# *Outer Wilds* Notes > [!info] > Updated with thoughts on the DLC *Echoes of the Eye*. > [!warning] > Spoilers below! ![[Outer Wilds Notes.pdf]] ## Stats Started Playing: 9/5/24 Beat: 9/15/24 Total Playtime: 21~22 hours ## Legacy - The “club” is the game’s enduring legacy. The hushed, encouraged tones. Go explore. We’ll cheer you on. - And we become the ushers of the game and its experience. We encourage and nudge. ## Overall - What is the time limit? Do I need a notebook? - I feel overwhelmed out of the gate. But encouraged to explore. It’s like learning a new application or subject or program: it takes time, immersion, and dedication. - This is the Interstellar of games - I feel like I am always on the cusp of understanding and being overwhelmed with knowledge. - This feeling gives and takes. You can have a loop or two where you feel like you’re gaining so much knowledge and then have stretch of loops that feel stagnant. The march forward is always some form of progress though. I haven’t played a game quite like this. - The flying controls are realistic enough. Reminds me of flying a drone. Constant education and application of that knowledge. - This game is wild --> I mean, duh - I have never played a game like this. - The game is so isolating. Exploring the universe alone. Solving ancient mysteries. But I can’t talk to anyone about it in a meaningful way. There is wiz and other club members. But I want more conversation. - It’s a game of details. The smallest, delightful details. - Accidental discoveries, just like the Nomai and science. The hypothesis worked, even if not expected - Very Feldspar/Hearthian tactics from me. Jumping on the gravity well, parking my ship on Ash tower. I am certainly breaking the game. Breaking science ## Story - Cute little aliens exploring their solar system to learn about ancient beings. It’s charming. - Why am I groundhog daying it? - My memories are being sent back to a statue that then sends them to a mask that then sends the memories to my current self at a specific time interval? Memory time travel. - Is there anything I can do to stop the sun from blowing up? It feels impossible and inevitable. How is accepting fate a game winning condition? - Accepting fate is the game winning condition. But not just accepting it and lying down. Accepting it and the knowledge with the intention to pursue betterment and understanding. - Am I becoming like the Nomai in pursuit of knowledge and the Eye? Will my pursuit lead to a fate worse than the sun imploding? - Objects entering a black hole exit a white hole before they enter the black hole entirely. With enough energy, the Nomai can basically time travel. AKA they tried to blow up the sun intentionally. Their computers say Sun Station activity was 281, 042 years ago. They wanted the ability to send something back 22 minutes, aka the game loop. I am *reeling*. - I found a Nomai grave in Dark Bramble and it crushed me. Their pursuit for knowledge ends in tragedy. - And I found a living Nomai on the Quantum Moon! How is that even possible if they were here some 280,000 years ago. Time moves different in quantum. Does he know how long he has been there? That his people are seemingly dead? - Reaching the Eye was a journey. The compounding of the universe, the gathering of friends, and the birth of something new. ## Gameplay - I think the accurate gravity and flight gave me the motion sickness. - How does one keep all of this in their head? - The ship’s log is great. Mind map energy or linear space map design. It keeps tabs of the threads I should be and personally do find interesting. I’m solving puzzles on a meta level and now have to figure them out in a quantum space mechanic game level. - Okay. I’m getting the hang of this conceptually now. - Wish the ship’s log was on my person somehow. - Amazing how balanced the sense of overwhelming is - Really craving some sort of notebook outside of the ship. It’s hard to keep it all in my head. - Solve one puzzle and immediately met with another. Always a puzzle road block. - Each piece is connected to another. You get stuck, you can explore elsewhere and that might help breakthrough in other spots. Good opportunities to redirect, shake up, and still make progress. - Feeling stuck at the very end. The mind map is “full” except for the Ash Twin Project. I am unsure how to get to the core. And I feel out of in-game clues to chase down. It’s my only task left. ## Music/Sound Design - Music feels hopeful with a twinge of importance and discovery. - When music kicks in, what is it saying to me? ## Graphics - The style is unique. Like