Here’s a fun project I thought some of you would appreciate. It’s a randomised video for The Harbingers, using all the available footage of that instance of The Gatekeeper. (By that I mean the original video and the two booster tapes. I haven’t included anything from The third dimension yet and I’m not sure whether or not to do it).
TL;DR: You can download it and play the files like any DVD, I’d appreciate some feedback since I’ll be updating better versions of it.
It’s a rough version made with rudimentary software, but right now it’s already playable. The video itself is divided in five sections; every time one of them ends, the next one is chosen randomly, making a unique video every time. Pretty much like the DVD release, but with the original Gatekeeper we all know and love. It can currently produce 216 different combinations and I’m planning to bring it to about 2000.
Given the scale of the project (I’ve already edited almost a Snyder Cut’s worth of footage) it probably has some errors scattered through it. Yes, there’s some inevitable stuff, like clouds fading into others because of the transitioning between takes or the clock appearing to project a shadow over the plate at times (that’s because I had to replace it when I resized the videos to fit a modern widescreen ratio). The top of The Gatekeeper’s hood also appears near the top of the frame sometimes if you look close enough. I am aware of all those flaws and I don’t plan to fix them, since 1) They are caused by the limitations I’m working with and 2) They don’t affect the gameplay or the immersion too much.
Instead, what I’d like you to look for are fatal mistakes like the wrong track playing while The Gatekeeper talks, the Black Hole appearing for no reason, failing to appear or clipping with the timer; or the timer disappearing, as well as problems with the randomisation or compatibility issues. You can also comment on stuff you'd like to see included or refute me if you believe that any of the minor flaws I've mentioned actually ruin the game for you.
Here's a complete list of the changes made to the original video in this version, with the reasoning behind every decision.
• The videos have been upscaled using an AI and resized to a 16:9 aspect ratio. The Gatekeeper is supposed to be a dominating presence and, as such, he should be filling the frame as much as possible. The timer has also been replaced so its size and position are consistent.
• The Instructions video, other than some colour correction, has been left as is. This is because it's not as abstract and simple as the game video and thus resizing it from 4:3 to 16:9 would result in either stretching or leaving some of it out of frame, two equally unacceptable options.
• A menu has been added at the beginning, with a background consisting of the eyes in the cover morphing to follow the eye movements seen in The third dimension. This is the only footage from The third dimension I have used as of now.
• Some of the music has been switched around or replaced in order to improve poor audio quality and/or help the merging of takes. The music also fades out briefly at the end of each of the five fragments to make the switch as seamless as possible.
• All the interventions have been included in their original form. However, when duplicating some of them to allow for the randomisation, multiple instances of the same intervention have been altered to add even more variation. (As an example: "Where is the chosen one? Heads up! Long time no see. Did you miss me? Shut up. So tell me, chosen one..." has a version of it that is just "Where is the chosen one? Heads up! So tell me, chosen one...". This helps with the illusion that The Gatekeeper is a conscious being and, as such, can chose to deliver a line in different ways; it also makes it more fun and unexpected when the original line appears.
• Other minor touch-ups needed to make the project cohesive and as refined as possible.
Also, in future versions I'm planning to include:
• Higher quality versions of the videos (I'd like them to reach FullHD 1920x1080, but the results I got with the AI weren't perfect, especially with the lower quality takes of the booster tapes).
• A "Hey, I won!" button that ends the game and shows a clip of The Gatekeeper wailing and calling you names. I'll probably use the lines from The Third dimension, but I can't seem to find them on the CD. Also, they are quite short, so maybe we can come up with creative ways to stitch them together?
• You shouldn’t be able to pause or skip through the pieces of video. The only way to stop the game should be by winning it or losing miserably like a bunch of idiots. I’m still figuring that one out, but I’ll get to it. I guess it’s useful for now, since you’ll probably need to pause it when you find a glitch to write down the timecode and a description of what’s going on.
• Some easter eggs that pop up once every x games. I've thought: when The Gatekeeper says "...is never going to make it, for they are now SOUL RANGERS" the industrial sounds of Surgery is open could appear for a moment in the soundtrack; some interventions from the original Nightmare game could be included, I'm thinking the staring contest could be a good one if I figure out how to make the original Gatekeeper look more like his aged-up version (maybe I'll look into deepfaking the older face onto the original performance? Idk); the Nightmare bus line could replace the "One minute, maggots", along with the original music making a cameo as well. Again, none of these would be in every game, you'd have to play several times to get them. It's all about adding variation.
And, as mentioned, moar combinations!
I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to lay it all out in detail. Feel free to comment on it, give suggestions or say anything you want, I'd really appreciate the help!
You can download the files from BitTorrent. In theory, any DVD player should be able to play them, but I haven't tested it. VLC plays the folder just fine, as does Window's video player.