Congratulations on completing the game and we welcome you to the behind the scenes! We hope you had at least as much fun playing this game as we had making it!
Since you are reading these lines, it must mean that you would like to hear more about what inspired us and how we came up with the puzzles and the story for this game. We hope that you have already played through the whole game, because what follows will be filled with spoilers. So please, play it first, before you read on. We’ll wait, take your time!
Ready?
Steady?
Go!
Spoilers coming!
Like with most of our games, this too started with the story and we then came up with the puzzles. We have had the amazing experience of visiting Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands and it was incomparable to anything we’ve ever seen before; we left not just in awe of the unique wildlife there and the preservation efforts thereof, but with great respect toward these isolated islanders who are doing everything in their power against global warming.
Just a couple of days into our trip we already knew that we had to preserve our memories, and share the experiences of the trip within a new game. And what better name for it than “Enchanted Islands” – which is the rightful name of these amazing islands. Apparently in the right weather conditions the fog and mist in the area would completely hide them, which made the sailors think that they were enchanted.
We kept notes of all the interesting things we have learned and we tried to come up with puzzle ideas based on them every day. The story was inspired by what the local guides have told us about the fragile flora and fauna of the islands. They told us how explorers used to take the tortoises from the islands for food for the long way back home. However, some of these ships have offloaded some of these tortoises as they docked / crashed on the last Galapagos Island before reaching mainland. In one case in particular, the tortoises on the original island have gone extinct because of invasive species like goats and cats. BUT! The few of them transported to other islands have survived, and once scientists noticed this, they started efforts to repopulate them on their original island. We felt like this story reflected so many things about these islands: how fragile their ecosystems are, but also how almost any mistake can be corrected (or in luckier cases prevented) by the following generations.
This story had inspired us to make an extinct species the main treasure of our game. We thought that an explorer from long ago would have stumbled upon them, but made it their life goal to hide and protect them. The only thing that was left was to figure out who this scientist-explorer from long ago should be?
Charles Darwin arrived to these amazing islands on the HMS Beagle and based on his notes and his experiences from this *one* trip (yup, he never returned), wrote his theories on evolution. We wanted to shine some light on a scientist who dedicated more if their time for on-site work on the islands, which resulted in direct gains to these and the Ecuadorian people.
If you ever looked at a map of Galapagos, you might notice that towards the top left part of the archipelago there is an island called Wolf Island. As it turns out, it was not named after the animal, but after Franz Theodor Wolf, a scientist born in Germany but who spent a long part of his life in Ecuador and the Galapagos islands. The magazine article from the game contains all true information about him, and although we found some scientific material he created, it’s really hard to find too much information about him.
Did you think that the name Tuito Academy was a bit strange? We agree! The reason it feels so strange and out of place is because it is made up. The name was supposed to be Quito Academy when we were making the book cipher. In fact, before sending the items into print we checked multiple times where we had built the cipher correctly. It passed testing and then just before shipping the game out, during a play through, we discovered the horrifying mistake that instead of landing on Q, the cipher was landing on a T. For a while we were quite distraught and didn’t know how we would salvage this since we had a print order already confirmed. Sometimes, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade! Right? That’s what we did. We just went with Tuito Academy. There is no such place in Quito named Tuito Academy, and of course, Wolf never worked in this made-up place. So we did embellish this part of the story. Sorry!
Wildlife in Galápagos is everywhere and comes right up to you!
We loved the liveliness of the Galapagos islands. The fact that the fauna there developed without humans means that they have no in-born fear from us. This means that unlike in other places where you need to go out of your way to see them, over here you need to go out of your way to prevent interaction with them. They are curious, and they look at you as just a … co-inhabitant of the island – not like a threat or another contender at their food supply. It is magical – imagine you sit down in the middle of nowhere, and slowly, after not more than 5-10 minutes, animals of all sorts will start coming to you. Birds, colorful lizards, and even sea lions if you are close to a beach they can reach. In fact, one afternoon when we sat down for lunch at a restaurant with a nice view – we had a visitor pop right out of the sea and walk up to us. At first we were quite worried seeing the Sea Lion just traipsing its way to us. We looked around at the restaurant owners to see if we needed to move. But they didn’t even bat an eyelid. A few moments later the Sea Lion was at our table and looking expectantly at us. But when no food materialized, it just hopped on away into the middle of the road and went to sleep.
