most useful Sounds in the game, the wise player will search for it.

Behavior: Charybdis can create whirlpools, which last for a good amount of time and temporarily change the direction and speed of anything within it, acting over a long range. It will create them when startled by the player in order to help its escape. Charybdis will also dive underwater, temporarily making it undetectable (unless the Sight is equipped). Like the Zora/Zola in the Zelda games, it dives under water and re-emerges in a random spot somewhere else, shooting a moving whirlpool at the player.

Friending: Friending involves staying near it for long enough for it to get used to the player and realize there's nothing to fear from it. This can be accomplished with the Net or the Line, or simply through good maneuvering with the Zig engine. Often the player will have to deal with whirlpools while trying to remain near it, however.

Strategy: Work with the whirlpools and learn how each works, and use the Net or the Line to keep Charybdis in place. Diving underwater doesn't help when in a whirlpool, but dashing can sometimes help, and using the Line to stabilize yourself by attaching to a solid object also can sometimes help.

Properties: There are a variety of colors of Charybdis, each of which uses a different kind of whirlpool.

Sound: Its sound creates a whirlpool and can be recorded when it is creating a whirlpool. The use of that sound can create whirlpools of one's own. You only get the basic whirlpool rather than the multitude of the ones Charybdis can use, but that one is still very useful to be able to call up on whim, as it works in effect like a very large Net, keeping creatures in place by pulling them toward the center of the whirlpool in a circular fashion.

"Named for the maiden turned into a monster, who was so thirsty she drank the ocean and created a whirlpool." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 16: Nurikabe

Nature: Nurikabe separates areas, especially areas near the local mammoth, preventing stray creatures from wandering where they should not go. Like the Pegasus, it guards transitions between areas. Unlike the Pegasus, there are many of them.

Behavior: The Nurikabe paints itself to look like its surroundings, although if the player looks carefully he will be able to notice it. It only re-paints itself every second or so, so it is somewhat visible while moving. The player suddenly finds himself unable to proceed, as if there were a wall in the way. It is actually the Nurikabe. If there are creatures near to it, it will even use its cloaking ability on those creatures, hiding them from view of the player. It will also push away moving creatures that get close to it.

Friending: It can be friended by equipping the Sight, which makes it visible slightly, then by using the Bait directly on it before it moves to a different position. It will eat the bait and become your friend, after which it will no longer block you.

Strategy: Look carefully. The Nurikabe is harmless, but can make getting through an area very annoying because it's blocks ways that appear to be passable. Move slowly and it won't repel you.

"I didn't draw this one up until I saw its name on Wikipedia. When I saw the description, I thought to myself "that's weird and perfect!" Feel free to disregard this one." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 17: Naga

Nature: A huge sea-snake which performs various necessary chemical operations on the Lake.

Behavior: The Naga is a very long snake, which is impassable to the ship and often can trap it in a maze-like system of coils. Certain parts of the snake will stun the ship lethally, sending it back to the entrance of the room. It will react to the Light by moving its head toward it and its tail away from it. Getting through an area with Naga in it can be very difficult and frustrating, especially if there are other creatures complicating it in combination.

Friending: It can be friended by simply being near it for a long time without bumping into it. This can be very difficult and will require practice, although the Net and the Fade help a lot.

Strategy: Learn each color's pattern and learn how to deal with it. Experimentation and trial and error work best. Or simply get the dive ability of the Zig engine, which will allow the player to go under coils.

Properties: Each color of Naga has a different pattern that it moves in.

"This is the Frogger-style snake you need to wait for it to pass before continuing. The armored head will well survive an impact with your ship, and the eel-ish part probably is an electric eel or something like that." - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 18: Ryu (Dark Naga) [Spare Moment, Sight]

Nature: A huge sea-snake which, like the Naga, performs various necessary chemical operations on the Lake, but which is more aggressive and attacks the player on sight. This particular form of Naga is colored much more darkly, and this family of Dark Naga is the local mammoth of the Volcanic Vents. It's the same size as a normal Naga, but much longer and faster. Spare Moment joins the party shortly after the first time this creature is encountered, and his intro text involves how to befriend the Ryu. Befriending the Ryu grants the Leda the Sight function.

Behavior: This version of the Naga heads in a beeline toward the player, and keeps going until it hits something, after which it bounces off and curves toward a beeline toward the player. Its tail is much longer, making it easy to get trapped. It bounces off any solid object, including its own tail, but moves so fast that the player must constantly move out of its path, because it moves far faster than the player and changes its directly slightly toward the player (although by only a few degrees) while dashing at the player.

Friending: It can be friended by simply being near it for a long time without bumping into it. This can be very difficult and will require practice, although the Net and the Fade help a lot. You must be near it for significantly longer than you must be near the normal Naga.

Strategy: Diving under the coils is a must for most of these. If you're only facing a single one, it can probably be friended without that, but against several at once the dive ability of the Zig engine is likely mandatory (either that or very creative uses of some of the Sounds).

[edit]

Creature 19: Kitsune

Nature: A fairly big water creature, usually its shell is the only part visible, although its tentacles can rise up to defend itself when it encounters a threat. It likes to attach a tentacle to something and pull it, much like the player's Tow Line.

Behavior: If the player uses a Tow Line on something, and the Kitsune is active, it too will use the Tow Line on that thing, pulling it in the opposite direction in a tug of war. It will also tow the player if it gets too near, keeping the player in place and pulling the player around. When friended, it tows nearby creatures, keeping them in place for easier player use. If friended it may also help the player move some types of problems/obstacles out of the way, depending on the situation.

Friending: If you manage to tow the Kitsune itself, and hold it for long enough (it will struggle and pull the player around), it'll eventually calm down and become friendly.

Strategy: It can be used as a way to help friend creatures which are very fast or mobile; some creatures can only be friended if the Kitsune is friended first and is used to hold the creature in place. Its tow line is much stronger than the player's own, and can't break.

[edit]

Creature 20: Gryphon

Nature: The Gryphon is a large swimming creature.

Behavior: The Gryphon can move to two heights: water level, and below the water. Most of the time it's deep underwater, and won't rise up unless special conditions are met. These conditions differ by Gryphon, because Gryphons are intelligent, idiosyncratic creatures; they vary based on the types of creatures on the map besides itself (if any). Once out of the water, it will charge the player repeatedly, diving at the player like a falcon, and the player must avoid its attacks and not get caught; if the Gryphon touches the player, it dives back into the water again. After it is friended, it will not help the player in gameplay terms, but will put on a fun special effects / light show for the player, distinct for each Gryphon.

Friending: Avoid the Gryphon's charges many times in a row.

Strategy:

[edit]

Creature 21: Gurgle

Nature: The Gurgle sucks in water through its submerged bottom and spits it out through its surfaced head. It is often mistaken for a rock, and can "mimic" rocks and other structures around it.

