The Valve ARG ‘Alternate Reality Game‘

An Analysis and Explanation

by exterminat

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

Valve are a secretive, misleading group that has the industry thinking they are actually making games.

When they’re not making hats for your virtual character to wear, they are making games about games that could involve hats for your virtual character to wear.

The latest information comes in the form of an ARG: Alternate Reality Game.

ARGs have been used throughout media history typically to tease a new project or something on the horizon. Basically a scavenger hunt, but in real life.

If you even think about the terms “Valve” and “announcement” in the same thought process, your mind instantly jumps to Episode 3.

Now, bear in mind, none of this is of my own findings; I’ll be telling the highlights that hundreds of people have worked together to find.

All info currently available (constantly updated as we figure it out) can be found here.

Without further adieu, let’s get eye-deep in more of Valve’s nonsense.

Potato Fools Day

It started around April Fool’s day. Valve released a huge bundle of indie games called “The Potato Sack.” It contained the following titles:

1 2 3 KICK IT!

AaAaAA! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

AudioSurf

BIT.TRIP BEAT

Cogs

Defense Grid: The Awakening

Killing Floor

Rush

Super Meat Boy

The Ball

The Wonderful End of The World

Toki Tori

These games were all put into a large bundle for 75% off, and it struck me as interesting as soon as I noticed it. Why these random assortment of games?

Maybe just some indie love, because Steam has been known to do that.

But at the same time, an update was rolled out to every single one of those games.

And guess what? Every single one of those games (and a few more) now have scattered bits of information, hints, story references and just an all around tease.

ARGs are exciting things, and Valve are no stranger to them. You may get some ‘mild’ excitement as you read through these bits of data form the games, so I have to warn you: please, grab a new pair of pants while you’re still able to.

The Hints

1) 1 2 3 KICK IT!

1 2 3 KICK is the first item on our list in alphabetical order. The update is pretty much deciphered, and it is essentially a dead end.

The game’s studio owner has been known to put silly things and pranks in his games, and this is none other than a repeat performance. A new splash screen was introduced with the words “help me” and potatoes can be found EVERYWHERE.

Uncoverings have led to the linking of five different YouTube videos, all involving those dastardly potatoes. One of them in particular was Egypt-themed, and is believed to be linked to part of the Amnesia hint.

2) AaAaAA – A Reckless Disregard For Gravity

Quite possibly the worst title for a game in history (henceforth referred to as AA), AA’s update was interesting.

Basically, it just featured more facts about potatoes and a line of code said to go play Kick It.

3) Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia is a title that scares the living crap out of not only me, but everyone who plays it.

It is known that there is a secret room in Amnesia that we don’t know how to open, but now the contents of that room may be discovered. The picture below was added into the game files.

• The text in the picture reads as so:

We must hurry it’s not too late

What will that perfect sphere bring

It will be the end of everything

The tattered yellow king shall dethrone

The pipers will call for us to dance

Death shall move across the floor

They who burrow waits beneath

The skinless one is waking

Climb the highest tower

Spin the wheels, crank the engine

It will be again, it’s coming

From beyond it comes

Through the gates

Suffer the trial

Stay alive

Liar! Alias does too use dust as a sore muse

Each line of the text is a reference to a specific game in the Potato Sack bundle. The references, in order of the lines:

1. Rush
2. The Ball
3. The Wonderful End of the World
4. Toki Tori or BIT.TRIP Beat?
5. Most likely AudioSurf, but BT Beat/Defense Grid as well
6. Killing Floor
7. Minecraft, Worms, maybe even Amnesia?
8. Super Meat Boy
9. AA
10. Cogs
11. Defense Grid… or even HL2: Episode Three?
12. Amnesia, and maybe Defense Grid for aliens?
13. Both Portals, maybe KICK IT?
14. Maybe the ARG in general? Also an anagram for Audiosurf’s “That file surfer”
15. Possibly referencing Portal’s “Still Alive” theme song
16. A cypher

Once again, none of this is of my own work. It’s all taken from the respective wiki page I linked at the beginning of the article, where hundreds of dedicated, hardworking folks are spending hours on end trying to unravel this mystery.

