ThePancakeLady

It's not a huge cave. It's easy to miss, it is very well hidden. I don;t have a good shot of the entrance, because of that, but this is what it looks like, looking out. Great little cave to fight Cabin Fever in if you are lucky/unlucky enough to find a man-made shelter nearby, and you have good, warm clothing. You cannot build a fire in the cave with you now, I don't think. In the past you could, near the entrance, but you had to be careful where you put it. The new footprint for the campfire does not seem to allow for placement inside, at all, any longer. But it gives wind shielding almost always, even in hellacious blizzards. Nice little shelter cave, if you find it. I will have to play with campfire placement, and see if it is at all possible to set up a safe fire now, just not sure. It would suck to get blocked in here and not be able to get out. It's tiny.

Sneaking from Trapper's to Camp Office in the wee morning hours. I was happily able to avoid wolves and insomniac bears, and had a lovely hike. Yes, HD screenshots, so no HUD, but warm enough that I was only 1 arrow down, I think? Lovely way to start the day. (Just love the color palette in each of these...)

Another survivor, about to be taken. Sorry little Maple, you don't deserve it. But, there be wolves here, and you'll make a fine bow.

Any time-frame for when the much needed Pancakes are going to be added? No, really. I told you I would never let up on this. I did tell you. I know you really, really, really want to add Pancakes, if only to make me shut up about it. (I can see you shaking your head "yes yes yes..." here- to the please shut up about it idea... ) So... December? Sooner? A wee bit later? But not much later? Hope you smiled, at least a little. But realize I am sorta, kinda, a bit serious about adding Pancakes to the game. Keep smiling.

Nice. I have an older version of Photoshop. without all of the bells and whistles of the newer versions. I suppose I should use it sometime... I'll have to remember this, I love taking screenshots, and keep missing out on making .gifs of Aurora progressions, or stunning sunrises or sunsets as they are happening. And making .gifs is fun.

Gotta love a gif... curious myself, which gif making service you used. Giphy? Imgflip? Ezgif? Gimp? And , lol, how many days of waking up in the Tail section did it take to get such a wonderful display of color and weather?

Well. This escalated quickly.

Apologies if this has been asked. I did search, but did not find anything similar. But, I did search shallowly, so it may have been asked, and I may have missed it. So: Many of us believe the character Will looks like you, and may have his personality modeled after your own, loosely or not so loosely. Perhaps this is true, perhaps not. We gamers tend to assume a lot of things without knowing the full story. So, can you shed a little light on the story? Are the characters in Wintermute modeled after real world people in your life, or the lives of any of the devs and writers? No need to name anyone. Just curious if the appearance, style of speech, and personalities are based on real people, completely fictional creations, or a bit of both.

It always does. Still shots don't capture the sound and the subtle movements that happen, that can affect our reactions, our mood, and our decisions. Still, a really lovely capture.

You take a curing animal hide, wait for it to get to 98-99% cured, and then hold it against a surface. Yes, fan blade count as a surface, lol! Then you sit there and hold it in place until it cures completely. And they stick. It was all covered here:

Just use this video as the title...

The Owls are not what they seem. So... what exactly are they? We need to know. Because... secrets are dangerous things.

Watching my Twitter feed, seeing some of the tabletop game Cons going on this year made me wonder... has any thought been given to developing a tabletop board game version of The Long Dark? Similar to how NDemic made a tabletop board game version of Plague Inc? I have thoughts on the idea, that I won't go into here. But, any consideration of it, and how it could act as a "test" for ideas, for a possible future Multiplayer digital version of the game?