Behavior: Its water repels the player and any other creatures that come near it. Areas full of Gurgle's can be impassable without the right equipment.

Friending: The Gurgle is friended by very loud sounds -- only the sounds of very large creatures will work. Unfortunately, those are also the hardest sounds to acquire, and so the Gurgle is one of the more difficult creatures to friend. But, you don't have to friend every creature in the game, right?

Strategy: Gurgles often block one's way or guard other creatures, and are hard to deal with early on. Late in the game, the water it shoots can be repelled by the Shield, Weapon, or slowed by the Net; the Line can be used to pull oneself through the blasts of water, and diving under the water can be used to sneak past it as well. It can also be blinded by the Light. However, the lower levels of these functions won't work very well on it, it's only when a function is fully upgraded that it can be used to neutralize a Gurgle.

[edit]

Creature 22: Hippogryph

Nature: The hippogryph is a swimming "flying fish" type of creature, which will launch itself into the air and leap many meters into the air for a long distance. It can move incredibly fast.

Behavior: It will simply move around the map, fast, and occasionally leap into the air. Once friended, it will slow down a bit and leap more often.

Friending: To friend it, the player simply has to stay near it for long enough -- but that is very difficult, since it moves so fast.

Strategy: Its incredible speed means that the player will either need to be very fast (a fully upgraded Zig Engine), or have a very strong Tow Line to hold it (and a good aim, since it can only be towed when it leaps into the air), a very good Net (and a good aim, since the same applies to the Net), or have assistance from other creatures friendly, such as the Kitsune. Sometimes the player can also chase it into a special "trap" where it can't move out of, such as a water current cycle, and friend it in that way.

[edit]

Creature 23: Siren

Nature: A social swimming creature which imitates the sounds made by other creatures. Will only make the sounds of other nearby creatures. Its own sound is made only in special circumstances. Although primarily a swimmer, it can also move across land to get away from threats.

Behavior: It will run from the player if the player gets too near, but will observe at a distance. It will also stand next to creatures to learn their sounds, and play back that sound to that creature and to other creatures.

Friending: Can be friended by playing a sound that a Siren doesn't know to it. This means a sound from a creature which does not appear in that specific area. You must also play the sound exactly when it plays its sound.

Strategy: Just a matter of finding a sound from far enough away. Can be used even without friending, as a portable phonograph: it'll temporarily store any sound played to it, for easy retrieval later.

[edit]

Creature 24: Larva

Nature: A young creature, not yet formed / differentiated into an adult creature. Can become most of the creatures.

Behavior: It'll swim around like a guppy, in a set pattern, and repel creatures similar to the Pegasus. Its repel radius is shorter however.

Friending: Has to become an adult first. Can't become an adult until later in the game (until after 80% or so of the creatures have been friended). It will often become a Pegasus, but not always.

Strategy: Wait until they are adults. Come back later. Remember where they all are.

[edit]

Creature 25: Hippocampus

Nature: A playful creature, the Hippocampus acts as a messenger when memory cells just aren't fast enough.

Behavior: Very fast, perhaps the fastest creature, acts like a seal. can stick its head up out of the water and leap out. Attempts to stick its head out randomly in front of the player with a weird face to surprise the player.

Friending: Ignore it. It will attempt to attract your attention and move into your sight range. Keep your back turned. It will try harder and harder to get into your sight range, finding this fun, and become friendly after an amount of time.

Strategy: Try to track its shadow underwater, and avoid looking at it; when its face emerges, make sure your back is turned before it comes out of the water.

[edit]

Creature 26: Anemoi

Nature: A floating jellyfish-like creature. Operates as a way for the Lake to determine air currents: its tentacles detect the current wind direction, knowledge of which is crucial for the Lake's operations. There are four types, one for each of the four cardinal directions.

Behavior: Has strong gravity towards its starting point, moving back and forth towards it if the player moves or otherwise disturbs it. Seemings oblivious to anything the player tries on it. Will slow the player down with its tentacles, unintentionally.

Friending: Keep it away from its point of origin for long enough: it has a set location that it will gravitate around, usually some rock or other special looking object, keep it away from there for long enough and it becomes friended.

Strategy: Various techniques can be used to keep it away, such as the Line and Net, or various Sound functions. Bait doesn't work on it.

[edit]

Creature 27: Kobu

Nature: Friendly creature.

Behavior: Fires projectiles, like the Argus. However, unlike the Argus, its shots don't move on a set path but instead move in straight lines, curves, and/or seek out the player. They are fired in bursts rather than continuously, every 10 seconds or so. If one of these projectiles hits the player, they stick to the ship until the player exits the room, and the Kobu cannot be friended while one is stuck to the player. Its projectile patterns vary by area. It also attempts to match the player's speed and direction, moving along the side of the player (to its left or right) and fires at the player rather than standing still like the Argus.

Friending: Friended by default. However, any hostile actions (such as bumping into it or another creature in its presence) will unfriend it. To friend it again, it will shoot projectiles in its unfriended state: avoid them until it runs out, and it'll go back to being friended.

Strategy: The Weapon, Shield, etc. help you avoid its projectiles. Diving under the water can help but if you stay under there too long you have to rise up (depending on the level of the Zig Engine there's a limit to how long you can stay underwater).

[edit]

Creature 28: Doppleganger

Nature: The Doppleganger is the original creature of the Lake: once, the entire lake was solely composed of Dopplegangers. These are undifferentiated creatures which can become any other creature. Once they changed form in order to perform different functions as the Lake requires, now specific specialized creatures exist, but they still exist as a remnant, and help the other creatures along by changing form and working with them. Some of them are older and highly intelligent; Icks is a Doppleganger.

Behavior: Becomes any nearby creature. Also becomes the player if the player is nearby and friended, working as a "double" of the player. However, it never truly can act like the creatures it copies, there is always some difference in behavior which makes it obvious that it's a Doppleganger.

Friending: Get it to revert to normal form temporarily by trapping it with the Net. While in the Net's effect it will revert to its normal appearance, during which it can be friended by moving the player's ship close enough to it that it copies the player's ship and becomes friended.

Strategy: They will "fake" being friended, so often it's hard to tell that they're a Doppleganger and not the type of creature they are doubling. Learn their differences from the other creatures to realize what they are, then Net them.

Note: Icks actually counts as a creature of the lake and can be friended like any other Doppleganger. He is friended automatically as the story progresses, as long as the player has friended a sufficient amount of creatures.

[edit]

Creature 29: Starball

Nature: It operates as the 'stoplights' of the world, periodically pushing things away and allowing them through. Often found in high-traffic memory cell lanes.

Behavior: These rise from the water, leap into the air, and then fall back down -- they are stationary, their x and y do not change, only their z. They cause splashes which push things away when they land. They each have their own periodic timing, which can vary.