Simply for space constraints, I can’t list EVERYTHING for each game here, so check out the Wiki once you get through! Follow the links on certain terms to find out more!

4) AudioSurf

The update to AudioSurf was very interesting. A new random tip was added, saying “Tire & rope; tie self. Too irate, so I eat a sheep.” Strange enough.  A mountain track object was also turned horizontal, appearing to look like… guess it… a potato spud.

Super Meat Boy contains a glyph that appears similar to Audiosurf Mono.

It is to be noted that a track “…And Potatoes” was on the CE soundtrack for SMB. Again, there are lots of little details that I’m leaving out that really make this interesting, so be SURE to check out the wiki!

5) BIT.TRIP BEAT

Floating potatoes are now on the title screen, and increase as you complete more levels in the game. This one in particular, though, is odd.

This strange potato has this square symbol on it, with that circular image in the middle.

Other text is on the potato, but we currently have not figured out what they mean.

Can you feel the anticipation? It gets good here.

A user posted his score on Facebook, and a strange message on the link said “A sage sausage? I ate it fast! So sue us… we cave.“

It linked to a one-colored image. Someone enhanced the image, and is shown below.

Doesn’t that look kind of familiar? Oh wait, it DOES!

The image shown above is none other than the Aperture Science logo, and the peculiar square fits in perfectly with it when rotated. I bet you can feel the chills now!

6) Cogs

Entering “potato” on the main menu causes a chime sound effect to play, and opens a level called <Test>.

Completing it results in the following image.

Each time you play the level, the score gets lower.

By leaving the game running for over an hour, the score dropped to zero and instead of giving the usual message, this is shown: “Safe, we avoid no seaside noises as we loom.“

The left image is the logo for BIT.TRIP BEAT, with a letter N to go with it.

The right image is the baby logo from KICK IT! with a corresponding letter P.

These letters seem to all be coming together to unscramble all of the strange phrases in these games.

7) Defense Grid

The only truly simple thing that happened with Defense Grid is the altering of the logo.

The D in the game’s title also changed at one point to be the symbol for AA, and the G turned into what appears to be the arm cutter in Portal 2.

An update on the game’s main menu asks for special ascii characters, claiming that the winning creation could be featured in an upcoming “surprise!“

The console has also been updated with a truckload of interesting information.

Typing in “cd” allows the players to look through directories, and a complete listing can be found on the specific wiki page, here. In addition to this, a text adventure game on two difficulties-Campaign and Impossible-yield messages.

Completing the game on Campaign says “ Congratulations, Frank. Now, can you do it on impossible mode? -Tony” while completing it on Impossible says “Wife ire – avoid evil maidens. Be good, okay?” which is yet another strange, nonsensical message.

In addition to all of THAT, there is new dialogue and even symbols that relate to other glyphs and games in the Potato group. Once again, check the Wiki to see a complete listing.

8) Killing Floor

This appeared during a beta release on April 6.

These are part of the lyrics to the new song added in the beta release, Icy Murderous I (available here). The lyrics are still being figured out… if you listen, you’ll see why.

That strange number sequence translates into this: there are no more clues to be found zero reasons exIst to contiNue to lurch internally, surely, just “Googling around” is beTter than “playing” fOr YOUr pure research

The random capital letters create “LYING TO YOU.”

Players now throw potatoes instead of money, and the famous “DOSH!” line has been temporarily removed, and the updated maps contain hidden potatoes.

Many characters’ bios were changed to ridiculous things, and you can see all of the little details here.

9) Portal 2

The information for Portal 2 was released via the latest video, “Aperture Investment Opportunity #3: ‘Turrets’ Video.“

The main pertinence to the ARG is a set of frames at approximately 0:37 into the video, disguised as noise in a scene transition which contains phrases encoded in ASCII, the face of someone, and several symbols.

