Town Square

The Town Square
Type	Urban
Map Name	c_start2
Inhabitants	Slower (not interactable) Sawer (not interactable)

The town square refers to a minor location in Cry of Fear. Simon enters the town square through a walkway with steep and artistically styled stairs, and must retrieve a username and password, to learn a padlock combination to unlock a locked door.

Background

Peekaboo! Slower wants to say hi!

The town square is one of the first locations Simon visits in the game, here he must acquire the username and password for the computer in a local cafe, which then gives him a code to a padlock, which he must backtrack and then unlock. Simon enters the town square through a narrow stairway, and although the town square is abandoned and vehicles block all other exits and entrances, the town centre itself is in relatively good condition. The town centre contains a 13th century cathedral, as well as a small cafe. There are no weapon or ammo pickups present, and the area contains no enemies, save for a Sawer that flashes on the screen very briefly while the player heads towards the town square, and a Slower that briefly appears outside the cafe windows, before disappearing.

Relevance To Simon

The relevance the town square has to Simon is never made clear in the game, it was mostly designed to give the player a soft introduction to the game's puzzle mechanics. It is possible it could represent a part of the town he lives in in real life, the cathedral could also be one where he once attended services.

Gallery

The town square, as seen by the player

The computer room in the cafe

The main room of the cafe

The walkway leading to the town square

Slottsbacken, the real life location for the town centre

Tunnelgatan, the real life location of the steep staircase used to access the town centre

Trivia

Storkyrkan, the real life cathedral

• Like most of the areas in Cry of Fear, the areas were based on real life locations. This forum thread showcases the various locations the game was modelled on.
• The town square was modeled on an area known as Slottsbacken and the cathedral on a real life 13th century cathedral known as Storkykran.
• To ensure that players enjoyed the effort the team made in mapping this area, the puzzle was designed to be randomized. The computer will be unlocked by a random combination of any 16 passwords and 16 usernames, and the username and password will change every time the game is played through again. A randomized algorithm then generated the final code for the door, to ensure that this area could not be bypassed by memorizing the door code and skipping the puzzle.
• The operating system on the Cafe's PC is referred to as Dorrar Home Edition, 1998. It is clearly intended to resemble Windows 98, however Windows 98 did not have a home and professional edition.