Friending: Dive underwater and reach it; this must be timed and is easier with higher upgrade levels of the Zig engine.

Strategy: Near the beginning of he game the goal is just to move past it, this itself is difficult and requires timing.

[edit]

Creature 30: Venti [Sight]

Nature: The Venti is composed of four Anemoi. Each one has a distinct color and properties, and each one has one long tentacle. They can separate and then rejoin. Its role is related to regulation of the Lake's circadian rhythms: it tells time. Its rotation indicates the current daytime.

Behavior: They can pick up small objects and put them down in other places.

Friending: They can only be friended during the hours of either Noon or Midnight (player's time). They are aggressive and attack the player during the six o'clock (AM and PM) hours. During the hours which they can be friended, simply circle around them a few times clockwise: they will rotate, looking at the player, and become friended.

Strategy: Wait until the right time. Or cheat and set your system time, I guess?

[edit]

Creature 31: Fleep

Nature: Fleep is an evolution of the doppleganger.

Behavior: Fleep is one of the more intelligent creatures of the lake. Playful like a dolphin, it can jump into the air slightly, like a tadpole, or crawl on land like a slug. It likes to go up to the player and then run away, trying to keep a certain distance from the player, circling just out of view. It can also change its color to be similar to the colors it's near, like a chameleon.

Friending: Friended as soon as it sees the player. No work required, just predict where it will go and stand directly in front of it.

Strategy: None required.

[edit]

Creature 32: Batari

Nature: Another evolved form of doppledanger.

Behavior: This one is much like Fleep, except it can leap even higher into the air and isn't as friendly. It tends to leap over rocks when it comes to them. It also moves faster and is often found in large rooms. The more it appears in the screen, the slower it moves, but the more it is off-screen, the more it speeds up.

Friending: Unlike the Fleep, it'll try to stay a significant distance (two screens) away from the player. Following it around the room, keeping it in view, will eventually cause it to slow down and then stop, friending the player.

Strategy: Follow it and try to slow it down with various functions and sounds. A good Zig Engine helps a lot.

[edit]

Creature 33: Solarium

Nature: Solarium looks like a snail. On terrestrial snails, the shell is for protection. Here, it's for ornament, and servers a marking use: although to the player all the shells look the same, to the creatures their distinct minor imperfections mark what part of the lake they're in and the state of its creatures, nutrients, and so on. In effect it servers as a record of statistics, like a census. It collects this information via memory cells emitted from other creatures, so is primarily a memory cell collector and organizer.

Behavior: Collects memory cells, including ones coming from outside the room, and slowly drifts around. Also, when the player gets close, it shows a hologram of a particular type of creature. This creature varies, but is specific to that Solarium. That represents the creature they're collecting data on.

Friending: There are 50 of them in the game. Each one wants to hear a particular sound. Bring it the sound of the creature it holograms, and it will be friended.

Strategy: Some enemies are hard to find or get the sounds of. Also, friending this creature is much easier after the Sound function is fully upgraded, because then infinite sounds can be stored within it.

[edit]

Creature 34: Jakari

Nature: A predator which attacks creatures if it sees the ship.

Behavior: Doesn't do much until it spots the player, then it starts attacking nearby creatures in an attempt to kill them, which causes the lake to destroy the ship.

Friending: Trigger its attacks and then prevent it from killing other creatures; it'll gradually slow down and become lenient towards the player after enough time.

Strategy: Protect other creatures from it if it sees you, various functions can be used to protect other creatures from it, but at all costs don't let it kill anything.

[edit]

Creature 35: Evo Batari

Nature: Largely found away from the lake, this batlike flying creature flies far from the Lake, scouting the world and making sure all is well. Occasionally returns to the lake to report its findings.

Behavior: Flies above a room. Can appear in any room with a small probability. If it sees the ship, it may approach the ship slowly; if he player touches it with the ship, it will pick the ship up and fly to another random area. After doing that, it becomes friended and stays in the room you landed in, but it will no longer carry the player. Only a limited number of them can appear over the course of the game, perhaps around 10. Eventually just moving around the player will encounter them all. The landing spots include any area on the map, excluding local mammoth areas, the Duck blind area, the ring caves, and certain other special rooms.

Friending: Approach it and be carried off to a random spot on the map.

Strategy: N/A

[edit]

Creature 36: Rakari & Rakari Egg

Nature: A creature which subdivides; one division becomes an egg, the other division divides again. These appear to be eggs, yet they've never been observed to hatch.

Behavior: Continuously divides into eggs. These eggs get in the way of the player, but can be pushed. Can these eggs ever be hatched? there is however only a maximum of x eggs per screen. The rakari itself can attach to the ship and slow it down. Changing the ship's direction rapidly / spinning around completely can dislodge the rakari. Going near the edge of the room will also cause the Rakari to leave the player.

Friending: Figure out how to hatch a Rakari's egg. Shine light on it for a long time to incubate it. can only be hatched near the end of the game. they hatch into many different kinds of creatures. these expand the total number of creatures that the player can friend.

Strategy: Sometimes the sounds of a creature are hard to elicit, so the strategy is to elicit the sounds of all creatures in a room and play them back to any given egg. An egg will change size or color after each one.

[edit]

Creature 37: Solaros [Fade]

Nature: A large stately aquatic creature. Seems to ignore the player and any other creatures. Tends to live in out of the way places, like in vast tracts of empty water. It doesn't seem like it's related to any other creature, and some suspect it was based on something not related to the Lake, akin to the how the Lake Humans are copies of something not related to the Lake. It operates as a local mammoth.

Behavior: Seems to ignore the player and other creatures for the most part. But it is vain and likes to be looked at. If the player looks at it (ship faces it) for long enough, it will start moving in ornate patterns instead of its usual patrol, and will emit particles.

Friending: Get close to it and it will show itself (unfade). Keep looking at it for long enough. Follow it around and keep it seen for best results. If it leaves the view, it will fade again and the player will have to start again. Eventually it'll start to emit particles. Touching these will cause it to fade, so avoid them. After enough time, it'll be friended.

Strategy: Follow it around through obstacles if need be, but don't let it leave the ship's visual range (keep it fully within the view).

[edit]

Creature 38: Needle Beetle

Nature: It's a small flying creature that looks like its wings can barely support its weight. It seems to pollinate flowers.

Behavior: It can only see directly in front of itself and charges any moving thing, including flowers. It says still and gradually turns, charging something it sees.

Friending: Let it charge you, but then have it miss. After enough charges and misses it'll gradually get faster and faster at turning and charging. If you do this enough, it'll get tired, and become comfortable with the player.

Strategy: Diving helps, as does the Net, as does a fast engine. Various other things also help. Un-upgraded, though, the Leta will have trouble friending it.

