Part 1: Deep Dive 1

Deep Dive 1


As you all have no doubt figured out, the second feature of Part 3 is that I've... modified the game in certain ways, chiefly the names of Functions and enemies. Exactly how I did that and where I got those names will be the subject of another post, but for now I'd like to show you something neat I found while scouring the game's files.



In the Script's folder there's a single folder named "Decks". Inside there's a collection of .txt files with some very zippy names.



Here, for your edification, are links to the text in those files:

All | Initialize

Blaster | Builder | Custom | Drainer | Puller | Randomizer | Scrapper | Sniper | Stalker | Starter | Summoner | Tricky

What we have here is the skeleton of a card game.

We can see references to mechanics similar to the main game: you have WEAPONs, Passives, and Upgrades at your disposal, as well as Meta and Curses. There seem to be two main kinds of moves: attacks, which are named like (sometimes exactly like) Functions, and summoning friendly Processes. For the latter, we can quickly find references to AllyDemolisher, AllySuppressor, and AllyZoner, which we're familiar with, and AllyDeflector and AllyBomber, which we're not.

As for the former, there's lots of names we know and even more we don't. Decks contain Sidearm, Snipe, Blink, etc., but also some pretty wild stuff like Banish, Novaball, Cloudkill, Shrapnel, BlackHole, and ChaosLance. These names don't contain any file references to call card data so I can't tell you what they were supposed to do.

There's also some lines in the game's Utility and Debug Scripts that talk about creating, drawing, and playing cards and the states they can be in (flipped, unflipped, equipped, permanent), respectively.

But wait, there's more! This skeleton has skin!

After investigating the Decks folder I wanted to know just how much of the card game had been finished, so I combed through more files looking for references. It took a while, but I hit paydirt while unpacking the game's texture files. In the "GUI" package there's numerous textures that don't appear in the game but have names that are referenced in the card game files. So here are those, in all their cut glory:

















Those first 11 are cutouts from sheets with multiple textures on them. The rest are all individual files. Make sure to check the images' names; I gave them their original file names.

One last thing: You doubtlessly noticed the unfamiliar face in 07. Here he is again:



That's our lovely boyfriend in the sword, Jack.

Speaking of names and Kaz, I mentioned to him that, while he has no official name, he does have an alias in the code: "Boxer". In the scences where his body is present, numerous references are made to "Boxer" and "BoxerPortation". One section in particular is very interesting:



Yep. Once upon a time you could destroy Jack's body.

What a wonderful relationship.