EDIT (8/27):
The following announcement was posted in the Steam group around 5:00 PST, as promised. The TL;DR is that it's a new game called Electric Sheep with levels designed by Mevious, and they need your support when Project Greenlight launches on August 30th to help get the game on Steam!

Quote:
Hey guys. First things first, let me introduce myself. My name is Ross Friedberg and I designed this Shepherd Company ARG and have been running it for the last several weeks. I'd like to heartily thank everybody who's been involved in any capacity, especially the PTI mappers who helped us start the game and the people on TWP who solved it together. So what's the point of all of this? I'm glad you asked!

For about a year now, I've been working on a new game with my partner in crime, Ben Bryant, whom many of you know better as Mevious. For those who aren't familiar with Mevious, he's currently the only Portal 2 PTI mapper who has been spotlighted by Valve. He also has a number of other full-length Portal mods under his belt, namely Portal Pro and Rexaura; if you haven't tried these out I highly recommend them.
The game itself is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer called Electric Sheep. In it, you play a man who wakes up to realize he doesn't know where or who he is. He quickly finds this odd little robot that seems to be linked to his predicament. He must guide his new robot buddy and himself to the exit of each level as he unravels the mystery of who he is and what his involvement with The Shepherd Company is. At first, the game uses all the standard tropes: levers and pressure-sensitive buttons to toggle doors, ladders, and deadly spikes to avoid.
Eventually, he learns that the robot can be programmed using a simple circuitry interface. For example, an early program might connect the "Facing Right" condition chip to the "Traverse Ladders" behavior chip, which would tell the robot to go up and down ladders, but only when it's facing right. Things get trickier and more devious as more conditions are found, then those conditions are combined with "and" and "or" chips, or counted with counter chips and basic numeric chips (e.g., climb every second ladder you reach when facing left), or connected to additional behaviors, like "Push Blocks" or "Use Teleporters." That said, one of our primary goals is to have the game be accessible to non-programmers, as long as they're willing to get into the puzzle game mindset. We will be slowly introducing the "programming" concepts and the new chips, and making sure that when we introduce something new, we teach it to you before moving on.
In broad strokes, I'm the lead programmer for the game and Mevious is the lead level designer, which means you can expect to be scratching your head regularly until you finally reach that satifying "aha!" moment. We plan to have roughly 100 levels in all over 5 worlds, and the difficulty will be similar to Mevious's Portal levels, so there will be plenty of play time in there if you choose to do all the levels and find all the collectables.

So, what's next? Well 3 days from now on August 30th, Valve is going to launch Project Greenlight. For those who haven't heard of it, Project Greenlight is Valve's way of letting the community have more say in what games make it onto Steam. This is especially helpful for indie developers get through Valve's arcane and under-staffed curation process, which only a small percentage of games make it through. What we're asking of you is to help us. If you think this game sounds up your alley, on August 30th, vote for Electric Sheep and tell your friends to do so, too; I'll make another announcement providing a link and more information once Project Greenlight launches and we get Electric Sheep's page up.

Oh, and I think I promised you guys a present Everybody in this group at the time of this announcement will get a free copy of Electric Sheep when it's released, regardless of whether we make it to Steam or not. However, if we do make it onto Steam, everybody will also receive a free additional copy of the game to give to a friend!

EDIT:
I went to the location and found a thumb drive containing this zip and something secret. The zip was decoded by Random, which led to The Shepherd Company's Presents steam group.
Everybody who joins this group will receive a "own-of-a-kind gift" on August 27 at 5pm PST, and members are encouraged to invite anybody else they like.

EDIT:
The countdown has run out, and two things changed. First, this image of a sheep appeared:

with the alt text "O Romeo, wherefore art thou parking?" and title "There is more to this sheep than meets the eye." It was discovered that this sheep had a hidden message:

Quote:
47.6157
-122.333
8/18
6:25pm PDT

We believe this refers to this parking lot and that somebody needs to be there Saturday at 6:25pm PDT to continue with this ARG. It is unknown what will happen if we fail to do so.

Along with the sheep, some code was added:

   // Soon you will have a zip.
   // Its password will be her name.
   for (int abc = 2; abc < 6; abc++)
       cout << abs(4 - abc) + 1;
   for (int def = 3; def < 6; def++)
       cout << 3;
   for (int ghi = 4; ghi < 7; ghi++)
       cout << 2;
   for (int jkl = 5; jkl < 8; jkl++)
       cout << (int)pow(3.0, (jkl/2 - 1));
   for (int mno = 6; mno < 10; mno++)
       cout << abs(8 - mno) + 1;
   for (int pqrs = 7; pqrs < 10; pqrs++)
       cout << 3;
   for (int tuv = 8; tuv > 5; tuv--)
       cout << tuv / 2 - 1;
   for (int wxyz = 9; wxyz > 6; wxyz--)
       cout << wxyz - 6;

Benny ran this and got "32123332223993212333322321" and Random noted that it roughly follows the piano keys for "Mary had a little lamb" and that the letters were grouped like a phone pad. Typing the numbers into a touch tone phone plays "Mary had a little lamb" and more or less confirms that the "her name" referenced here is probably "Mary."