[edit]

Creature 39: Wa(l)ter Strider

Nature: Moves along the surface of the lake and excretes a temporary version of Lake Oil. It creates the boundaries between areas.

Behavior: Lake Oil makes the water impassable except by flight. This oil, unlike the native oil, wears out over time.

Friending: Bring them the sound from their friended queen. They will then stop secreting Lake Oil and give you their sound, which can be used to create Lake Oil. Alternatively, avoid touching the oil while staying near them.

Strategy: Just kill their queen and come back to them later; try to avoid them until then.

[edit]

Creature 40: Spiked Hippo [Bait]

Nature: Its spiked porcupine-like quills keep it afloat. He operates as a feeder, leaving nutrients in the water which all other creatures absorb and use for energy. Little 'shepherd' fish follow him around and eat his crumbs. He creates energy mainly from sunlight and vegetation. He consumes grass, flowers, and other vegetation.

Behavior: Moves around, leaves food behind, eats vegetables.

Friending: Use light (or have another creature use light) on a flower. The flower, being nourished, becomes especially tasty for the spiked hippo. Use the Line to drag it to the Hippo.

Strategy: Use light, drag flower to hippo, happy hippo! The trick is that the flower gradually loses light with time, so you have to quickly use light on it and feed it to the hippo. After several of these, it should do the trick.

[edit]

Creature 41: Finfish

Nature: This froglike creature has a tongue which eats small parasites and memory cells.

Behavior: It will eat the rapidly fading small memory cells excreted by some enemies, and will also eat parasites. Can also eat the Bait.

Friending: After it eats enough, its stomach becomes distended enough, and it becomes full and friended.

Strategy: If you are patient you can just repeatedly feed it the Bait until it becomes full. But far faster is to go near an enemy which excretes memory cells or go near a grouping of parasites and have it eat those until full. Unfortunately it will also eat the Bait if you're trying to use it to lure other enemies, so often you should friend the Finfish first if you need to use the Bait on other creatures nearby.

[edit]

Creature 42: Glutton

Nature: Its nature is to clear open areas for the other creatures. It eats rotten memory cells on the surface of the water (mostly invisible).

Behavior: Moves very slowly but steadily. Sometimes gets its mouth stuck on rocks or other creatures.

Friending: If you help it free itself from stuck rocks or stuck other creatures, it will become friended.

Strategy: You can use the Fade to fade away a rock for it, or pull the rock or creature off with the line and a strong engine. You can also destroy the rock with the weapon (but be careful not to hit the Glutton), or get another enemy to push the rock away.

[edit]

Creature 43: Hell Mount

Nature: Like the Harpy, it feeds on / cleans up the dead creatures. Although while the Harpy focuses on the surface, it focuses on the depths, underwater. Most of the time it's underwater, feeding. Visible as a shadow. Despite its name, it's peaceful and passive. Its eyes glow.

Behavior: It won't rise to the surface unless the player uses the Bait. It will then come up to investigate, sticking its head out of the water and eating the Bait, and then diving under again. Alternately, the player can dive underwater and then ram it, which will cause it to stick out its head for a bit in surprise.

Friending: The player must use the Bait to raise its head to the surface, then put more bait in its visual range (glowing eye light cone) further away. After it heads toward that, the player must keep the ship in its visual field continuously until it's friended. As the creature sees the player and learns to recognize it, it gradually becomes familiar with the player.

Strategy: Keep throwing a new bait before it reaches the old one, and stay in its visual field. Easier in open spaces than in narrow confines.

[edit]

Creature 44: Giant Ember Fly [Light]

Nature: A local mammoth, this giant ember fly operates as a lighthouse, providing navigation information for many creatures in the lake. The player obtains the Light function after friending him.

Behavior: He can't move. He graps the ship and holds onto it.

Friending: While held by it, use the line to bring in flowers for it. After you bring it enough flowers it will extend its grasp, allowing the player to move further away and grab even more flowers for it. After bringing all of the flowers in the room to the Giant Ember Fly, it's friended.

Strategy: There will be creatures trying to cut the Line and keep the flowers themselves, those can be dealt with by using the Line on them as well to pull them away.

"[the local mammoths include] pegasus, jewel, venti, "solaros", ... y'know typing would be a helluva lot faster if mikey would leave me alone... hippo, giant ember fly" - KLHS

[edit]

Creature 45: Fleur [Net]

Nature:

Behavior: Can extend its head and use a Net-like effect on the player. Throws balls at the player which have to be bounced back into his mouth using the weapon. However, the various Nets complicate this, trapping the balls. Also, if you hit the Fleur with the weapon too many times, he is destroyed, and then the Lake destroys the player.

Friending:

Strategy:

[edit]

Creature 46: Opinicus [Sound]

Nature: Has 19 tails.

Behavior:

Friending:

Strategy:

[edit]

Creature 47: Phoenix [NeoTheo, Weapon]

Nature: Local mammoth of the vine revival area. Carries larger corpses (greyed-out unmoving creatures) towards Sirens. NeoTheo joins the party in the area, and will re-install the Weapon on the ship if you friend the Phoenix (which causes NeoTheo to regain his memory about the device). This creature also appears in the intro of the game, where it kills Theo and then brings his corpse to a Siren to be revived. It can also spin webs.

Behavior: Can grab onto corpses or to the ship with its claws. Once it grabs onto the ship, the only way to free the ship is to use the Weapon on it or to use the Line on a large stationary object. It will also create webs between itself and objects, which will slow down the ship and make it easier for the Phoenix to grab the ship.

Friending: Friending this local mammoth is the easiest of them all: simply get caught by its grasp and break free using the Line function, repeatedly.

Strategy: Get caught and free yourself by shooting the Line at nearby objects to break its grasp.

[edit]

Creature 48: Aphrodite [Final Creature]

Nature: Venus as the Lake's avatar. Her physical form is changed by the Lake into a ship intended to head for earth after the Duck Blind was destroyed by NeoTheo's Theo side in order to prevent an invasion.

Behavior: Aphrodite spawns most of the creatures of the Lake, and has a timer for takeoff. Friending a creature extends that timer. Aphrodite also has a variety of organs which are used to prevent the player from doing anything (slowing rays, rays which disable functions, and so on) which gradually go offline as creatures are friended. If the timer reaches zero, Aphrodite takes off towards Earth and the player gets a poor ending.

Friending: After every creature in the room is friended, so is Aphrodite. This is difficult because there are so many active at once, and because of Aphrodite's organs, but they are all friended as they normally are in the rest of the game, just with an added timing element making it harder.

Strategy: There are some friending orders which work better than others.