Most of the things that grow or live on these islands reached there either floating or flying there. This explains why most of the species there can withstand the dry season and also why there are so many birds around. Also, if you don’t know what Darwin’s finches are… it’s an interesting read for any animal and science lover 🙂
The islands are also full of endemic species which you cannot see anywhere else in the world. One of the most famous one is the blue footed booby, which pretty much became the unofficial mascot of the islands, being the prime actor on most of the t-shirts, pillowcases and magnets that you can buy in gift shops. We were lucky enough to see a few of them, and their surreal blue feet make them actually look like they have all stepped in jars of bright paint. Their clumsy dance also makes them one of the favorites amongst most tourists.
The clumsy and endearing Waved Albatross was our favorite bird
But that being said, we both (Anuj and Orsi) agree that our favorite bird from Galapagos is none other than the Waved Albatross! These lovely birds can only be found on Española Island, and even there only during the mating season. They live most of their lives out on the sea, either floating on its surface, or flying about – which makes their take offs and landings on dry land look like a learner driver trying to drive off with a manual gear shift at a red light: an accident about to happen. And while this is really entertaining to look at, what secured their place in our hearts is their mating ritual. They choose a mate for life, and before they fly out at the end of the season, they repeat confessing their love for each other in the ritual described in the game. Looks like the most loving exercise we have ever seen in the wild, seasoned with a dash of playfulness. We could have spent a full day just watching them do their silly and endearing dance.
The last bird we mentioned in the game are the hummingbirds. These amazing creatures look like the smallest, most fragile, magical creatures that we have on this planet. Watching them fly about like overgrown bumble bees playing dress up is the most mesmerizing thing you can imagine. The humming sound created by the 80 wing flutters per second has an almost healing effect on your mind and body. Did you know, that they don’t flap their wings, rather rotate them in a figure-8? Which basically makes them swim through the air. In the mountains just an hour away from Quito there is the so called Cloud Forrest, located around the town of Mindo. Many locals here have converted their farms into conservation gardens for hummingbirds. You can visit any of these places and see how these amazing creatures dart around between the multiple feeders filled up with sugar water. It’s a useless effort trying to take a slow motion video of them, because with any regular (e.g. mobile phone) camera event the best result will just look like regular birds flying. Even taking pictures of these speedsters sometimes feels like a futile effort. But sitting amongst them and hearing their buzzing is almost meditative. We loved the experience so much that we repeated waking up at 5am to see them on the day of our flight home from Ecuador. They’re truly magical.
The Hummingbirds of Mindo are absolutely magical
The hummingbird puzzle was very much different in the first version of the game. It wasn’t even about them: it was about stoping an invasive species. We wanted to bring attention to how harmful it can be to introduce a non-native into any ecosystem – be it animal (rat, goat, cat, dogs) or plants (blackberry). The puzzle was supposed to be a hands-on exercise of path following, which would have been a huge time consumer while assembling the game. So we decided to change it to something else. The wasps in this puzzle are one of the few made up things in the game. You see, there are no bees and wasps on Galapagos. The only pollinators out there are the birds, while some of the plants don’t even need pollination. If you have not yet seen a cactus finch with its black beak and head covered in bright yellow pollen, you have not seen a funny animal yet. Did you notice the article about Mindo in the magazine article we included for the game? All the pictures there were taken by us. We were so mesmerized by these birds that we couldn’t stop taking pictures of them and just had to find a way to include them in the game.
We have talked about the turtles and birds of the Galapagos islands, but we have yet to mention the undisputed rulers of these lands: the sea lions! They roam around the islands like they own the place, and thanks to their loud calling noises, it’s borderline impossible to get through your trip without seeing them. They’ll be in the water, on the beach, on roads, walk-paths and even in restaurants. But you have nothing to fear – they definitely consider you beneath their class, and will not waste any attention on you. They are also one of the best examples of how animals that ended up on these islands have adapted to living in a place so much different from their original home. Unlike other sea lions who only feed their babies for a few months, the sea lions from Galapagos nurse their young for two years! (yup: 24 months). The reason behind this is the fact that they find lesser food in the sea here, which means that their milk is not as nutrient rich as other species.