Frames 942 to 947 showing the two sets of hidden messages

Frame 942

Frame 943

Frame 944

Frame 945

Frame 946

Frame 947

The face of the man in frame 944 is almost unanimously agreed upon as Geoff Keighley, the host of GameTrailers TV on Spike, who is coincidentally hosting an episode featuring a Portal 2 premiere of some sort this Friday.

• The ASCII in frame 944 is as follows:

72 101 114 101 39 115 32 68 97 32 66 101 101 110 115 44 32 68 111 117 103 116 97 116 111 58:

• Here’s Da Beens, Dougtato:

89 111 117 32 102 111 117 110 100 32 109 97 110 121 46 70 105 110 100 32 116 104 101 32 114 101 115 116 46:

• You found many.Find the rest.

77 105 75 97 88 115 85 115 32 70 84 87:

• MiKaXsUs FTW

Frame 945′s ASCII is also as follows:

65 108 115 111 46 46 46 32 115 117 112 101 114 100 105 110 111 109 97 110 39 115 32 109 111 109:

• Also… superdinoman’s mom

A currently unverified video has appeared on youtube with significance to the Portal universe. The uploader, RubeTUberson (who is most likely from Turkey, although it says USA in the profile), seems to have a correlating style to current characters in the ARG. The video was uploaded on the 5th of April 2011.

The video consists of a still image featuring computer terminals circa 1960-80s. There seems to be Aperture Science branding on one of the devices in the foreground.

In the top right hand corner there is a watermark featuring Zafer Ergin and Alp Korkmaz, two actors from the Turkish TV series, The Back Streets.

And lastly, we have a new image on the official Portal 2 website, regarding those turrets. (see image on right)

10) RUSH

The title now has flying potatoes in its main menu.

There is also a symbol on the potato, confirmed to be the Killing Floor logo, with the letters C and K appearing next to it, like in Cogs.

Clicking on the potato gives a message: 6teen dot data. Ovened a hot nut, no hen. ANOTHER weird message.

Another hidden message is something we believe to be an unsolved anagram: A Caravans Final Old Logo.

11) Super Meat Boy

As mentioned earlier, the only thing is really the “…And Potatoes ” song labeling, plus a reskin of the game that turns it into Super Potato Boy. Other random assortments including a strange update note can be found here on the respective wiki page.

12) The Ball

A Steam forum goer found this glyph when playing.

The letter associated with this case is ‘T‘, and the mysterious message here is “A sidewise safe; inside we see isotopic goo.”

The title screen ball has been replaced with a potato, as seen below.

Also, Scully’s texture from Killing floor points to this title.

13) The Wonderful End of The World

End of the World features random screens that show up while playing, and it has been confirmed that no specific levels are tied to these.

The “continue” sections at the end of these “articles“, when used as Tinyurls lead to random pages: “They did it again and this time I got the evidence,” a video on YouTube, a Bing image search for “potato crime“, and a Google search for “potatoes are delicious but only if cooked“, all respectively.

This is clearly another really, REALLY odd one.

14) Toki Tori

As with the other games, Toki Tori added in some “test” levels. Within them were coordinates to a location in the Netherlands… the headquarters of Two Tribes, the game’s developer!

Someone went there, and lo and behold: potatoes, EVERYWHERE. Pictures can be found in the wiki page, here. A glyph was pictured at the headquarters, and the infamous mystery text continued: “Art for swans is dope! ” “I sauce age a taco.“

In addition to this, Toki is a potato on the intro screen and subsequent level select screens. Next, if you create a new profile in the game with #PotatoFoolsDay or Potato in the name, you unlock three levels with <Test> in the name, with a very obvious Aperture Science Theme.

