The Ball
Just 45 minutes to go until Mystery Monday comes to an end!
Mystery Monday Contest details
The website where you will be able to enter your answers will go online at the same time as the final piece of the puzzle. The first person who enters all words correctly will be our glorious winner! The website will ask word per word. You cannot continue to the next question if you do not enter the correct answer.
At the end of the series of question you will be asked to enter your name and email address. Make sure those are correct, or we will have no way to send you your prizes.
We made some changes to the rules too. Because we first intended to continue this contest up to the release of the game the rules used to say that you would get a discount code, and that the first person to use his discount code would be the winner. That is no longer the case. It is much simpler now. Simply answer all the questions, enter your details, and that's it.
Also we noticed we made a slight error in yesterdays newspost. We forgot to mention that the glorious winner will also receive a copy of Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45!
Tomorrow we will have a recap of the contest!
Developer Friday - Martin Annander
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A living breathing wannabe indie developer that enjoy most aspects of game development. Art, scripting and code. I have some four years of professional experience in the games industry and work at Starbreeze Studios in Uppsala as a Gameplay Designer. I wrote most of the Mystery Monday texts for The Ball and did a run as a focus tester. Oh, almost forgot: my name is Martin Annander. But it’s not a name you’re likely to have heard before.
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After playing The Ball to help test it, I mentioned that I would gladly write anything that needed writing. One thing led to another, and after a trial run writing one of the Mystery Monday pieces I was asked to write more of them. More then turned into most.
Originally met Teotl Studios’ founder, Sjoerd De Jong, at Starbreeze Studios, during the time he worked there.
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Writing has been a lifetime passion of mine and I worked for a year as a journalist in Sweden, after an internship in the United States. Since then, it’s not something I get paid for, but it’s still a favorite pastime. I mostly write fiction, but there are some articles and theses as well. Whoever lives, and cares, may see.
Prior writing credit includes stuff for pen-and-paper role-playing games, though none you’ve heard of, and some stuff for the free MMORPG Planeshift. Some other stuff, too, but I tend to think more of the next thing in line than of past endeavors.
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Coming up with ways to make the Mystery Monday pieces interesting and not just repetition of the same themes over and over. There were already plenty of ideas and source material to draw from, but it was still a challenge. And of course, to fit it into a busy everyday work schedule. Besides, anyone who writes a lot knows that it’s easy to get carried away. So another big challenge has been to keep the word count within a digestible margin: the Internet expression TL;DR exists for a reason.
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I like the diversity. The way it’s an action game that is a puzzle game and also the way it tells a story in the details, rather than in campy cutscenes. There’s a lot to explore and even more to experience in more than just the game mechanics. And of course those moments when some final revelation turns an impossible puzzle into you cursing your own stupidity and yelling "why didn’t I think of that!". As in any good puzzle game, those moments are what keep you going.
Mystery Monday - Nearing the end - Hints #2
 | Three more hints for Mystery Monday. For the 4th, 5th, and 6th Mystery Monday. Just days more to go before the end! Information on how to enter will be posted tomorrow! |
We will not release hints for the last couple of Mystery Mondays. We do not want to make things too easy and we want to keep it fair to those who are really into solving these. So these will be the last few hints you will get, for now! If it turns out early next week that too few people have solved the mystery, more hints will follow. Hints for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd have been posted a while ago.
Remember, you can win:
Winner
<*>1 x Ipad <*>1 x signed boxed copy of The Ball <*>1 x digital copy of The Ball <*>1 x digital copy of Killing Floor <*>1 x digital copy of Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad
25 Runners-up
<*>1 x digital copy of The Ball <*>1 x digital copy of Killing Floor
The rules and more information can be found here.
More Previews
Thanks for the previews!
Mystery Monday - The first one explained
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To help you understand what you have to do and what kind of words you are looking for we are going to explain the very first Mystery Monday, and give away its solution. The first Mystery Monday is very easy. Smack down in the middle of the page, in a noticeable yellow font is the word "Lotto", with the winning series printed below. This is also right above the important news article about our hero's death, so it is quite hard to miss. The winning lottery numbers represent positions in the alphabet. The first number, "15", is "O". The "O" is the 15th letter of the alphabet. The word we are looking for is thus "Orion". |
How can you know whether or not you got the right word? While you can never know for sure it is usually too much of a coincidence to be accidental. In most Mystery Mondays there are also hidden hints present, all pointing to the same word and giving you extra confirmation that you have found the right word. Also, all the words we are looking for relate to each other and/or the game in one way or another. The more words you will find the more a pattern will begin to emerge. This first word, Orion, is a prominent constellation and it plays a significant role in the mythology of many cultures around the world. All the hidden words are in one way or another related to mythology, space, symbolism, ancient science, or relevant locations.
Winner
<*>1 x Ipad<*>1 x signed boxed copy of The Ball<*>1 x digital copy of The Ball<*>1 x digital copy of Killing Floor<*>1 x digital copy of Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad
25 Runners-up
<*>1 x digital copy of The Ball<*>1 x digital copy of Killing Floor
The rules and more information can be found here.
Previews!
And lastly an Italian preview - we are waiting for a translation so no quote yet for this one.
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Mystery Monday - September 27
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Second last piece of the puzzle! Next week Monday is the very final Mystery Monday. We will be posting lots of information and hints regarding MM throughough the week. |
Here is the plan for this final week:
- Wednesday: We are going to explain the very first MM. What is the word we are looking for? And how were you suppose to find it?
Friday: We will release hints for the 4th, 5th, 6th MM.
Saturday: Information will go up regarding the contest website. We will explain how to enter, and we will set an exact time on the release of the final piece.
Sunday: Recap on all released pieces.
Monday: The final piece is released plus the website goes online.
Thursday that week: We announce the winners, or alternatively if there are not yet enough winners we will release additional hints.
The rules and more information can be found here.
Developer Friday - Lukas Arvidsson
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My name is Lukas Arvidsson and I have done various things on The Ball, mostly 3D & 2D Art that you can find in the later levels. Other things I have helped out with is Character art, testing and coming up with new game design ideas. I have also immensely enjoyed the business and marketing side of releasing an indie game. I think it has been great fun to work on The Ball!
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I joined the team in May 2009. My brother (Markus Arvidsson) was already involved with the project for a couple of months at that point and I was introduced to the team through him.
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I started out with 3D graphics through a course at school. It spurred my joy for drawing and everything graphical, so after the course I started drawing and painting. One thing led to the next and suddenly I was doing computer graphics and 3D. I have always had a strong focus on the traditional when learning the different skills you need as a 3D artist. I think that it is good to be able to relate your work to other fields and also to be versatile and move between different positions / industries. But the real reason that I started with 2D/3D graphics is of course because it gets you chicks!
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The most challenging things I have done for the game were probably the first few things, like the big bird from Hueca. The reason those were the most challenging was because I still had to get used to the game and the technology. There are always a lot of things you have to learn to get everything going. Another hard part was to work on The Ball as well as doing all the other stuff you are expected to do :)
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For me that is quite easy. It is the way you explore a world. A large majority of games rely on an instant verification of collision detection and feedback from the game world (by using bullets and guns). With The Ball you use the Ball to explore a world. This makes you more conscious of the environment and how it relates to you. In many games you feel the environment to be more of a decor or a sceneography and you are the camera. But with The Ball there are other relations that are being explored. For me Portal was a step in this direction, but I think that The Ball has its very own unique flavor that all fans of the FPS-genre should try out.
Wendros to take care of retail distribution in Scandinavia
The Ball will release in Scandinavia on DVD-ROM, October 29th 2010.
Full press release