EDIT (8/14):
Random has sent TRS an email, presumably giving the name "Rob" and the movie "Blade Runner." TRS's response was:

Quote:
Let them know: It has truly begun.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/94591457/8152019.html

The page has a countdown and a cryptic message

Quote:
ti mI NG wI lLso oNBe ever yT hI Ng Sow ILL LO c ATi oN

I think it says "Timing will soon be everything so will location," but the spacing and capitalization is weird. I guess this is another puzzle.

EDIT:
What's known:
It started as a PTI collection featuring new maps from Zivi7, Mothalius, Mevious, ColorCubeMan, Mathey2009 and Motanum. It is currently unknown what level of involvement these people have.
Nathanle1406 discovered that each of these new maps contains a secret room featuring a bed. Using the bed initiates a dream sequence which includes a QR code that, when flipped, takes you to a backup of The Shepherd Company's website.
On the site, there was a fake music file that became

(Note that this image is slightly truncated due to the forum software. Click it to see the full image)

The letter says:

For participants.
Congratulations on making it this far.
Let it be known. The Shepherd Company is not what they pretend to be. At first glance, their products seem miraculous, they take every bit of hard work you need to do and they automate it. But really, they are not doing it for your benefit, they are trying to turn you into mindless lazy sheep.
Once we are used to our new lifestyle, the Shepherd Company will be able to control every aspect of our lives and we wont be able to stop this.
Even with their current schedule, they wont be able to srart their plans for sixteen years. Since it is 1996 now, that means their world domination will begin some time in 2012. But there is still time if we can build an army of like-minded individuals to topple this regime. I can't trust just everybody, though.
You must first solve my riddle embeded into this website. Figure out my name and email it to [email protected]. Only then will I tell you how we can truly proceed in averting this disaster.
You can also support the war effort by letting others know and getting them involved.
You don't have to do this alone.
-The Real Shepherd.

The red letters spell out "The first letter is R".

TRS has been contacted several times, the first time, Nathanle1406 asked whether "Caleb" was the correct name. TRS responded:

Quote:
Congratulations on being the first to make it this far, Nathan. Good things will come to those who follow my path.
However my name is not Caleb. Keep searching, there are clues within clues.
-TRS

The second time, Nathanle asked whether the name started with r and was three letters long. TRS responded:

Quote:
Bit by bit you are finding the key.
Wise are you to stop at three.

The third time, Mumbles presumably asking whether TRS's name is "Rob". TRS responded:

Quote:
Guessing at random will only incur stricture,
Now, in addition, you must name the motion picture

The circuit on the page was eventually discovered to be a reference to the second letter. Running G through the circuit (because G has the shepherd's cane from the hidden invitation and the third clue) produced O. (Thanks to Benny for writing a program and doing a lot of analysis)

The third clue was a mysterious, out-of-place letter from TRS which had a lot of stilted language. Certain words at the beginnings of lines were spaced differently, like "Great Scott" "replicate" "decked" "Los Angeles" "batty." "Between Alien and 1984" and "first letter" are also at the beginning of lines, so they might have been slightly spaced, but it's hard to tell. These clues all refer to Blade Runner (Great Scott = Ridley Scott, replicate = replicants, decked = Rick Deckard, Los Angeles = location of movie, batty = Roy Batty, antagonist, between Alien and 1984 = when movie was released). Random realized the last line sounded weird and that it referred to the first letter of the movie's name, giving us B.

Thus, the name Rob and the movie "Blade Runner" were named and the ARG moved to the next phase (see above). Some were skeptical about "Rob" being the right name due to it being previously guessed (see above) but now that I look at it, TRS never actually said that it was wrong, just that he didn't want guesses without proof.

Original post:
I was playing Zivi's new map when I noticed it had a weird description linking to a collection it's in. Every map in the collection has the same weird description, and they appear to be new maps from Zivi, Mothalius, Mevious, ColorCubeMan, Mathey2009 and Motanum. The whole thing seems weird, but I can't figure out what's going on. Does anybody have any idea?

