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I hope that ending wasn't cut - I played pre-relase version and really liked how heartwarming this ending was.
It's funny with Susan's breakdown - I wanted to swich from speakers to headsed half-way through this chapter and the game crashed when I tried to minimalize it. Playing that chapter again I knew what to avoid and saved Susan from having a breakdown.

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[- Refuse to follow Queen of Maggot's orders,]

Hmm, on other choices... I did this:

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- Refuse to follow Queen of Maggot's orders,
//I decided to follow her orders.
- Kill X and free the girl, -- (was there OTHER option??)
//You can find a key in dead nurse's pocket and Susan muses she can leave now and forget about everything that happened. I decided to follow Queen's orders, so I killed X.
- Solve doll-guardians puzzle and get the "prize"
//I did the same and Crow gave me a mocking speech.

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So one more thing I did differently. Of all those, maybe it's the

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breakdown

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that triggers the best ending?

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at the end of your Mitzi remains alive and does not die from cancer?
in all of my endings
only change in Susan words  on a black background.
wants to find the hidden end: D

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Yes, and that was the first ending I've seen (doing things I'd do or say in real life or closest to whad I'd do) so I don't think it was that secret : )

Choices I can remember:

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- Dead father, good mother in conversation with X,
- Kill X and free the girl,
- Susan doesn't have a breakdown after conversation with Bryan,
- Refuse to strangle Ivy,
- Give Mitzi the gas mask,
- Refuse to blow a candle,
- Convince Mitzi to let Adan live.

Choices I know to be significant:
- Keep the mask for yourself - Mitzi suffocates.
- Blow a candle - Mitzi dies of her cancer.
- Let Mitzi kill Adam - Mitzi dies when the room explodes.

At my ending Susan meets Mitzi at the cementary gate and they leave together.

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Hmm, that was the first option I chose and yet it was like the others. Perhaps there are some other requirements?..

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- Give Mitzi the gas mask,
- Refuse to blow a candle,
- Convince Mitzi to let Adam live.

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With those choices I got the best ending. Maybe there was something earlier?

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5. In the end Queen tells Susan to blow one of the candles. I can choose any or refuse. I tried all options, and the ending still seem the same (depends on the use of gas mask and your actions in Adam's room).

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If you choose to blow the candle, Mitzi dies of her cancer. If you refuse, she gets better and gives you the best ending I've found so far

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Grim, you may want to read this:
http://www.cdaction.pl/news-30021/the-cat-lady-polak-tworca-ciekawego-indyka-dla-doroslych.html
Even here you get some recognition : )

Argh, the

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info kiosk riddles

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. Ingenious but hard as hell.

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Thank God- I thought I went a bit too far with that... Then again, this game can't be all dark and gloomy; it needed some funny moments too!:)

Just perfectly fit my sense of humor. And it's totally optional, so if anybody doesn't like it he's free to skip that part.

I'm glad the Maniac Mansion reference didn't go unnoticed. The whole setup of the ground floor in Pest's house is one big tribute to MM. Just thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like in a serious game... and David Firth gave a fantastic performance as both Pest Control Man and his wife, his creepy voice out of hell giving those two very unique personality. It took me weeks to persuade him, even though he initially said "yeah, I'll do it" it took a while to record his lines. He did keep his word in the end and I love that guy. If you are not familiar with his work, look up his stuff on You Tube!

It's hard not to notice, especially after the initial sequence with lights going on in the building : )
And the characters are greatly written and performed - I physically coundn't stop playing before both of them went down.


And for the record, I've never played Sanitarium or Planescape, so if there are any similarities they are most accidental!:)

If you are on GOG I'll gladly gift you one of those as a big thank you. They're really worth playing and in many ways they are similar to both Downfall and The Cat Lady (Sanitarium is about a man who has to relive his personal traumas in "another dimensions", where each dimension symbolises different trauma) and Planescape does something very similar to what you did with immortality and resurrection. But most importantly it's great narratively.

haha That's cool that someone actually listened to my ramblings- I probably said that in one of my interviews;) Coffee and cigarettes have been my fuel for many years now. Now that I've finished the game maybe it's time to finally give up smoking?... Then again... I probably enjoy it too much;)

Hey! And what about next game? : )
I know what you mean - cigs and coffee really keep me going in my idiotic corporate job.


I thought it was extremely difficult NOT to fail this one!- I'm very surprised you actually got the good outcome in chapter 3! Well done you for not following the top-of-the-screen clues that were meant to lead you into a bad ending (so basically, to succeed you needed to disregard your objectives and do things in a bit of a different order). Just for the record- Susan did not break the mirror and cry herself to sleep at the end? Right?

