When it comes to games, I am a sucker for two things: a good story, and random easter eggs. The latter—not to be confused with those hidden around a garden during holy week—are known in gaming as fun, little inside jokes or hidden features not immediately apparent to the player.
Well, well, aren’t you just a snoopy one?
After almost a year layover, the planets have finally aligned to allow for another version of these riddle sets to come out. I had originally planned for Edition 3 to come out waaaaaay back in February or March, but some ill-fated writing projects took some time (and motivation) away from typing anything longer than 280 characters, leading to a lull in the riddle-brewing section of my caffeine-addled brain.
I was also honestly at a loss. I didn’t know if there were enough “places” to make riddles about, (decent riddles at least.) After 2 editions and 1 extra-hard special edition, I thought most places with names perfect for riddle-mashing had been used. I begun to toy with the idea of a story-based click through adventure instead, but even that fell to a lack in motivation, (and ideas.)
With that falling to the wayside, I tucked the idea away in the many messy filing cabinets of my head. Every month that passed after March however, brought a slight uneasiness within. I try to keep this Cousin affair light, relaxed and non-workish in its vibe (wow great vocabulary) but I felt like this was a personal deadline I was ignoring and delaying with excuses.
Coinciding with this feeling was the fact that TOOL released their album on August 30th after 13 years! (I know, random fact. But for those who are into infinitely intricate, odd-timey loud music, I suggest you give their new album Fear Inoculum a listen.) I figured that if the band TOOL, famous for taking YEARS before releasing an album, got a record out then I HAD to get this quest thing going.
I started writing drafts for the riddles on August 31st. I first listed down all the places used for the previous 2 editions to make sure I didn’t re-do any, and I then pulled up Google Maps and procrastinated for the next few hours, eventually getting to work after praying to the heavens to grant me enough brainpower.
I came up with 12 initially over the weekend, while sneaking in additional riddle ideas while at work over the next few days. Most of them appear in this edition, but I cut a couple because I didn’t feel they fit with the rest.
On Friday, I got to loading the riddles onto the website, adding some last minute riddles to get to 20. (Question 19, with its REM references is one of them — and is also my favorite ta siyempre, REM.)
I then got in touch again with the Dev, a friend I consider my website-guru, for some guidance to make sure the website was ready for the expected influx of traffic come launch. With his words of wisdom, the site was optimized to make sure there were no instances of pages crashing. (A few reports of it happening came in during the last quest.)
This edition also features more excellent work from my friend the Minero, who, in the gap between Edition #2 and Edition #3, has been a partner-in-crime with breathing life into the long-dormant cousin instagram account. Here’s a look into one of his works that hasn’t made the IG page yet (because my brain can’t come up with a decent caption.)
And with all the artwork and riddles loaded in, all that was left to wait for was launch day: 9/7/19 at 8:00AM.
After a year, the return was complete. All that’s left to consider now is what to do for the next edition? I’ve been mulling it over, and I feel that this might be the last “place-based” theme (AS IT SHOULD.) but I’m at a loss about what other themes work — that have enough content / character to fit 20 riddles. Folks used to suggest Cordilleran dishes or famous personalities, but the pool of answers was just too limited that I felt anyone who wanted to bruteforce through it would finish in an hour. The advantage of places was that the pool of possible answers was waaaaaay larger, that bruteforcing through wouldn’t be as effective. Maybe a combination of themes? Or maybe, no riddles, and just a totally different thing with different mechanics?
And I realize I’m rambling again… I guess I should really meditate on this on my own for a bit.
Anyway, thanks for reading this backstory kabsat. If you have any bright ideas, my inbox is just a few clicks away. Apir!
See you for the next edition! (Whatever that may be!)
Cousin Quest’s riddles, photo edits, and web arrangement provided by Cousin from Baguio
Illustration provided by The Minero
Game mechanics and web support provided by The Dev