Probably just some inside joke. Maybe they're planning to just make a collection with their maps and gave it some name. Or it's a mapping conspiracy. Probably the first one though.

i found a hidden QR code in the first test, along with several sheep pictures. attempting to scan now!

Edit: link to the original QR code: http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59585 ... 8611979AC/

and where it links to... after being flipped sideways

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/94591457/index.html

This looks like it will be an ARG type thing. GOOD LUCK GUYS (ok, so its probably not an ARG type thing, but still. looks interesting)

edit: it looks like there are qr codes in all of those maps. all the same one as far as i can tell. to find the codes look around for a ratman den with a bed in it, sleep in the bed and dream of sheep and QR codes

Wow. They really went all out for a little group. Kinda like a mini conspiracy. Very clever.

Huh, that's a good catch nathanle. That page looks interesting. If it's not am ARG, it seems like it's something. It could be an elaborate joke, but it seems they put a lot of effort into it and the whole thing seems suspicious. I wonder, if it is an ARG, what do you think it's for? Is Valve involved?

FOUND SOMETHING!!! i took the audio file on thier website, opened it in vegas studio, and rendered it as a movie. here is the movie file.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cccvuqdeu5k5ymt/Untitled.mp4
and for those to lazy to download it, this is what is says (there are some typos, sorry):

For participants.

Congratulations on making iit this far.

Let it be known. The Shepherd Company is not what they pretend to be, at first glance, their produtcs seem airaculcus, they take every bit of hard work you need to do and they automate it. But really, they are not doing it for your benefit, they are trying to turn you into mindless lazy sheep.
Once we are used to our new lifestyle, the Shepherd Company will be able to control every aspect of our lives and we wont be able to stop this.
Even with their current schedule, they wont be able to srart their plans for sixteen years. since it is 1996 now, that means their world domination will begin some time in 2012. But there is still time if we can build an aray of like-minded individuals to topple this regiue, i cant trust just everybody, though.

you must first solve my riddle embeded into this website. Figure out my name and email it to [email protected]. Only then will i tell you how we can truly proceed in averting this disaster.
You can also support the war effort by letting others know and getting them involved.
You don't have to do this alone
-The Real Shepherd.

Edit: as the shepherd says, we should work together. post all info you find here! if anyone finds or solves the riddle, please, post it here.

some ideas on where to start: the first pice of mail looks like it says richard looks like RICK DT? big spread out letters across the top, covered by a stamp. also where cookies is underlined it looks like very tiny writing to me.

and on the last letter, its signed -TRS, the real shepherd! im emailing caleb to the email right now.

Edit: mail didn't send, looks like the email doesnt exist! now what...

edit: got the email wrong, its shepherdco96@hotmail, not shepherdoo, duh.. now im just waiting for a response from [email protected]

Another interesting find, i have know clue what this image means

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/94591457/images ... ircuit.gif
but the image next to the P is clearly a sheep, and the image next to G is the same image found in the bottom right of The Real Shepherd's letter (found in the music file)

also, the letters gdnoiprwu all are a dark grey color, instead of black (in the words on that image)

oh, and slightly off topic

"Each upgrade pack will take approximately 70 hours to download on a modern dial-up connection. Users downloading from our BBS will experience longer download times"

Really? 70 hour download times? i mean, i know its dial-up, but still, was dial up really that slow?

nathanle1406 wrote:
Another interesting find, i have know clue what this image means
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/94591457/images ... ircuit.gif
but the image next to the P is clearly a sheep, and the image next to G is the same image found in the bottom right of The Real Shepherd's letter (found in the music file)

Might have something to do with the grey letters. There's nine of them: gdnoiprwu
Didn't anagram into anything meaningful though, so I have no idea what to do with them.

I just edited the grey letters into my post, lol. good to know im not the only one working on this though!

also, regarding the actuall paragraph in that picture, why would you need to convert a letter to another letter? do we need to run those letters through a decoder of some sort?

Edit: 9 letters are grey, do they corespond with the letters/icons? i cant make heads or tails of the diagram though, do we have to find the binary version of each letter, run it through all those logic gates and come up with an answer (possibly the guys name, though i still think its Caleb)

EDIT: GOT A RESPONSE! his name is not caleb, sadly.

"Congratulations on being the first to make it this far, Nathan. Good things will come to those who follow my path.
However my name is not Caleb. Keep searching, there are clues within clues.
-TRS"

im going to attempt to run some letters through that diagram, though i dont have a how or what i should be doing. if anyone else can do the same, please do. and run the letters mentioned above and see if they come up as anything

uh.. how do a put binary strings through logic gates? and what is the box with the + on it?

In the video you uploaded, there are red letters that spell out "First letter is R."

