Prospero - Database: Episode 3

[Omnomnick]

We're heading back in time further than we've ever gone before for Episode 3 of ValveTime Database, as we use never-before-seen screenshots and insight from Valve employees to take an in-depth look at Valve's first cancelled title, the fabled "Prospero".

If you're looking to check out the Prospero screenshots for yourself, check out the album at the bottom of this post. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and to check out previous episodes of ValveTime Database! Thanks for watching!

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[kanaka]

Amazing find!

 

[Sidedraft]

Amazing, I love that the episode is on a little known subject.

 

[Adul]

Episode 3?

(Sorry, I just had to).

 

[Spiderm4N]

Nice to know more info about this

 

[bluechirri]

This was a really interesting watch, Valve's cancelled projects are lots of fun to explore.

I think another shot at Prospero might be worth it if only because Valve's never really done a game with a focus on exploration, though - sure, most of Prospero's concepts were used in later titles and projects, but the core gameplay element of visiting and exploring different worlds is something that would still be pretty unique to Valve. Most of their titles are fairly linear in design - there are some branching paths in L4D and a handful of wider exploration sequences in Portal and some of the Half Life games, but for the most part, Valve's level design follows a single winding path from beginning to end. A game of theirs that has players simply exploring more open-world level design would be an interesting title. And I'm sure they could come up with enough ideas to replace what Prospero gave up to other titles - hell, maybe they could even go full circle and rework shit from F-STOP or Episode 3 or Stars of Blood into the game.

Speaking of which, a Database episode on F-STOP or SOB would be neat.

 

[Wheaties-Of-Doom]

I think another shot at Prospero might be worth it if only because Valve's never really done a game with a focus on exploration, though

I'd love to see an exploration based game using the Oculus Rift / VR technologies.

Speaking of which, a Database episode on F-STOP or SOB would be neat.

Yes, please.

 

[-smash-]

There's not enough information to draw on to do a feature on F-STOP or SOB.

 

[Zim the Fox]

Very interesting video! Thanks! I want to correct a couple of things, and offer some more research material. First, the suggestion:

http://hyperdiscordia.crywalt.com/library_of_babel.html
La Libreria de Babel, The Library of Babel, is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. It seems very likely there is a connection between this story and the library from Prospero. In fact, they are almost the same concept.

Now, going into the corrections. Aleph is pronounced with a short a, like that of "lap". No, I am not being pedantic It is a Hebrew letter. Second, you said that aleph numbers represent infinite sets that aren't really infinite, or something like that. Let me explain what aleph numbers truly are. Let us talk first about cardinality. The size of sets. The cardinality of the set of the fingers in my hands is 10. We can talk about infinite sets, too. If you start counting from one, and keep counting by adding one each step of the way, you will never finish counting. This is the natural numbers set and it is infinite. Aleph numbers are the cardinality of infinite sets, and the cardinality of the natural numbers is aleph null. However, there are infinite sets that are "bigger". These sets are just as infinite as the natural numbers. They are truly infinite. However, you can't assign one natural number to each element of the "bigger" sets; you can't count them.

Imagine I have an infinite set of apples. I could count them. I would never finish counting them, but I could assign, in theory, one number to each apple. The set of infinite apples would have a cardinality of aleph null. There are sets, however, like the set of the real numbers, that can not be counted. These sets have cardinalities like aleph one, or two, or three...

 

[Mididda]

Aaah, I'm back ^ w ^ Anyway, I LOVED this episode more than the Green Flu one. It's so amazing that Mr. Laidlaw shared with you some info about Prospero, also the fact that we could see some of almost never before seen pics of it... wow.
As some suggestions for a next episode of Database, I propose some topics like :
- As requested by one of the youtube commenters, Combine Technology, Synths, buildngs and etc., discussion. That a really great idea
- Seven Hour War and the changes between HL1 and HL2 and its episodes ( How many changes did Combine really implemented in our day-to-day lifes, but I've noticed that no one really talked about that :/ )
- TF2 themed Database episode ? Awesoome ! You could take your spin on the Pyro's gender theory
- How many years have passed since Portal 1, in Portal 2 ? I've made some research, there's actually more clues than you think ( Skeletons, plants, AI becoming more inteligent and more )

 

[Omnomnick]

Glad to hear you guys enjoyed the episode.

 

[Codee212]

My favourite episode in the series so far. It was awesome to see the screenshots.

 

[Sidedraft]

Yeah I like the idea of F-stop or SOB, assuming there is enough information out there.
Not to take anything away from making episodes about valve's well known games, but sometimes I feel like if the people enjoy valve enough to join a whole fan forum about valve, they probably already know a lot about Valve's main games.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do main games.
Sigh......It...shames me to say this....since I'm not a dota fan but..............................Releasing a dota themed episode would really work well alongside the international compendium. *sigh*

Here's a little thought experiment... Can one realistically do a database episode if a game has little to no lore/story?
Like DoD / CS ?

 

[Omnomnick]

Here's a little thought experiment... Can one realistically do a database episode if a game has little to no lore/story?
Like DoD / CS ?

In theory, yes. But that doesn't mean we'll actually do it when we have so many other juicy topics to explore.

 

[Lolcomputer]

I really appreciate the effort you guys put into the new series. The infomation that you have dug up so far, is just fascinating.

 

[ktimekiller]

would watch more of these kind of stuff