Well, unwillingly I kind of cheated ther. Halfway throught the chapter I had a technical problems with my computer and had to play the chapter all over again. That allowed me to skip the part with light going out and I was able to make my meal instead of burning it.
At the end Susan peacefuly went to bed.

Totally run out of time on this one. I did plan a backstory, and it would've been a great one... but the game was already 1GB in size and- lucky as I was to be able to cram most of ideas I wanted into it- I decided to cut this one short. I call this character a Carpenter. He was indeed not much than a plot device... but at least his death is quite a satisfying one (if there is such thing as a satisfying death!... )

Maybe that backstory and the character himself can be used in another project? : )
His death reminded me of one of King's shortstories... one about a killer hired to kill a cat.

I guess it's left open to players' own interpretation. The way I see it, the Parasites represent all the evil of this world, all that has bothered Susan for many, many years, but in a physical form. It's not as much about a parasitic behaviour- feeding off her or others, as really about how Susan perceives other people- ugly, trecherous, back-stabbing and cruel. When you assume The Queen Of Maggots's role in the game is to personalize her depression, everything she says takes on a different meaning. She tricks Susan into thinking that she is her only friend and only she knows how Susan feels, because she watched it for years... and in a way it's all true- every single word she says- because she is a part of her. The part that is ill.

The Parasites create a challenge for Susan. They are the obstacle on her way to freeing herself and finding a way to rebuild her life, but in the same time, at the cost of destroying that obstacle she would have to destroy herself... and that's what her illness wants her to do.

...but finally passing those challenges makes Susan stronger and able to defeat Queen - not a a smart move by Queen (BTW, one of the reasons I replayed Downfall was to check if she was the same character Agnes encounters in her dream. I guess she's not - is there any connection between those two?)
And once more - it strongly reminds me of Planescape ; )


The game would then take me another 3 years to make!:) and as it is already, it's pretty much 8 hours or over in lenght (which I believe is rather decent)!:)

OK : ) Just thought there is some deeper meaning behind it : ) Maybe a still - opened portal would be good (at least in Pest Control part) to justify Susan's returns? And the portal may remain opened as Susan at the edge of death all the time.

It takes place shortly before Downfall, in which the police discover the floor was boarded up by Joe- and as it looks suspicious they decide to dig it up. All this happens before Joe goes completely mental and murders some folks at 12 Helen Rd... The strange encounter with Joe in TCL does not actually take place. Well, it does, but only in Susan's imagination;)


Hell, I went too far with that, imagining that Billy was another of Joe's creations (his guilt and desire for punishment maybe) and the final scene of Downfall wasn't real as well.
There isn't enough time between Billy's discovery and Joe's final breakdown for the whole story of the Cat Lady.

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an Urpney: As in, an actual human baby -- or your brother's/sister's new game? Just asking, 'cause yesterday I got asked "How's the proud father?"

It's a human (well, I hope human) baby : )Game still in pre-planing. Certainly will check your baby first.

Goldmund: Ale to juz bylo - i nie wroci wiecej... Ilu wlasciwie nas jest? Doliczylem sie 4: Ty, Ascovel, KiriHara i ja. Ale to i tak wiecej, niz dziewczyn. Oczywiscie niby 1 na 10 osób w necie to dziewczyna - ale 9 na 10 tych dziewczyn to faceci udajacy dziewczyny

MeldujÄ™ siÄ™.

The game looks interesting and I'll have to try it out. That is, when I'm done with everything surrounding my nephew birth today : )

Have you played Maniac Mansion? : )

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You need his mobile phone from the van and their landline number. When you have both, go to the dining room, call their landline number and hide under the table

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but I had one question.

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in Chapter 3, the moment where you have to feed the cats.the first time I took the food in advance and everything was okay.
when I was playing for the second time, I went for a cat food, when the cats were in the house.
But Susan, is not allowed in the kitchen.
this is another quest, or a bug?

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Seems it's a bug - I reproduced it myself and couldn't find any way around for some time. Easy to miss by the testers as adventure gamers are mostly serious cases of compulsive hoarding.

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I love the freedom to choose different actions!!)

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But it's a pity that at the end of the game it has little effect.

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True, and brings another thing I wonder about - why does Susan in two instances (Joe's flat and the ending where she takes the gasmask) spontaneously falls into the Dark World without dying?

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p.p.s. 

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Giant Zombie Cat-I laughed to tears.wonderful humor!!))

