Game Theory - The Doors Are Just The Beginning (Roblox Doors)

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he explores the new Roblox Doors update and what it means for the game going forward! *Credits:* Writers: Tom Robinson and Eddie “NostalGamer” Robinson Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, JayskiBean, Danial "BanditRants" Keristoufi, and Pedro Freitas Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

Hello internet, welcome to Game Theory, the show that leaves no stone unturned and no door unopened. Oh, through a door though. The name of the game is Go Through Doors and I went through a door. Ah yes, the smash hit Roblox game Go Through Doors. Love that one. Although, I actually think Matt had the right idea because it is now my turn to jump into the mysterious abyss that is Roblox Doors. The game set in an abandoned hotel where to win, you have to get this, walk through doors. I know, shocking. Though, on the surface, it might sound pretty simple. things escalate pretty quickly.

There's demonic entities that are trying to stop us, a homunculus made of flesh and bone known as the figure that sabotages are only means of escape, and there's a bunch of extra rooms called the rooms. Yeah, they like to keep their naming conventions simple here. However, in the rooms, it no longer means you have 100 doors to go through, but a thousand. It's actually quite a challenge.

Fortunately, through most of this, there's a mysterious blue sparkle that is trying to help us escape. This is guiding light, and they offer us advice when we die, show us the path during the chase sequences, and offer us tools like the crucifixes, to stop entities dead in their tracks. We believed in previous theories that guiding light was the one manipulating the halls of

the hotel into the random arrangement you encounter in each run, confusing and trapping the entities within. Sadly though, they aren't able to help us all the time. Once you enter the rooms, their power fades. But there is a similar yellow light entity waiting for us. They're just less helpful. We learn that this spirit is named Curious Light. Although their name leaves a little to be desired, as they don't seem as much curious

as they do aloof. They refuse to give us hints, and yet they want us to be. to keep trying. Here's a thought, maybe give me a hint and I'll do better next time. Curious Light's actions don't seem to make a lot of sense. That was, until I played the latest update known simply as the back door update. We suspected that Curious Light was actually trying to escape the rooms, with the final door leading to a bunch of other open doors floating in a void. Other dimensions, as proven by the appearance of Bob the skeleton, who is actually from an entirely different Roblox game and whose name tag we can find in the rooms. It felt like Curious Light

wanted access to this room in order to escape and explore more worlds. And it seems like we were right. Because in back doors, Curious Light is back. No longer stuck in the rooms and this time they are actually trying to help us. We've got a new speed run challenge on our hands as we've got to go from door minus 50 to door zero in just one minute. That is not a lot of time. It's almost as if they don't want a snooping around for law. But fear not, friends, even with the dreaded time limit, I was able to uncover the secrets this little update had for us, how it connects to everything we know so far and what it could mean for the floor two update that's coming soon. So grab your vials of Starlight and drink up theorists.

We're about to unlock even more door lore. That was right. That is satisfying to say. A cool detail to kick us off with is how you access the backdoor update inside the game itself. Much like the main game, you stand in an elevator and it will take you to the first floor of your next run. In this case, door minus 50. However, you can't just walk straight into this new elevator. If you're new to doors, you'll find that the back door's elevator is blocked by a barrier of yellow light.

At this point, if something glows yellow, we know it has to be related to Curious Light, matching their yellow sparkles and death screens from the rooms. Sure enough, if you unlock the achievement completing the rooms, the first place we encounter Curious Light and head back to the lobby, you'll find the back door's elevator is suddenly open to you. Curious Light was stuck in the rooms, but now he's been freed by us completing that final door, allowing him to escape into the hotel's version of the back rooms. That act alone seems to have given Curious Light a change of heart.

In the past, Curious Light didn't seem interested in helping us escape. I usually don't give out hints. And yet, in this new update, they seem to be doing exactly that. When dying from haste, the entity that comes when the timer runs out, curious light will say this. I've given you a method to add more time to the clock, though. You're welcome. Look around for the levers I placed for you.

They can be anywhere. They're referring to the levers that you find around the back doors map that add time back to your clock, sometimes even up to a full minute. Without those, you literally cannot beat this new update. Plus, not only have they added a way to give you more. time, but much like guiding light, they've also added an item to help us out, one that can regenerate our health and help us move faster. This item is called Vial of Starlight. It's yellow and the primary symbol inside the vial is a star, which matches the sparkles we've seen from Curious Light.

Curious Light has given us the only method available to beat this dang update, completely changing their attitude towards us. But why the change? Because being in the rooms felt hopeless. It was a thousand doors. There was no way anyone could win, so why bother? They wanted to escape, but they just didn't see it happening until it did. We beat the rooms and let Curious Light out into the basement of the hotel. Suddenly, there was a chance. If we can do that, if we can beat a thousand rooms, what else are we capable of? What else could we help them achieve? And so, they've perked up, realizing that we might be able to help them get what they want. And what is it they want? Well, if you do manage to get to the end of the back doors, you'll find a final door marked 0-0-0-0.