Level 1 makes reference to shower curtains and how showers aren’t necessary. The original idea for Portals in the Portal series was to use them as shower curtains. The fact that showers are necessary means that they are now stand-alone portals. This could easily be a reference to Portal.

Level 2 shows a link, but entering http://tinyurl.com/loremipsum redirects to http://www.lipsum.com/. It is probably a coincidence.

Level 3 notice the misspelling of late as “lat” and clue as “clew“. The intro text for Level 3 is a reference to Louis Braille, aged 15 in 1824 (“187 years ago“) when he created the Braille writing system.

The level has numbers encoded in Braille. The numbers translate to 52.1520 on the right, and 05.3860 on the bottom. The numbers are the coordinates for [the Two Tribes HQ] in the Netherlands. Clues were found in real life near the HQ (mentioned above).

More found on the game’s ARG page, here.

15) Team Fortress 2

This is easily the grandaddy of the ARG, and definitely Valve’s biggest involvement. And it’s only a hat (who knew?!).

It was added in a small update to the game, and appears to just be a small workmen’s hat, with a potato on the side of it.

As you can tell by the image, the name is “Genine [CLASSIFIED]“, and the description reads “[redacted].”

While the Wiki does not show this, I have heard form various sources that the potato can be somehow removed (I believe in a modeling program). Under the potato lies the Aperture Science logo for one team, and the Black Mesa logo for another.

The Best Is Yet To Come

Clearly, this is one of the greatest things a developer has ever done in the history of the industry. Here I was, thinking the industry was flat-out lacking creativity, then comes along Valve with their usual antics.

This will be updated more and more in the coming days as the discoveries keep coming in.

Guys, I cannot stress enough how bad you need to visit the Wiki containing ALL the information for this ARG. It has everything I talked today plus MUCH, MUCH more, and has plenty of theories, explanations and other connections that have been made. Once again, that link is here.

I have to truly thank those crazy people who are devoting their time to doing this. Without them, this article would not be possible.

So, what do you guys think? Will this tease Episode Three?

I bet it’s going to just be a potato in Portal 2 that you have to carry through the whole game to get a crappy achievement… (calling it now).

UPDATE #1:

This image has been circulating through the press.

Gabe Newell himself has been sending it around.

We’re still working on decoding it, but this one will be a doozy.

Keep checking back on the Wiki for all information we have, folks!

UPDATE #2:

The image has been decoded!

It comes out to a date and time, and translates directly to as follows:

4/19/2011 7AM = 4/15/2011 9AM

April 19th is the North American release date for Portal 2. Maybe this April 15th is the pre-load date for Steam?

Or maybe… Valve is going to pull a fast one and release it early?

We may not know, but this is fact: Friday will be quite an interesting day.

UPDATE #3:

As you all know, the ARG Wiki has been continually updated by contributors.

As of late, these contributors have “disappeared.”

Yes. Gone. Zip. Poof.

When this was mentioned as an update on the Wiki, a message was posted: “Stop worrying about them. They are okay. They are still people. Who are okay. They are busy doing safe things that are supervised by a responsible safety associate. Everything is fine here.”

GLaDOS has infiltrated the Wiki. And she is out to get us. The list of disappearances and whatnot can be found here.

The missing people have been sending messages via social networks and things of the like, all the same: “I am okay. I am still a person.Who is okay. I am busy doing safe things that are supervised by a responsible safety associate.”

The real question is this: are these real, everyday people who just did hard work and were asked to play along? Or was it a massive setup by Valve?

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

xxxxxx

Filed under: Xbox 360 Tagged: | # AaAaAA! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, Alternate Reality Game, alternative reality game by valve, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, April Fools' Day, ARG: Alternate Reality Game, Audiosurf, BIT.TRIP BEAT, Defense Grid the Awakening, Egypt, episode 3, Independent video game development, Killing Floor, Super Meat Boy, The Potato Sack, The Wonderful End of The World, Toki Tori, Valve Alternate Reality Game, Valve's episode 3, YouTube