We have mentioned before that the wildlife in Galápagos has no fear of humans. This is true of marine life too. On one of our excursions we went snorkeling around the area of Cabo Rosa (yes, the one mentioned in the game). Swimming in these collapsed lava tubes one sees dozens of turtles and they are completely unafraid. Before entering the water the naturist guides always tell you to maintain at least 2 meters of distance from the turtles. But the turtles themselves have not been given this briefing it would seem. One of these turtles was feeding at the bottom and as we floated above it. It the decided to swim right at us and as Orsi was panicking trying to figure out how to quickly swim away and keep distance, the turtle swam right up to her and touched her with its flipper. Anuj thinks Orsi is still a little mentally scarred by that. Even the Wolf Island article used pictures from these excursions, though we never made it to the actual Wolf Island.
Putting together items like the Encyclopedia page is one of Anuj’s favorite things to make for games like these. He gets to go over the pictures we’ve taken, relive the trip and then put them in a medium to share them with others. Did you like any of the pictures we took? Anuj says that the picture of the baby Sea Lion on the encyclopedia page is one of his favorites.
The ubiquitous Opuntia cacti of Galápagos and their water-holding capillaries
We really wanted to add a puzzle about how cacti grow on these islands, and we tried to make it as close to reality as possible. So the truth behind the puzzle is as follows. During drought the cactus plant can really loose one or more pads, but it is rare that these will turn into a plant of their own. In most cases they will turn into compost for the big plant, since in nature things don’t get wasted. But there are more, interesting things that we didn’t address. One of them is, what happens when it rains … a lot? Well, the cactus plant is structured like a honey comb on the inside, making it a very efficient water reservoir. Problem is that they don’t stop storing water once they have reached maximum capacity. This means that a cactus plant can end up bending or even worse: breaking, under the weight of its top pads being full with water. Our puzzle also simplified how cacti grow, but in reality, the pads sooner or later turn into the trunk of the cacti, which over time will turn into a full-blown tree. It’s worth stoping in your trek and giving a thought to the age of some of these ginormous Opuntias that you see. We did, and were amazed to think that many of them were already around when Darwin visited the islands. It’s neat to be able to connect to the past like that.
In our first idea for the game we wanted to add a map to it as well. In that scenario you were supposed to put the two decoder wheels on the map, and the long arrow on their backs would have pointed towards one of the islands. Also, the turtle was supposed to have a completely different mechanic. The player was supposed to align it with set points on said map, and then collect letters or symbols while it “swam” towards its destination. And while these two puzzles might sound interesting, with a heavy heart we decided against them. You see, making one of our puzzle games is not just making the story and the puzzles. Once that is done we must design, print and assemble things, and in the end set up all the digital elements. The more we have to spend on any of these steps, the lesser time we have to work on our next game. Couple that with supply shortages, and you have yourself a very VERY much delayed game. In the end all these issues caught up with us for Season 2 and that’s why it took us so long to get this game into your hands. But we are already hard at work on our next ones, and are hoping that we’ll make up the time we lost to the delays and get the next games in your hands faster.
We would like to share an over arching behind the scenes memory. Before going to Ecuador we were working hard on our special project, The Magical Tale. In case you don’t know what this is, it’s a wood covered book, which we sanded, painted and assembled by hand, and then laser etched the cover and back sides. Simply put: a lot of work… We were supposed to finish up packing all the games just one day before flying to Ecuador. But sometimes plans don’t work out the way you think they will… so instead of having a calm afternoon of packing clothes for vacation, we were frantically packing games for delivery. We kept extending our deadline: we’ll be done by 1pm. Ok, we’ll be done by 3pm, 5pm. Then time passed, and we realized that it was already 4am the next day, and we had a plane to catch in 3 hours. We left all the games that we packed in the garage, and we asked one of our friends to drop it off at the post. All in all, it worked out surprisingly well, and most of the players got their copies before Christmas. But we slept through our 12h flight to Quito without as much as moving in the chair.
Until next-time!
