Halfquake Sunrise.
Those words mean a lot to me. They hold the power to invoke emotions of all kind in my brain; good and bad.
It all started with the moment I suggested Sunrise as the new appendix for the new Halfquake installment to my friend nicknamed blackjack. There were other suggestions, but they're forgotten.
I was so full of myself that I didn't listen to anything else and just said - alright, that's the new one. Halfquake Sunrise. My new child.
I let "the world" know by announcing the game on my website on October 21st 2003. Here is an interesting, shockingly embarassing excerpt: "It won't be about sadism anymore, but about art. Visual and acoustic art. I've had dreams again about a black and white world, as I had before Halfquake Amen. I guess a new Halfquake will come. And it's going to disappoint you all. Because I've changed and I bet you won't like it."
I remember that the idea was to collaborate with TheAwake this time (he was the one who started and mainly worked on The Present). I prepared the first few test maps, created the intro track and the actual ingame intro and the first map. I sent it to TheAwake and his response was, in a nutshell: "Meh."
So, basically, a virtual shrug. A sigh.
Surely, there must have been something wrong with TheAwake's eyes. It looked like Halfquake Amen! It already had two music tracks that blasted out of the speakers from the intro to the end of the first trap. It featured a super serious intro speech that spoke of the meaning of life. This game was a winner! Why did TheAwake not see it?
Let me go back in time a little further.