Proceeding through this door starts a short cutscene where the door begins to break open with a yellow light and suddenly you are back in the hotel lobby with an empty doorframe behind you, covered in yellow cracks and Curious Light's symbol. Last time it seemed like Curious Light wanted to access multiple realities, with all those different doors floating in the void in Room A-1000. But now, he seems determined to get into the main hotel. They've once again used us to open a door that they can't open themselves, and we've led it straight to their desired destination. He even leaves a bottle of Starlight, a larger version of the vials we've been collecting, as a sort of thank you, before we ever. enter the final door. However, while I've been suspicious of Curious Light and their motives, there was something else in this update that gave me pause. When you die, Curious Light gives

you breakdowns of the entity that killed you, like they did in the rooms, but their tone has once again changed. In the rooms, they didn't really have a name for anything, they just said things like, I'm not too sure on what to call it. You could just call it A-60, I don't know. But now, they're offering more solid opinions. Hmm, that one. You could call it the look man, if you like. That's what I call it. He does have a names for these things. He's actually giving you his attention, except for one specific entry. One of these new entities is called Blitz, which is a modified version of Rush from the main game. But if you die to it, Curious Light says this. Oh, one of my favorites. She said we could

call that one Blitz. Who is she? We've never encountered a she before. But whoever she is, Curious Light seems to recognize her authority. He doesn't question her. He just tells us exactly what he's been told. No opinions, no wisecracks. Just direct. Answer. And if this she is telling curious light about the entities, is she the one behind everything? Pulling the strings? I've got some good news for you, theorists, because I believe we know who this character is. And it all comes down to this symbol and this painting. This symbol is the binding circle that appears when using the crucifix on an entity.

We've examined this before and broken down the different parts of the circle to figure out exactly what it's doing. Like the star of Solomon in the middle that became associated with the occult and demons, which makes sense when it literally traps the demonic entities we find throughout the hotel. But there's one part that we didn't talk about, the ring of symbols around the star of Solomon. These symbols are wingedings, and if you convert that text to a normal English font and then run it through a Caesar cipher, you'll get the message, one of the three architects marked by Celestials assists you. Given that this is on the binding circle when you're using a crucifix, an item that glows blue and traps the entities in a blue light,

I think it's pretty safe to say that the architect it's referring to is guiding light. Until now, we've been referring to guiding light as an angelic being, due to the sword. bearing angel statue in the courtyard as well as other religious imagery. However, we did get this tweet from one of the developers saying, The Crucifix indoors does not mean the game is going in a religious direction at all. And this translation of Wingdings would certainly suggest that too, with Guiding Light not being an angel but an otherworldly being known as an architect. But does that mean that using religious imagery to figure out the law of this game

is immediately debunked? I don't think so. Firstly, other than terminology, it feels like we were kind of on the right track with Guiding We suspected Guiding Light was an angel twisting the halls of the hotel to trap the demonic entities. An architect is someone who builds and designs buildings, so Guiding Light being named an architect makes sense as they are the one changing the building. We may not have been right about the terminology used for guiding life, but we ended up at a similar conclusion because we found some religious influence.

And that word influence is important, because what I showed you isn't the full tweet. It continues, it will remain mostly secular other than inspiration and will be all original. The developers aren't denying that they're taking inspiration from religion, just that it's not inherently a religious story. And here's the thing. We actually see this religious inspiration through the binding circle translated text. One of the three architects marked by Celestials assists you. It implies there are beings above the architects that give them power in some way.

They are marked by them. These beings are referred to as Celestials. This word is often used to mean something up high, and in astronomy it refers to things in space, like the term celestial body. But Celestials derived from the Latin word, Chialem, meaning heaven and was originally used to refer to heavenly beings or angels. So while guiding light and curious light might not be angels themselves, we might be encountering some other worldly beings at some point, the Celestials.

The space theme continues when we have a look at the painting we can find on floor 60. This floor is where we find the secret passage to the rooms where curious light resides, and it's the only place where this painting appears. The image is named Space Time, which again seems to be referring to the spacey, other worldly themes that we've already talked about, especially when you take a look at the symbols. The one in the center matches the yellow sparkle we've seen representing curious light across the various rooms and doors. It also matches the symbol found in the vials of starlight provided by curious light.

In the top right corner, we have a blue crescent moon. Now, if the center symbol is meant to be curious light, then it would make sense for the blue symbol to be guiding light. It guides us through the hotel with a blue light, and when we use the items gifted to us by guiding light like the crucifix, the symbols that banished the entities are also blue. And would you look at that? At the center of the binding circle is a symbol, a crescent moon. the same symbol that appears in the painting. This is the symbol of guiding light, one of the three architects.