mature cel-shaded Wind Waker? ## World - Sun / Sun Station - Ash Twin, the sand planet draining down to Ember - Ember Twin, filling up with sand - Timber Hearth, Home planet - The moon of Timber Hearth. Alterrock? - Brittle Hollow, the planet crumbling into a black hole. - Water planet with cyclones that toss the islands into space. Wild. - Dark Bramble, the seed planet with warp holes that duplicates space and time? - The Interloper, the comet circling the sun. - The Quantum Moon. I want to go there. # *Echoes of the Eye* ## Stats - Started Playing: 9/20/24 - Beat: 9/27/24 - Total Playtime: 15~16 hours ## Legacy - Exploring horror in an established setting - I think the big legacy is the meta-level commentary on game design and hiding in digital spaces. Observe and gain knowledge to break the experience. Knowledge is not to be feared, but embraced. ## Overall - I’m reminded of *Gone Home* the first time you play and you think something spooky might happen. ## Story - I never considered exploring the deep space satellite! - I am fascinated by this nordic, river halo And, at least what l've seen so far. They are similar to Nomai in following the eye's signal, But they misinterpret its message of recreating a universe—WHICH MEANS THE EYE IS SENTIENT IN SOME WAY? I suppose. - These owl deer do not want me in the dream world. I wonder if these dream worlds are actually the depictions on the reels themselves. Some scenes are playing out the same-ish. Would explain why these owl deer are still here, even when their host bodies are dead? - The Owl Deer destroyed their home in pursuit of the Eye. They misinterpreted the Eye’s message. Closed the Eye off. And recreated their world in the Matrix, to dream of a home long gone. Inception-ish. BIG NOLAN ENERGY IN THIS GAME. - The Owl Deer were scared of the Eye’s signal/message. The cut off the Eye and hid inside a dream, afraid to lose their own life. A lone Owl Deer stood up and unveiled the signal, right when the Nomai scanned it. For this treason, he was imprisoned for eternity. ## Gameplay - Very subtle clues to start/find. - Genius to use a flood and a gravitational loop to recreate the whole active solar system mechanic. - Lanterns, light, and film. - Okay. The dream world is SPOOKY. - The motivation is interesting, since it has nothing to do with the Nomai and resetting the universe. It’s purely motivated by what happened to these aliens, why turn, and what is up with the spooks. - Feeling very lost. The dream world is dark and hard to see. I feel like I’ve explored the real world top to bottom. I’m missing something. - This is of course minutes before I have the idea to see if the vault tower sarcophagus thing has a fire inside, which it does. This spurs a trip around that finds me secret maps. Now to find the hidden locations. Classic Outer Wilds. - As is tradition, talking what I know through with my friend has led to a possible solution I am eager to test. A special social mechanic of the game. - A core mechanic is broken. You never return to your ship in this DLC, therefore making the ship log inaccessible during a single run. With many puzzles requiring entering a combination of symbols or rewatching slide reels or looking at map projections, you have to break the game by using a real life camera or notepad to keep track. it takes you out of the game. - This has turned into a horror game. Please stop chasing me. Ahhhhhhhhhh - The design is isolating. No language translation. Corpses. The Stranger is cut off from the solar system. It’s a lonely place. Adds to horror. - Concealing your lantern to navigate the swamp is very “leave the ship and float past fishies” energy. - The loop, the loop, the loop. How can you leverage and manipulate the loop. The DLC itself is a loop/halo. The game itself is a loop. Things happen on a schedule. How can you be where you need to be? The loop the loop the loop - Three rules of the Quantum Moon. Three rules of the Matrix. - I don’t think I ever needed the symbols. I needed to learn how to break “the game.” ## Music/Sound Design - Some white water rafting music that builds nicely. Similar to the build of the end supernova theme. - The low held thrum, synthy and bassy, that reverberates with tension. ## Graphics - Lots of aquatic greens and dim lighting. - It’s soooooo dark at times. OLED makes those blacks dreadful pockets of the unknown. - Big cave of two lovers energy. Drop the light, walk in the dark, and the light will show you the way. Trust those before you (trust the devs) ## World - My gosh there is a space ship - My gosh it is a halo. - Nordic river owl deer folk