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At last I can fully express how much I enjoyed the game and loved (almost) every little bit of it. I think the best recommendation is this: The Cat Lady managed to give me a nightmare. The actual “plot” of that dream had very little to do with the game itself (it was about a plague and dying people â€" much more like King’s Bastion) but I had it the night I finished the game and I remember a scene with text floating in the air, much like in

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one of Susan’s memories

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.
Most of what I want to say would probably contain heavy spoiler, so I’ll hide it ; )

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What I loved:
- Most notably of all â€" port sequence. It was dark, it was stylish and it had one of most creative puzzles I’ve seen in any adventure game (the padlock code puzzle).
- My second favorite part was the tale about the Cat Widow. I laughed out loud â€" at ~1 AM â€" when Giant Zombie Cat appeared on screen.
- All little (and bigger) references â€" to Maniac Mansion, Dark Seed, Planescape: Torment, Sanitarium (still can’t decide if the monster behind the mirror is more Dark Seed or Sanitarium â€" I think I’ve seen something just like this in Cyclops chapter), Stephen King and probably many more I can’t remember now).
- To my own surprise I liked Susan. I thought I wouldn’t after her initial “quiet surrender” speech to X (people like this tend to annoy me in real life, especially when they fight like lions to defend their point of view) but her bitterness, misanthropy and sarcasm made me like her and care for her… and then I had to tell her to shot herself… and then I couldn’t stop playing before Edna and Weird Ed died in pain… then I missed my bus).
- Art style is simply amazing. Anything more realistic would hurt the story.
- The cats and how tastefully they are treated in this game â€" if something bad happens to them, it’s hinted and rarely showed (and even if â€" it was still as tasteful as it could be). And my character is never responsible for it. I know it was necessary in Downfall and was justified by Joe’s past experience, but for the whole game I was afraid I’ll have to do something similar.
- Coffe’n’Cigarette interface (although many cigs burned themselves on the ashtray and many cups of coffee went cold as I forgot about them).

What I didn’t love so much:
- Micromanagement part when Susan returns from the hospital. That’s the only part I didn’t enjoy that much â€" must try to fail in on my next playthrough.
- The florist. Of all characters he was the only one I felt was a plot device rather than a real character. He appears out of the blue, motivates Susan to tell the final piece of her story and dies without much effort. Some back-story for him would be nice.

What I still wonder about:
- Parasites. Why are they parasites? Those we met were more like predators. Of all characters those with really parasitic nature were Adam feeding on other’s life as he didn’t have his own, Lady of Maggots feeding on Susan and Susan (unwillingly) consuming lives to sustain herself.
Why were those Parasites important in grand scheme of things?
Why did Lady of Maggots want them dead and why did she want Susan to do it? If Lady of Maggots was what I think she was, she would want to keep Susan apathetic and resigned, and yet she forces her to take action and makes her practically unable to fail.
- Immortality. Why does some death take Susan to the Dark World (X, Florist, Adam’s gas) and some not (most notably Pest Control part)?
- Does The Cat Lady take place after Downfall? If so, why does nobody know about murders committed in this building (hole in the floor suggests it’s the same building)?
(BTW, I replayed Downfall after finishing The Cat Lady (v 2.0 from Gamersgate) and found a gamebreaker â€" in PASSION + SURRENDER ending, when Joe asks Ivy for help, game crashes to desktop with a message that variable “Sex with rec” is missing â€" can send a savegame if needed). A minor one - I can still open the secret room with manequin's left arm missing.

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Anyways, this was a great experience and no game since Planescape: Torment gave me so much sleep deprivation.
Thanks!

End credits just rolled through my screen and it was great couple of days. Certainly will take this road several more times just to take different paths.
Actually I'm dying to discuss the game but I think it'd be better if I remain silent ultil the game is officially out.
For now, I'll just say:

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GIANT ZOMBIE CAT!!1

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And now I just need to sleep with it.

Started chapter 5 just before I had to go to work. One minor VO bug reported to Mark.
The game is getting better and better (only one slightly annoying part thus far - I'd tell what it was but I don't want to reveal any plot points before the game is officially out).

Almost get late for work today because of this game and passing by a cementary at 5 AM was far less plesant than usually. I had to force myself to stop playing just after chapter 1. The game is amazing.

Shame I already had most of them...

[Launch trailer here!]

This:

Launch trailer here!

+this:

It's up for pre-order on GOG   
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/primordia

=
SOLD!

Blackwell episode by Grim?

If anybody's up for pure gore, Bloodsucking Freaks from Troma might do.