[EVENT] The Pirin Incident

Introduction

Goblin Valley State Park, Utah.

Early morning.

A helicopter landed and Professor Walter Pirin alighted from it. The astrophysicist and founder of the Pirin Astrobiology Institute walked towards a group of people that seemed to be waiting for him. He looked around and said:

"So, where is it?"

"Just follow me."

The man who had answered was obviously very excited. Jimmy Cobble worked for the PAI with passion.

"You won't believe it", he noticed. He led Pirin to a vast plain and pointed to a direction.

"Most of the remnants were found there."

"Pretty narrow. I wouldn't expect the area to be so small."

Pirin looked at Cobble. He could tell from Cobble's behavior that there was more.

"Come on, Jimmy, you wouldn't have called me for a few remnants of an asteroid that broke to pieces in the atmosphere!"

"You're right. This one is special. I'm not even sure what it is. Definitely no asteroid. We found something enclosed. But I want you to see it yourself."

Cobble walked to a near table with something lying on it that looked a lot like stone. He carefully lifted the stone and handed it over to Pirin who just needed five seconds until he realized what he held in his hands.

"Oh my god", he reacted, "a crystal cube. A cube! A processed crystal!"

Cobble smiled.

"Isn't it fantastic? We might hold the proof of extraterrestrial life!"

-reserved-

Introduction (part 2)

Pirin Astrobiology Institute, Nebraska.

Late afternoon.

Two people stood in the lab and stared at a crystal cube. After a while, Walter Pirin scratched his head and said:

"I'm sure. Really, I am. This is a light based information storage object. You've seen it from the laser tests. Light got in, but never got out. Whatever's inside that crystal, it's a treasure from outside of this world. We need to access the data."

Cobble nodded his head.

"I agree. It is some kind of data storage. Which makes me wonder. Why was it floating freely in space?"

"Hard to tell. Maybe it is just the equivalent of our message in a bottle, or it was onboard a space ship that wrecked somewhere. Or the planet, on which this crystal was created, exploded."

"Well, the best chance to find the answer could be to access the data from this crystal - if there are any."

"Right. We'll need help. Let's make some calls. Quantum physicists will love this challenge!"

I'm hooked, but I need to hear more... What is this strange crystal and how will they unlock its secrets...

I look forward to future instalments :)

Are we working up to another C2 game jam? If that's the case I'm just a little excited - not sure how to explain this one to the family, though...

Blacksmith

You'll love it: lots of sounds and music involved <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Colludium

(very fitting latin avatar name!) Yes, but I don't dare to call it so. Also, instead of so many "here's the theme now go", I take the time to develop a story, working hard on assets (paticipants of "A blossom tale" can tell it) and - my events are family compatible, since they allow one or two weeks, depending on complexity <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

Introduction (part 3)

Pirin Astrobiology Institute, Nebraska.

Noon.

The canteen was filled with chatter. Pirin kissed the cup of coffee and lounged back on his chair.

"Any new findings?"

His vis-a-vis looked up from his meal. Dr. Raymond Balford was a quantum physicist and the team leader on this project. Two weeks had gone since he was called.

"The structure could allow for a storage system. But if it's one, it's sophisticated. There were tests storing an image for up to one minute. It uses external equipment around the crystal. Even if I assume a minification: A system that is enclosed by the crystal is far from our competencies."

Pirin leaned forward.

"Ray, the first step can't be to recreate that technology. We should start with accessing the information!"

"And that's the next problem. We might find a way. But how do you read a book if you never learned the language it's written in? What format will the information have? A binary system? I doubt that such a technology uses such a simple code. However, since this seems to be a quantum device, it could be qubits we're talking about."

"I agree. Let's concentrate on this theory. We'll assume a quantum device storing qubits. Let's find a way to access them!"

The intrigue continues...

I really like the addition of external links too. Adds some real weight to the story!

Ohohohooo another one and I'm definately IN! Besides, I've got a lot of thoughts on quantum and whatnot. I'm gonna string theory the sh*t out of the quarks and muons and weak force out of this cube!

Well, when I needed a surgery and after that the music contest came, this event was put on hold. I really wanted to continue as soon as I have the time again.

But to be honest, I lost faith in this community. Not everyone has changed, some still live the spirit of the old days, and that's wonderful. However, seeing that strange arrogance (e.g. a competition has to be held by a company to take it serious, a competition without money-related prices get ignored, etc.) frustrated me to a point, where I decided to stop the event.

Yes, I'm sad. I worked for weeks, several hours a day to provide you with fine music and sound assets for this competition. The plan was, that the community would be asked by Pirin himself to help him. He had all those sound artefacts, that were stored in the strange crystals. But a scientist can only analyse those sounds. What was really needed were game designers. Those people who have the imagination to fill the sound artifacts with life, thus showing the world what might have happened a long time ago on a far, far planet.

I really thought it would get attention and that such a challenge would be taken by any game designer. But in fact, let's face it, I would have been lucky if two or three people would have participated.

The sounds and music are there, so I offer them here as a 30 MB rar package. Use the content as you like. It features 8 music loops (that can be combined or sequenced) and over 50 sound effects, all in the context of something that happened on a far away planet. You can read the files as follows:

aaa_bbc_dd.wav

aaa can have the following letters: mus for music, sfx for sound effect

bb is a running number (01, 02, etc.)

c is a letter starting from a (a, b, c, d, etc.) If c is present, it means a variation of the same number without c. Example: sfx_03a.wav is the first variation of sfx_03.wav

dd will read 'lp' and is only present, if the sound file is meant to be played looped. But that's up to you.

Have fun with the files, but leave a thank you. I'm serious. I want to know who's downloading them, find them useful, helpful, will use them, etc. It will show me how welcome such a present is in the community.

Thanks for reading!

Download: The_Pirin_Incident.rar

Hey tulamide,

Hope you're feeling well again

Sad to hear that you've decided to cancel the event, it certainly sounded like an interesting story. Perhaps you could use what you've written for a game of your own instead, seems a shame to let your hard work go to waste.

I'm not sure I would've participated, simply because I've never been too good at Game Jams. I like to put lots of time and thought into getting my work just right, which doesn't usually mix well with the time limits most events have Still, the concept was a really exciting one, and it would've been fun to see what people might have come up with!

I've downloaded and listened to your Pirin tracks, and once again they're really good! I don't have a project to use them in at the moment, but I'm sure they'll come in handy some day, so thank you

I hope that's not the last we see of you around the forum, I'm sure things will pick up again sometime