When I began developing the third chapter of Stellar Mess, I wanna do it in a different location than the one I used for the first and second chapters. Anyone following the story will know that, although Diego and company have found the princess (her coordinates), they have not yet rescued her and therefore remain in the same city where it all began.
Speaking of “the city where it all began,” I'll take the liberty of assuming that the reader remembers the first text of the first chapter, which indicated that these events take place in 1991 somewhere in Patagonia, Argentina. Well, for those who haven't yet put two and two together, that “place in Patagonia, Argentina” is based on my hometown, so you can imagine that I know its geographical layout very well.
Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut, Argentina) is divided by important geographical features, including Cerro Chenque (which means “cemetery” or “grave” in the Tehuelche language of the original inhabitants), which splits the city into two areas, north and south, with the southern area being the setting for the first two chapters.
Analyzing this and considering the amount of liberties I took when designing the map of the southern part of the city, I decided to move the third and final chapter to the northern part, also modifying it just enough to enhance the game's narrative.
Once I had decided this, the writing progressed steadily until I realized that I needed a starting point that would also serve as a connection between both parts of the city. Focusing my mind on how things looked here in 1991, I decided that this point would be a certain monument featuring a truck from a well-known oil company in the area after a serious traffic accident (completely wrecked). The monument was placed there in 1961 by the city's Rotary Club affiliate to raise awareness among drivers about the dangers of traffic accidents in that section of the road.
Everything seemed to be taking shape, but another problem arose, a doubt in fact, about the color of the truck. The (extremely scarce) photographic record of it only showed the last iterations it had gone through (white and yellow) until its removal after a large landslide in 2003 that took part of the road and ended up ruining the monument (even more).
As I usually do when something like this happens, I turned to my friends to only to realize that we couldn't agree among ourselves either. After some discussion on the matter, an idea struck me...
Noting that some of us remembered it as green, red, yellow, white, or even sometimes more than one color, and considering that this change occurred very often (perhaps to justify some expense that exceeded the city's budget), I decided that every time our characters go to this place, the truck will be painted a random color taken from among the colors mentioned above.
Anyway,
If you've made it this far, I imagine you're wondering why I'm telling you all these details, and the answer is because I not only want to leave a record of how important this game is to me on a personal and nostalgic level, but also because I want to share the way in which I have made some decisions that, when playing the video game, may not be entirely clear to those who did not live in Comodoro Rivadavia in said years.
I hope you enjoyed this possibly unnecessary information😝
Til next post!
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