[edit]

Ideas for more creature abilities

- creature which disables the activities nearby creatures except for their movement, and its Sound allows you to do the same. - same, but disables movement rather than activities - creature which plants "mines" which can detect and repel the player and which have to be navigated around - creature which can sense the player from far away and tries to move to the opposite side of the map - blaster master top-down like things which charge player when nothing is in between the player and itself, and then stay still when they hit something, then charge the player again - blaster master sideview like things which drop mines when the player gets close and then run; the mines prevent movement in a radius around each mine - creatures which are vulnerable to 'friending fire' (using a function on them repeatedly) only when they stand still, and otherwise are invulnerable to it when they move and bounce around the screen. need to get them to slow down or stop first (with net or just by waiting long enough until they periodically stop). - enemies which can push rocks and other map artifacts, and which can be used to get through areas by getting it to push them out of your way (the bait helps with this)

[edit]

Other Creatures: Lake Humans

Nature: These are lake humans created by the lake in order to communicate with, and later, conquer the humans. These are not seen in the game per se, but instead are seen operating other human vehicles similar to the Leta, and are operating the Duck Blind itself. These vehicles vary, but all look much like the Leta in style, with a similar abstract design and trail effect.

Behavior: Attacks the ship near the end of the game if Venus isn't on the ship.

Strategy: Avoid or kill. The lake will not kill the player if these are killed. They perhaps will retreat when they take enough damage rather than die.

"These are human-like creatures created by the Lake, they resemble humans externally and psychologically, but have a different biology. Venus is one of these. These humans, feeling out of place in the Lake, take over the Duck Blind where the real humans lived. They can use machines and ships, just like real humans, and so you mostly see them inside vehicles, late in the game." - KLHS

[edit]

Other Creatures: Alpha Repo

Nature: Robot servant of the humans, brought along on the first mission to the Lake (the one that was never heard from again).

Behavior: NPC-information device which let the player piece together what happened on the first mission. They can be found scattered around the Lake, often on abandoned Leta-like ships (although they are earlier models).

[edit]

Other Creatures: Memory Cell

Memory Cell

Nature: These are numerous, tiny, ever-present creatures which move around in all directions, operating as the lake's messengers, much like hormones or neurotransmitters do in our bodies. They do not interact much with the player but they are occasionally emitted and absorbed by larger creatures; there are numerous types, signaling different things. Unlike hormones or neurotransmitters however, they can contain memory and much more complex messages than simple chemicals can. They vary in color.

Behavior: They are emitted and absorbed by most creatures. They serve no obvious purpose in that being absorbed or emitted by a creature does not seem to change its behavior in any way. They may appear primarily decorative, but they have subtle effects: they alter the properties of creatures, incrementally.

Strategy: For the most part, no strategy is needed. Sometimes the player might wish to prevent some from reaching a particular creature, and this can be done using various functions of the Leta. Sometimes a local mammoth uses them to direct nearby creatures to aid it in its attack on the Leta, in which case preventing them from reaching local creatures is a good idea.

[edit]

Functions and Upgrading

There will be a variety "functions" to discover and use in the game, you can only equip one at once and they can be upgraded in abilities as the game goes on. They are generally ways to interact with the creatures of the lake or the lake's environment: sound functions, water splashing functions which repel or attract enemies, light shining functions which can create illusions, hookshot functions which stabilize the ship or attach it to a creature, functions to avoid damage and move better, functions to teleport your ship or other creatures, and others. The ship itself is composed of three segments: interchangeable front segments (one for each function), the engine segment (for movement) and the core (where the characters of the game live).

The upgrading system works like this: one of the characters (NeoTheo, most likely) can be assigned to upgrade or improve a particular function, you can assign him this in the ship's mini-map or the sub-menu (undecided). After a certain amount of time passes, which depends on the change in % in the exploration of the map, he explains the improvement to the function to you. It will not be possible to fully upgrade every single function in a single play-through of the game. In addition, the engine of the ship (its movement) can also be upgraded, and shares development time with the other functions, improving it can improve the ship's speed, acceleration, and give it the ability to teleport, dive, and so on. You can specify a function to upgrade and even a sub-function of that function to work on. Typically it takes about one percentage point of exploration for a function to be upgraded, meaning the player gets 100 upgrades. One issue is that this means that finding NeoTheo early is important, as it'll mean more time for upgrading the ship's functions, but finding the other characters early can also be beneficial.

Note that not all of these are final, I'm still deciding how many of these there will be and which ones. I want to avoid overlap and give each one enough uses so that it won't be "unbalanced" by the others and overused or underused.

[edit]

The Chain

The Chain (or Line) function works somewhat like the hook-shot in the Zelda games, and somewhat like the line in the Umihara series of platformers: a line of a set length is shot out from the ship, attaches to something, and isn't released until the player wants it to be released. The length of the line is adjustable after it is attached, and can be reeled in and out like a fishing line to any length that is below its maximum length.

Later, after it's upgraded, the Line length increases, the types of materials it can attach to increases, and the number of Lines which can be shot out at once increases, and the cooling time between firings is reduced. This function can be used to stabilize the ship in rapid currents, to attach the ship to creatures and tow them (or be towed, if they're more massive), and to retrieve objects and creatures which can't be reached in any other way, and in many other ways, it's one of the most versatile and often-used functions.

The Leda gets the Chain from Venus, when she rejoins in 0,0.

The charge attack for the Chain either makes it unbreakable, or makes it so it automatically pulls anything towards the player (like a hookshot); it also fires farther and latches onto things from a longer distance.

[edit]

The Light

The Light function shoots a beam of light outwards, it's useful for exploring dark areas with no light source, for interacting with light-sensitive creatures, or temporarily blinding them if need be.

Upgrading the Light increases its intensity, focuses its angle (from wider to more narrow), and reduces cooling time. Some creatures can only be affected by the Light if it's bright enough (at a high enough level).

The Light can be found in the Blossom Mesas.

The charge power of the Light is to create a bright flash which will light up the entire room temporarily, among other things.

[edit]

The Sound

The ship is capable of producing sounds, such as musical notes. It can also mimic the cries of different creatures. The more exposure the ship has to a creature's sounds, the better it can mimic that sound. Mimicking a creature's sound can cause it to see you as less of a threat, and can be used to communicate in some instances. As this function is upgraded, the ability to quickly learn sounds, the quickness that the sounds can be produced, and the loudness of the sounds improves, as well as the number of sounds that can be stored at once (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then infinite).

The charge ability of the Sound allows you learn a sound of a creature from anywhere on the map (while charging is being held, you can learn a sound from a creature from any distance, so long as it is making that sound).

[edit]

The Fireflies / Bait

This creates sparkle/bubble/firefly-like a diversionary bait effect, something that most creatures will approach (although some will be repelled by it), and which can influence the state of a creature when it is engulfed in it. The length of distance it will attract enemies from and the duration it lasts are determined by its upgrade level. Once placed, you must wait for it to disappear before placing another.