Mumbles wrote:
In the video you uploaded, there are red letters that spell out "First letter is R."

thanks, i was JUST about to post that, not even kidding. i missed the r in first though, where is it? i got the letters "fistletterisr"

Oh, guess there isn't one. Thought I saw one, though.
When replying to mail, it says the "third and final letter" comes from Caleb. Might mean the third letter and the final letter in the name are also in Caleb.

good catch, i never noticed thats the only one that says "letter" the others say mail. i dont know what it could mean though. at least we know (hopefully) that this word/name is only 3 letters long. or the third letter and final letter are the same, as you said.

I'm probably missing something in that letter though, no odd letter colorings or anything (ive never done an ARG before, i dont know what to be looking for)

some things though, he says his letter is "The only one that matters" and another thing, the letter has nothing to do with international options (and isn't signed caleb). so i'm assuming the shepherd company got the letters mixed up or something, so the name caleb isn't probably related (not sure though, anythings still possible)

I sent TRS an email asking if his name starts with r, and if his name is 3 letters long. i didnt actually expect a response, but he replied:

Bit by bit you are finding the key.
Wise are you to stop at three.

The Shepherd Company deals with robotics, maybe his name is Rob?

Edit: No, that was a bad idea.

Guessing at random will only incur stricture,
Now, in addition, you must name the motion picture

motion picture? oh great. uh... alien and 1984 were mentioned in the "third and final" letter thing. other than that im clueless. starting to run out of ideas, i might do some more looking around.

I attempted to figure out the circuit in http://dl.dropbox.com/u/94591457/images ... ircuit.gif
Does anybody know what the + boxes are?

edit: its not possible to unblur the stuff in the first and second mail things is it?

Second edit: I also realized that the audio file from the start could just be renamed to .gif to see the image. You don't have to import it into a movie editor and export like i did.

Wow, you guys have found a lot since I last posted! I updated my first post with what I think it the latest information... if I missed something or misspoke, let me know.
I'm not sure about the circuit because I don't know programming and stuff, but maybe the + boxes mean plus or something?

EDIT: Does anybody know anybody who's good at programming or electronics or whatever? I'm at a loss.

if i used that diagram in second_circuit.gif correctly, i ran the letters R and G through to get P and O.

I ran through an R because "fist letter is r" and i ran through the letter G because the cane at the end of the audio file matches with the cane next to the g in second_circuit.gif

DISCLAIMER: i doubt i used the diagram correctly, im not a genius when it comes to logic gates, and i still dont know what that box with the + is, i used it as if it meant "add the inputs together to get an output" and i ran all 8 bits together so i could carry while adding. if you run 1 bit through the adder at a time, you will get the same letter at the end of the diagram because you cannot carry over to the next digit, etc... etc....

if i misinterpreted the box with the plus wrong, my other idea gives you an end result thats the exact same as the begining, and the entire chart would mean NOTHING. so yeah.

also, if you run through with lowercase instead of capital you get different results, the G becomes an i with 2 dots above it. although i used capitals, because the red R in the one letter was capital, and the G next to the cane in the diagram file was capital

as for the other circuits, i showed them to my dad and he says the one is just a fan that turns on when its cold, and the other is a radio transmitter. speaking of radios, im going to go look for radios in those maps again, i didn't play through with sound on last time.

Edit: i looked in those maps and while there were radios in those rooms with the beds, the radios didn't make any noise, and when disinegrated they didn't make any special sound effect either (like they did in the first portal) i didn't however, look to see if they had to be moved to special areas like in the first portal game, although if anyone knows how to look at a BSP file in hammer, i encourage them to look around for hidden code of any kind that could be a hint for what to do now.

I also dont have a clue what motion picture we have to name. I'll do some googling for films in the 80s and 90's.
EDIT: what about "The Silence of the Lambs"? its sheep related (like everything else) and came out in 1991

Hrm... R becomes P and G becomes O...
I wonder if that has to do with the grey letters on the image? GDNOIPRWU. P and O are in the list. What do the other letters become?

DouglasQ wrote:
Hrm... R becomes P and G becomes O...
I wonder if that has to do with the grey letters on the image? GDNOIPRWU. P and O are in the list. What do the other letters become?

I'm not sure if i am even doing it right, but i guess i'll (try to) convert the rest, perhaps they spell something, although the name is 3 letters long. My thoughts were either convert all the grey letters or convert all the letters with symbols next to them, i'll start with the grey ones i guess? I'll start with capitals, then do lowercase later if needed, although i feel like this is becoming more complicated then it should be, and we're missing something obvious.

edit: wont have a chance today or tomorrow, sorry. you guys can try though?