Like many others here, I can't pick just one thing. Without the wonderful mix of things that makes this game, it would not be as enjoyable, and addicting, as it is. *Like Pancakes without Real Maple Syrup* So: The solitude. The amazingly beautiful art. The incredible audio, (ambient/music/all of it). The fact this game forces me to slow down, and think about what I am doing, but still lets me play in a spontaneous way. (Not many games can do both at once, and do it well...) The community. (I have stopped playing a number of games on Steam, not because the games were bad, but the community was so toxic, the sniping, flaming, and f-bomb throwing made me not want to have anything to do with any of it. Which is sad, the games were good, The people playing them made me leave, not the game or devs.) The fact that the game is slightly different each time. Not completely. But just enough to make each run unique for me. The only thing that would make it better would b actual Pancakes with Real Maple Syrup in-game. So my survivor can eat the same thing I am. *ahem @Raphael van Lierop ahem cough cough*

I think most Indie devs, whose game gets big, have that "OMG, I can't believe my game got so big, so fast!" thought. Probably pretty often, after it gets big and the small team tries to keep up with production demands. That said, I would be interesting in knowing how you first envisioned the game size-wise, when your decided on the basic concept, and decided to give it a go, making it real. Did you expect it to stay small, just the original region, much smaller episodes for the story mode, much shorter playtime for most owners? I know you did not originally develop the sandbox (now called Survival) mode to be a separate game mode, that it grew a fan following, and developed its own cult. Did you ever think your studio's first game would grow as much as it has? TL;DR- did you think it would stay small, and generate just enough money to expand the studio a little, and buy new equipment, to make the next game?

Everyone who plays this game has their idea of what is necessary, and what is not. For some that may change depending on Survival Experience Mode or Wintermute Survivor level. I know you play, and the team plays. I am interested in what 5 items you, and possibly a poll of your team, consider to be impossible to live without, regardless of game mode or experience mode. What 5 things *must* you have to be able to stay alive, in your game? Your opinion, of course. Other peoples' mileage may vary. Widely. (Just to clarify... "things" like "food, water, shelter..." are not what i am interested in., "Items" like matches, hatchet, knife, bow, etc. are what I am thinking of. Just trying to pick into your head a bit Raph. Because how a developer sees their game and the vision that created it, are often different than how a player may see it. And to me, knowing how you play your game may help me understand your game better.)

Okay. Your favorite author/writer of all time. No reason why is needed, just interested in who you have taken the most away from over the years. And fine, since picking just one is tough, you can list 2.

Haven't been able to sit and play at my desk for a little while (long story, some folks know it from Twitter...) Anyhow, fired the game up on Steam, for the first time in weeks, deleted old saves because I have no clue what I was planning to do in them. Chose a random spawn in Stalker, praying RNJesus would not punch me in the face with FM. He was kind. DP. My favorite map, even if there are no cooking pots to be found *grumble grumble*. I also ran from Katie's to the Lighthouse via the ice road, avoiding wolves up along the paved road. RNJesus was kind, again, and gave me nice weather to choose my climb up the back way. First night- a gift of an Aurora. The Lighthouse, and I decided to bunk there the first night. Yay! A Buffer Memory before bed. I think this is going to be a good run.

Interesting to see The Think And Space Odyssey both mentioned often in various Hinterland staffers Twitter feeds and other social media accounts. But yeah, the mashed potatoes sculpture of Devil's tower too... would not shock me that that movie influenced some of the team at Hinterland as well. I have never been able to eat mashed potatoes without thinking of that scene, since first seeing the movie, all those years ago. My parents used to hate my brother, sister and I using peas as boulders and sliced carrots as slabs or rock, rolled off our buttes, by sudden downpours of gravy. xD So... the Mysterious Signal Fire.. the Aurora, Monolith Lake... this means something? And sorry, I'll get back to screenshots instead of movie clips. Soon™. Maybe™.

You mean this one, perhaps?

Niiiiiiiiiice...

@Messyjesse81 - if you are copy pasting into the text area, you need to "paste as plain text" instead of just clicking "paste". That will show the font in default size and color for the forum here. Wouldn't worry about it for the last post, since we all can highlight the text and see it just fine.

Sorry if this has been asked, the Question Thread is getting long, and more difficult to search. But... I know some of the movies, books and games you have mentioned on your Twitter feed, that have had influence on the game in concept, and development. But I was wondering if there were any specific real world locations, besides Vancouver Island, that you thought of, looked at, visited and possibly modeled some of the game world around? The details in some of the larger structures, like Hibernia, Carter Hydro, the Lighthouse, the Hunting Lodge... are any of them modeled after real world locations in Canada, or are they a mash-up of many locations from photos and online research?

Nice... !