The charge ability of the Bait is to create a larger bait which lasts significantly longer and attracts creatures all across the screen.

[edit]

The Shield

This is a primarily protective function which reflects, destroys, or diverts harmful projectiles fired by creatures at you. It works in a variety of ways, from a static shield to anti-projective projectiles which seek them out and destroy them (depending on its upgrade level), it's mainly useful for getting through areas with aggressive creatures. The Shield's secondary function is that it will also soften the impact of the ship on the creatures: the ship will do less damage to creatures when it bumps into them with higher upgrade levels of the Shield; this is its passive effect, and is always active even when the Shield isn't selected.

The charge ability for the shield is to instantly destroy all nearby creature projectiles. This can be used to clear projectile walls in ways the normal shield cannot.

[edit]

The Net

The net creates an area which slows down anything that moves within it, including the player's ship, creatures, projectiles, and anything that's floating. The area increases as this levels up, and the length of time it last also increases, as does the degree to which it slows down objects. The net uses Indra's Net technology.

The charge ability for the Net creates a full-screen net that slows down all creatures and other objects, except for the player -- the screen enters slow-mo mode except the player moves at normal speed.

[edit]

The Fade

The Fade makes its target passable; the target can be a creature, some types of obstacles, or something floating on the water; when hit it becomes transparent and can be moved through. The length of the effect varies by upgrade level.

Charging the Fade allows you to fade every object around the player up to some distance (determined by upgrade level).

[edit]

The Sight

The True Sight function is an all-purpose scanner that gives you more information about creatures and the environment around you than your visual field alone, when used on a creature it informs you of a creature's scare meter, name, and other information. It's used primarily to gather intelligence. It can also be used to detect secret underwater caves, invisible objects, invisible walls, mimic creatures, and invisible creatures, and can be used to scout ahead and look all around the map from a longer distance due to its radar. As it's upgraded its range increases and the range and detail level of the radar increases.

The charge ability of the Sight creates beams of light which create beams of light pointing in the direction of all creatures in the room; very useful for detecting invisible creatures, creatures that are hiding, and so on. It also reveals any other invisible objects, such as invisible walls, for a short time.

[edit]

The Weapon

The weapon is a purely destructive function which should not be used on creatures. However, it's sometimes necessary to use it to clear a way, such as through an area blocked by large rocks. It can also be used to find secret caves. When it's upgraded its power and range improve.

Note that the Weapon has a safety. Simply using it will set it to "stun" mode. In order for it to actually harm enemies, you will have to change it to "kill" mode, by pressing "k" on the keyboard, the kill button override. This will change its color from green to red, and enable it to kill creatures, and to break barriers. Otherwise it will simply stun creatures temporarily in place, and harm them marginally.

The charge ability of the Weapon in safety mode will stun all creatures on the map temporarily.

The charge ability of the Weapon in kill mode will harm all creatures drastically, reducing them to nearly dead, and will also break all rocks and bushes and other breakable objects.

The weapon can also be used as an energy "key" through certain locked human barrier-doors: either the password to those doors (from an Alpha Repo) is used to open them, or a high enough level of the weapon can break through the barrier. Either one works.

[edit]

The Zig Engine

The Zig engine is the Leta's engine, it allows it to move, dive underwater (which is useful for avoiding detection), and dash forward quickly (which is useful for evasion and escape).

Improving it improves the ship's speed, the strength at which it can pull the Line, allows it to dive for a longer time and move faster under water, and to dash faster.

The Leta begins the game with its engine, although it cannot be upgraded until NeoTheo comes onboard.

The charge ability for the Zig Engine is a teleport: the ship can teleport short distances, in the direction of the mouse cursor; the higher the upgrade level, the longer the distance. This can be used to jump over barriers. This cannot be used to move into a solid object however.

[edit]

Characters

There are only a few characters in the game, but each has a role in the story. This section introduces all of the game's characters. During the game, the player can right-click on the Leta to enter camp mode, which allows the player to speak to any of the characters who are inside the Leta. Speaking to them provides valuable information and is important to get through the game.

[edit]

Mercedes

Mercedes is the only playable human character, and along with Venus is one of the two main characters. She is a human who is over 200 years old, but who appears to be in her thirties due to the life extension abilities of humans in the future. She was born on earth and has an adventurous but distant and stoic personality, which led to her signing up to explore this new planet. She is trained as a psychologist and biologist, but her long life has allowed her to master many fields of knowledge and many types of abilities. Before the discovery of Venus, she worked with those studying the creatures of the Lake, after the discovery of Venus, Venus became her responsibility and specialization.

Mercedes is fairly resourceful, but withdrawn and uncertain. She's much more in favor of letting the Lake be and understanding it, as opposed to Theo, who has an us against them mentality regarding survival on the planet. During the game, Mercedes pilots and captains the ship, and makes the major decisions about what to do, although she easily gives in to the requests or demands of others, especially Venus.

Talking to Mercedes allows the player to change the game options, or quit the game. Talking to Mercedes provides access to her diary of thoughts about the game so far, which is ordered by date and consists of notes on important story events, which is for reflection on past events and useful for people who forgot what has happened so far.

[edit]

Venus

Venus was one of the first creatures created by the lake to try to emulate and contact the humans. She is only a few years old, having been created as an adult. It is not a reanimated human, like NeoTheo, but a new creature created in the model of humanity by the lake. She was found by the humans early on, and Mercedes was assigned to in charge of studying her. Mercedes discovered that she is extremely human-like facsimile, in her appearance, behavior, emotions, despite not being human in her biology. Venus once attempted to seduce Mercedes, which consequently causes Mercedes to feel uncomfortable around her, because she's not sure whether to threat Venus as a person or as an alien creature. Venus's personality is hypersensitive and somewhat neurotic, but that's expected considering her recent experiences, her knowledge that she's not like everyone else, and a lack of any childhood.

During the course of the game, Venus grows in maturity and the other creatures of the lake begin to have greater reverence for her; the reason most creatures in the lake don't attack the ship outright is largely because of Venus's presence on it. She can also sense how friendly or aggressive a creature is and report that to Mercedes, and during some of the later "local mammoth" creatures in the game she can attempt to calm the creature in mysterious ways, and to a limited extent can understand what a creature is thinking. As Venus's potential is developed as the game goes on, the alarm meter for the creatures begins to start off in a much friendlier area than otherwise. When she temporarily leaves the ship late in the game, all of the creatures become more aggressive towards the ship, and travel becomes much more difficult.

Venus tells you how many creatures are in the general area, their states (number of friendly ones, neutral ones, aggressive ones), and gives a description about a random remaining non-friendly one in the local area if there are any, operating as a sort of bestiary.

