References and Easter Eggs in the game. #1

For a long time I wanted to write on this topic. Perhaps you will be interested to know all sorts of interesting facts about the game's References and Easter Eggs. At the same time you can check how many of them you managed to notice.

I'm a big fan of pop culture, I've watched a lot of movies, anime and other stuff.... so it's no surprise that the game has a lot of references to all sorts of famous works.

To be honest, I almost never make any references on purpose, it just happens on its own. Just the right phrase or situation pops up at the right moment and, voila..... it's in the game. Sometimes I don't even notice how it happens, and I only realize it when I reread the text or replay a scene later.

Of course, I try not to make too explicit references, so that it doesn't get out of the overall narrative and spoil the atmosphere of the game. I would like every reference you find to be a joy and make you smile.

If you've played the latest version of the game, there should be no spoilers here. I will also avoid some references that may hint at further events and some plot twists.

I'll be describing 2-3 Easter eggs per post until they're done. (It'll take forever!) So, here we go... the first two.

You might be surprised, but the first one greets you as soon as you launch the game. Yep, it's that black screen with little white letters proclaiming A SKOEGUL GAME.

I needed some sort of opening splash screen, because it's kind of not cool without it, right? Or some badass logo... But as you may have noticed from my interfaces, I'm a so-so designer. I tried several options, but I didn't like any of them. So I decided that I needed to learn from the best of the best and adopt their experience. And who is the best of the best? Can you guess?

Of course! The genius Kojima! I looked at the opening splash screens in his games (Death Stranding was the first one I thought of) and did something similar. If it works for him, it works for me!

To be honest, I didn't really like the game (Death Stranding), I didn't even play it, just listened to the streams in the background while I was working on Dying Dream. But I just love the MGS series of games and I'm looking forward to the Snake Eater remake, which is about to be released. If by some miracle these games have passed you by, you absolutely must play them! Mhmm... So many good memories. Snake! Snake! Snaaaake!!! Revolver Ocelot... and all that...

Anyway, I thought, if I make a bad game, at least I'd have a genius splash screen.

The second easter egg... You don't have to go far for it. It's a cough you can hear during the splash screen. The thing is, I started working on the game back in 2019, right when you-know... Covid19 Pandemic.

You could say the pandemic even helped me in a way to start working on the game. I couldn't go anywhere and I had nothing to do, I just sat at home. So I wrote the first texts and made the first scenes.

Those were hard times. Humor is great for dealing with stress or fear. My wish is that you don't have any difficulties in your life. And if they do... Meet them with a smile, don't be discouraged and never give up.

Now you know where that coughing laugh came from... and we haven't even gotten to the main menu yet! Do you think there's an Easter Egg there, too?

Well, I'll tell you about that next time...

Who else is waiting for the Snake Eater remake?