[SPOILER] Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*

[rotten]

Just bringing up some posts by chineseroom in case someone missed/forgot them.

Spoiler below!

You're still light on investigating the hint text, which is Mandus really journeying deeper into his own self-knowledge. The rabbit hole goes quite a bit deeper still...

Spoiler below!

Yeah, there were originally two endings to the game. When we got close to alpha, I wasn't happy with the temple level at all and ended up actually redesigning 80-90% of it. At the same time, I looked again at the dual endings and discussed it with Thomas, Jens, Jess and the others and we decided that one really punchy ending was better and we were in danger of making weak endings for no purpose other than to having multiples.

So in these original endings, either Mandus chose to smash the hearts with debris and destroy the machine, or let a timer run down after which the Machine destroyed London. Both of those felt like a 'game' thing, not fitting strongly to the fiction, world or even characters, and I re-wrote and designed something more open to intepretation that played much more tightly to the plot and characters of the game. What does happen at the very end?

Not telling. You can figure it out, I'm sure.

Spoiler below!

Cut from an early version of the script:
"Shall I tell you the difference between a madman and a prophet, little Mandus? History. Everything else is as dull and busy as bluebottles on the lips of starveling."