Was Horatio made humanoid for players to emphasis and/or relate better with? He's in fact an homage to PS:T's Morte, with a bunch of other sidekicks baked in (Orko and Zyzyx are two I commonly mention). But because the basic setting was something Vic came up with (and it has BASS vibes) and because the art is so reminiscent, everyone assumes that Crispin is a Joey homage. BASS was a strong inspiration for Vic, but not a significant inspiration for me in writing the characters or coming up with the story. Whether subconsciously or coincidentally, it turns out that the description of Crispin's original design corresponds with the initial body that Joey (the sarcastic robot sidekick) has in Beneath a Steel Sky. The "original design" that you find in-game was my effort to give him the kind of things that a boy would think are cool on a robot (claws and tank treads) in keeping with Crispin's childishness and his sense of having been robbed of a fun body. (The original design for Horatio was floating, too, then rolling, before I browbeat the artist (Victor Pflug) into giving me an android.) Floating robots (followed by rolling robots) were hugely easier to animate than walking robots, which is one reason why Crispin floats. (That said, the kenning "whale road" is even cooler.) I always liked the idea of thinking of a natural domain as a "road" to be crossed by things. I was partly drawing upon the old English kenning "sea road" (used in Beowulf), which meant a particular route to cross the ocean. But at least for me, "pav sky roads" meant, more or less, developing aerial travel. In terms of what "sky roads" means in game - I try not to insist upon my vision of the lore, since I think players have the right to read into the game what they want. All were games I liked when growing up (particularly Skyroads, which is nearly perfect for what it is). The references to Colossal Cave, Mystic Towers, and Skyroads are deliberate. It seems Skyroads and Mystic Towers are also game titles, but I don't know if they're being deliberately referenced there. Just noticed the 'Colossal Cave' in the Book of Man. (It does look a lot like Balrog from Cave Story!) The mailbot is a reference to an adventure game that Primordia's artist liked called Annie Android. The Final Fantasy II reference is a great catch, one I've been waiting for someone to get.
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