[edit]

Theo

Theodore

Theo is a human, who along with Mercedes signed up to explore this new planet. He is significantly younger and less mature than she is, and signed up not out of a sense of adventure but to pay off debts and get away from other people, most of whom annoy him. Despite his immaturity he is a talented engineer and a specialist in the development of weapons and vehicles. He has an "It's us or it's them!" approach to the Lake, and isn't hesitant about using force to defend himself, or making the first attack ahead of time just to be sure it won't attack first.

He dies in the very beginning of the game, and is later revived as NeoTheo with some (but not much) of his remaining personality intact. There may be some flashbacks involving conversation with him, but for the most part he (as Theo) has only a small role in the game.

[edit]

NeoTheo

After Theo was killed by creatures of the lake, he was revived by the lake, through symbiotic parasites which repaired him, including brain parasites which control and influence his thinking ability, much in the way that toxoplasmosis bacteria can control the thinking abilities of its host brain. As such, his personality has changed and become more mellow, and he doesn't remember much of his former life, but he still retains his engineering abilities and his ability to communicate with humans. Later in the game the former Theo element of his personality begins to rebel against his controlling lake creature parasites, and he devises a way to regain control of himself from the lake, although this is not entirely successful.

NeoTheo is the character that repairs, improves, and installs all of the functions on the ship, including its engine. Until he is found and joins the ship, it cannot install or upgrade its functions. Occasionally he will also give advice about which function he thinks you should improve, his advice is usually based on which functions need to be improved to progress in exploring the game. Later in the game he insists on wanting to improve "the weapon" to the expense of everything else, insisting that it'll be needed one day. The wise player will resist his paranoia.

Besides upgrading, NeoTheo also acts as a mini-encyclopedia of the different functions, and can describe each of them to the player on request. He sometimes also suggests special uses of them which are not obvious to the player if talked to repeatedly.

[edit]

Icks

Icks is a flexible and intelligent creature which can adjust its shape to adapt to the surroundings, he is one of the rare caretaker creatures in the lake, a doppelganger, which explains why he looks somewhat human. He is emotional but his emotions are not human emotions, and hence largely unfathomable. It's his job to investigate all strange occurrences in the lake and decide what to do about them. He is captured by Mercedes and Venus. He distrusts the humans while pretending to be their guide, and eventually works to destroy them, but later changes his mind when confronted by their kindness and tolerance of him.

Icks is your "tour guide" to the different areas and creatures of the game, and explains things about them that the player would otherwise miss. He operates primarily by giving the player hints about how to get through the current area, how to best interact with creatures in the current area, and provides background information about the creatures and about the area that the player is currently exploring. At one point in the game he will attempt to get Mercedes and Venus killed, but as he realizes what Venus is he realizes he made a mistake. Often areas which baffle the player become clear after he explains what to do. After he becomes more friendly to the player he begins to give advice about areas more readily and give more direct advise. He speaks in "pidgin English", having only learned it recently and badly, but nonetheless delights in language and often says words over and over again and laughs.

When you talk to Icks in camp mode, he can warn of local dangers and describe both the local and the general area. He works much like a tour guide, although he is often hard to understand.

[edit]

Spare Moment

Spare

Spare Moment is a member of the most intelligent tribe on the lake, and is over seventy million years old. Like Icks, he is a caretaker for the other creatures and the lake in general, but unlike Icks he is a caretaker in a larger sense, assigned greater duties, almost like a member of Congress, and is less emotional and more wise than Icks. He sees himself as a servant of the lake, but he doesn't see humans as a threat, just an interesting curiosity, and not really too significant, even if they are unprecedented. He eventually comes to recognize that Venus is not just another emulated human, but will eventually become the messenger and prophet of the Lake to humanity and its way of integrating humanity into itself, a divine role, and comes to see himself as the protector of Venus and guide to her development. He recognizes that humans do not have a group mind in any real sense on this planet, and if it exists it's back on their planet of Earth. He believes the Lake wants to contact that other group mind, if it exists, but he's not sure the plan to take over the human ship and send it to earth is wise.

Spare Moment is an enigmatic creature who appears on the player's ship rather than being invited aboard or captured. He introduces himself to the player after the player has explored a sufficient percent of the game and found NeoTheo and Icks. After that, he doesn't do very much except occasionally provide riddle-like statements to the player. He also has a 'fortune teller' role in that he will always indicate to the player where they can explore and what new areas of the map they could reach if they attempted to do so. He will also provide a map of the game when spoken to, with the unexplored areas indicated. He will also indicate to the player where new functions can be found. He also comes with the True Sight function, it is added to the ship's abilities once he appears.

Talking to Spare in 'camp mode' allows the Leta to navigate to any previously visited destination, to speak of the goals (especially long-term goals) the player should be working towards, and to give you "wisdom and pro-tips" -- which is sometimes useful, although usually not immediately or directly useful and often too abstract and hard to interpret.

[edit]

The Leta

The Leta is the ship the characters travel in. It can perform various functions, including invisibility and self-defense, and allows them to survive on the Lake and to travel around on it. It loses its invisibility gradually over the course of the game, but gains increased abilities in its different functions (subject to the player's choice about which aspects of the Leta to improve).

The Leta has its own artificial intelligence, although the characters do not speak with it or have conversations with it. But it is nonetheless aware of its surroundings and possesses its own ability to react and make decisions. It also has an autopilot mechanism, which can be used to move to any location it has been to before. From the player's perspective this happens very quickly, without having to watch the ship move all the way back, the game skips over the time involved for the player's convenience.

[edit]

The Lake

Venus as Aphrodite

The lake itself is a character, and a mysterious one. Its motivation at the start of the game is to protect itself and eliminate aberrations, but it also has a curiosity about the new arrivals, and conducts experiments in order to figure them out, so it is not entirely hostile. In order to deal with the humans it created the Lake Humans, including the prototype Ares and its avatar Venus. How the lake finally decides to deal with the people is subject to the actions of the player, as described in the story section below.

[edit]

Story

The story of the game is still largely in production, but exists in rough outline. The story will be told through a few important story scenes (with drawn cut scene graphics to illustrate), and through conversations with the characters while in 'camp mode'.

[edit]

Introduction

In the introduction, Theo, Mercedes, and Venus are in the ship on a mission to gather terraforming data; contact is lost with the home base (the Duck Blind), the group in the ship is attacked by a flying Lake creature, a battle ensues using "the Weapon" function against the creature (despite Venus's protests that that's not a good idea and Mercedes' misgivings about it), the creature is killed, but the Lake reciprocates and Theo is killed, Mercedes falls out of the ship, and Venus alone is left to pilot it. She Venus sees Mercedes and rescues her, even though she knows she's somewhat of a captive of the humans. The two of them then discover that the ship can no longer fly, only hover, so they set out to find their way back to the Duck Blind via a water route.

