Prominence: Trivia

Prominence
a science-fiction adventure game

Fun facts about Prominence.

Early in the game, A.N.N.I.E. repeats a line about a hat with varying emphasis, a callback to the Prominence Prologue chapter: Inflection. Kevin wrote the scene while studying linguistics and Mike liked it so much he put it into the script for A.N.N.I.E. as an unintended announcement while she’s damaged.

The signal received in Communications is an actual Morse code message. It was included as a nod to Mike’s brother who is a longtime ham radio operator.

After the soundtrack was released, the song “Pel Koloro” had a viral moment in Asia and received almost 200,000 plays.

On Earth, the energy wave from the star would likely be classified as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). We didn’t think that would make a very good name for a game, though. At one point, we considered naming the ship Prominence and referring to the solar emissions as “energy wave” or “solar anomaly”.

In Thor: Ragnarok, if you thought the “Welcome, strongest Avenger!” Quinjet’s computer voice sounded familiar, it was indeed played by Stephanie Riggio, the voice of A.N.N.I.E.

Speaking of A.N.N.I.E., the original puzzle in her room was a cross between a telephone switchboard and a massive modular synthesizer. Beta testers noped out of it almost immediately.

The log entry in Medical reveals Zemith's ID number to be 58426 and mentions his condition as having abdominal pains after eating in the cafeteria. On a U.S. telephone keypad his ID number also translates to LV-426, the planet in Alien where a facehugger alien attacks a member of the crew, causing an alien to burst from of his abdomen later in a horrific cafeteria scene.

There were plans for a more complex Waste Processing puzzle, as seen in this mock-up. Placeholder art from the game is full of silly labels.

In the opening of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Tom Cruise's character is handcuffed in a diner and a corrupt sheriff threatens him. That sheriff is played by Jason Douglas, the voice behind Captain ren Keterek. He also played Tobin in The Walking Dead, and gave voice to Beerus in Dragon Ball Super, Krieg in Borderlands 2 & 3, and a staggering number of anime roles.

Dan Nachtrab had a small role as Harije, but has since gone on to voice nearly 700(!) documentaries and TV shows for Discovery, National Geographic, and PBS—winning 2 Emmy Awards along the way.

In the Storage Room on L3, there's a bin on the upper shelf that can be examined. Inside are various bits of junk and metal parts and white can that resembles a can of spray paint labelled '225'. This was originally part of the vent puzzle in Medical, and it had a silly label that wouldn't be readable but had to look convincing. Once the vent puzzle changed, the can of Nanomarker Dye was no longer needed, but the "We dye so you don't have to" bit got repurposed in the tagline for Seismo-Blast.

The Storage room on L2 where the player drops in from the ceiling was originally going to be a restroom. But having mirrors would mean treating the player like a vampire (i.e. no reflection) or having to build and rig a character for their identity. At the time (~2007) it would be a hefty resource sink so we changed it to a storage room.

At one point, there was going to be a puzzle that used two lenses, a magazine, and a rubber bands to make a lo-fi telescope. It was going to be used to look across Waste Processing in order to read a number on a sign or display. Along the way, the magazine cover had become a memorial wall for several other ideas we liked but were ultimately changed. So when the magazine was cut from the game, it took the whole lot of references with it.

All of our Beta Testers are listed in the end game credits, but we also immortalized them in the game by dropping references to them in a few "hidden" places like this one in the Cafeteria.