[edit]

Early Game

During the first third of the game, Mercedes and Venus discover and ally themselves with Icks, NeoTheo, and Spare Moment. Whether the player finds Icks or NeoTheo first is variable, it depends on which direction they explore first. The only features that the ship begins equipped with are the Line Shot feature and the Weapon feature.

Icks is seemingly under attack and the player seemingly saves him, but this is in fact just a sport he's playing with the other creatures, and he sees it as the player kidnapping him. He offers to guide the player around the world and explain the creatures to the player in exchange for his safety. Also found in this area is the Sound feature.

NeoTheo is discovered in a pod in the Vine area, among other pods, and the player breaks him out. He doesn't remember much however, and his personality and appearance have been changed significantly by the process. Nonetheless, he begins engineering work after he joins up. Also found in this area is the Light feature.

Spare Moment appears on the ship after you use the techniques and functions of both Icks and NeoTheo to access a new area; he appears without fanfare, simply appearing as a sleeping guy in the ship, and is only discovered when the player speaks to him inside the ship. He says he's going to observe you, gives you the new True Sight feature and access to the map (which displays explored and unexplored areas), and goes back to sleep.

[edit]

Exploring the World

After your party is fully assembled, the main goal of the game is to travel to all of the areas of the game, increasing the percent explored meter, gathering new features and upgrading them, exploring the creatures of each area, and having more of the drama between the five characters play itself out gradually. In addition to conversations the characters have with each other at particular points (triggered by finding certain functions or just by going into the ship and talking occasionally), there are also notes from Mercedes' journal which appear periodically at certain percent exploration levels, which detail her thoughts about everything.

[edit]

The Ring Caves

Eventually the player will reach the ring caves, which allow quick "warp" access between opened ports in each area. This can be used to quickly reach any area (as long as you can reach one of the ports). Also in these ring caves, fast-paced action "challenge" scenes become accessable, these are "battles" with large creatures or swarms of small ones which can be tamed through your understanding of them, these should be fairly difficult and action-intensive.

[edit]

The Duck Blind

At last, after each of the Ring Cave sections have been cleared, the way to the Duck Blind will be open. The ending of the game is still being determined, but one known element is that this area is the human settlement, and is now controlled by the Lake, and the Lake is attempting to repair the ship so that it can return to earth, using its emulated humans to interact with it. When Venus arrives, she finds that her ability to understand the Lake's mind has increased, and that the emulated humans see her as an avatar of the Lake. She undergoes some sort of transformation, and realizes she is the Lake's avatar, and has a duty to fulfill its will.

She may temporarily leave the party here, and the ship and its members are expelled (although not killed due to her friendship with Mercedes), and left to deal with aggressive creatures everywhere in the world. She instructs Mercedes not to return. The other members of the party discuss leaving Mercedes and returning to their lives, but decide to remain with her when they see that she intends to return to Venus and attempt to confront her.

Getting back to the Duck Blind when faced with aggressive enemies takes a lot of work and is a lot more difficult than it was when faced with neutral or friendly enemies, and with Venus gone you can't use the Ring Caves to get there, so you have to find another route. That route is given to you by Spare Moment and Icks, who describe a secret path to that area, although to get there requires moving through many difficult areas. Eventually after traversing this route Mercedes is reunited with Venus, who having undergone an even greater transformation into the avatar of the Lake, and having grown into a "brain bank" of a very large size, attacks you.

[edit]

Endings

There will be several endings to the game depending on what the player chooses and what they do in the final challenges of the game in this confrontation with Venus; if the player uses NeoTheo's the Weapon to defeat Venus, there would be one ending (the "it's us or them" ending), which results in the survival of NeoTheo (who manages to expunge his parasites and return to being human) and Mercedes but the destruction of the Lake and the rest of the group, and no way to return home until the next human ship arrives to investigate.

If instead you use less violent means to increase decrease her scare meter so that she's friendly, there would be a different ending, one where the Lake (through Venus) accepts Mercedes into it, and infects her with parasites, but not as something similar to NeoTheo, but in a higher role, as an angel of Venus, to be used in a planned destruction further invaders from Earth. This is the "Lake wins" ending.

The "best ending" occurs only if you do not use the Weapon and if exploration of the map was at 100%. In this ending, there will be a final battle challenge, at the end of which Venus realizes her role as a bridge between the Lake and humanity, and sets off to Earth to negotiate a peace between the two (instead of setting off to conquer the Earth's imagined group mind as the Lake originally planned). All of the party members survive, this is the "both the Lake and the humans coexist" ending.

Retrieved from "http://studioeres.com/rinku/index.php?title=Saturated_Dreamers"

Saturated Dreamers

From RinkuWiki

Contents

Miscellaneous

Crew

History

Basics, Goals

Controls

Music & Sound

Other

Areas

Special Areas

Graphics

Exploration of the Lake

Area 1: Center

Area 2: Creature Veld

Area 3: Whirlpool Jungle

Area 4: Vine Revival

Area 5: Volcanic Vents

Area 6: Snow Moors

Area 7: Blossom Mesas

Area 8: Ring Caves

Area 9: Duck Blind and Vicinity

Obstacles

Walls

Floats

Decorations

Decorative Floats

Water Currents

Lake Oil

Function Blocks

Friending the Creatures of the Lake

Creature 1: Argus

Creature 2: Ember Fly

Creature 3: Unicorn

Creature 4: Firefly

Creature 5: Pegasus [Shield]

Creature 6: Jewel [Icks, Zig Engine]

Creature 7: Ares

Creature 8: Harpy

Creature 9: Scylla

Creature 10: The Muses

Creature 11: Pegais

Creature 12: Redcap

Creature 13: Catoblepas

Creature 14: Catoblepas V2

Creature 15: Charybdis

Creature 16: Nurikabe

Creature 17: Naga

Creature 18: Ryu (Dark Naga) [Spare Moment, Sight]

Creature 19: Kitsune

Creature 20: Gryphon

Creature 21: Gurgle

Creature 22: Hippogryph

Creature 23: Siren

Creature 24: Larva

Creature 25: Hippocampus

Creature 26: Anemoi

Creature 27: Kobu

Creature 28: Doppleganger

Creature 29: Starball

Creature 30: Venti [Sight]

Creature 31: Fleep

Creature 32: Batari

Creature 33: Solarium

Creature 34: Jakari

Creature 35: Evo Batari

Creature 36: Rakari & Rakari Egg

Creature 37: Solaros [Fade]

Creature 38: Needle Beetle

Creature 39: Wa(l)ter Strider

Creature 40: Spiked Hippo [Bait]

Creature 41: Finfish

Creature 42: Glutton

Creature 43: Hell Mount

Creature 44: Giant Ember Fly [Light]

Creature 45: Fleur [Net]

Creature 46: Opinicus [Sound]

Creature 47: Phoenix [NeoTheo, Weapon]

Creature 48: Aphrodite [Final Creature]