And with there being three symbols on this painting, I have a sneaking suspicion that means curious light is also another one of these architects. But there's one more symbol in this picture. In the bottom right corner, there's a red symbol that you might not be familiar with. This symbol only appears in the game when you add modifiers. Essentially, modifiers are designed to make the game more challenging. But in turn, you get higher rewards. They can do things like make the floors more slippery,

give you less health at the start of the game, and make entities move faster or appear more frequently. When you activate modifiers, this red symbol appears on the screen, the same red symbol that's in the painting. Given there are no other symbols on this painting, this has to be our third architect that the crucifix wingedings told us about, the one that Curious Light is referencing when it says she. She said we could call that one Blitz. Suddenly, this line from Curious Light makes sense. This new architect knows Blitz's name, because modifiers are literally able to change the behavior of the entity. in the hotel. She has power over them. She can make them more aggressive and what's worse,

she seems to have power over the other architects. There's a mod that literally deactivates guiding lights, guiding light from Sikhs chase sequence, making that challenge much harder. If you die during the main game with modifiers active, guiding light will not appear on the death screen to help you out. And then, if you reach door 60, you will be unable to enter the rooms. It is completely blocked off to you by this mysterious red force, the same color as the force of this final architect. She is the most powerful architect we've encountered, able to control the entities within the hotel and alter the hotel itself. Overriding any control guiding light has. She is so powerful that Curious Light doesn't question her or her authority. That makes her a scary

force to deal with. And I have a feeling that we're going to be dealing with her a lot more in the coming updates. We've been waiting patiently for the Doors Floor to update, but back in October, we finally got a sneak peek of what's to come for achieving the milestone of four billion visits. That's Billion with a B. The developers gave us a teaser image for Floor 2 known simply as the Mines. Now, I have to say a huge congratulations to the developers. Four billion is a massive achievement and it's incredibly well deserved. But when I saw this image, I immediately started trying to figure out what it meant for the story going forward. What inspiration did the developers take to go down this mine shaft room? I did find a few hotels that have rooms in old mine shafts.

One of them's even quite close to me. It's just over in Wales. But there didn't seem to be anything special about them. They just felt like gimmicks designed to trap tourists and travel vloggers with unique experiences. However, now that I have the additional piece that is this new architect, I found something that not only ties into our previous theories, but gives us a little more information about what we can expect inside the minds. In our initial theories, we spoke about the main entity of doors, the figure, a creature made of flesh and bones which stood out against the other black, inky or ghostly entities of the hotel. Based on the use of religious and occult imagery found in the game like the Binding Circle, we determined that the figure was a homunculus,

a version of a human being created not by natural means, but through a cult alchemy. Typically, these were made by mixing human flesh, bones and teeth. And through the final door, where the figure chases us to the elevator, we see piles of flesh throughout the level. This all led us to believe that the next update would take us deep underground where we'd find the origins of the figure, the place that the cult that created it originally resided. Now that we know that Floor 2 takes place in a mine, I started looking into whether there were any cult that took refuge in mind. It feels like something we see in fiction all the time,

but when it came to reality, there was only one very specific answer that I found. In Bolivia, there are groups that worship a spirit that lives in the mind. This spirit is called El Tio. And though his appearance looks like the Christian devil, El Tio is an ambivalent spirit, capable of giving both wealth and destruction. The miners would worship El Tio, building a shrine inside the mine and providing offerings to him in order to receive safety. They'd offer things like alcohol, cigarettes, coca leaves, even the blood of llamas. The miners would then light a mine cart on fire full of these offerings and push the cart deep into the mines never to be seen again. Which is interesting as we also see a single mine cart being pushed down into a deep hole

in the recent teaser for the mines update. Could this have been a hole for sacrifices? There are also specific rules you had to follow if you were going into the mines and worshipping El Tio, namely what you could or couldn't bring with you when you went in or out of the mines. Up until 2009, Bolivia was an official Catholic nation, and the majority of its residents still are Catholics today. So, unsurprisingly, worshipping a devil like being wasn't really liked by the Catholic Church. Due to this conflict between the miners and the church, certain rules were followed when going in and out of the minds. Specifically, no Catholic imagery like crucifixes were allowed inside the mines. And no El-Tio imagery was allowed outside the minds.

The outside world was God's domain, but the mines, the underground, belonged to El-Tio. The two were not allowed to mix, which feels very similar to what we're seeing indoors. In this space-time painting, we see both guiding light and this new light, but they are on opposite sides of the painting. They are being shown as diametrically opposed. They cannot coexist, which is why when you activate modifiers, guiding light can no longer help you. If you want guiding lights assistance, you have to remove the modifiers. They cannot be in the same place at the same time. Now again, we know that doors isn't going for a directly religious story, only taking inspiration from it and that's what I think we're seeing here. It seems to me like the minds and this

new architect might at least partially be inspired by the minds of Bolivia and the cult of El Tio that lies within, which means that Guiding Light is going to be of no use to us in this new update. We're likely not going to be able to bring our candle or our crucifix with us and even if we are, I doubt they're going to have any effect, much like we saw when we entered Curious Light's domain in the rooms. This is her domain and guiding light is not welcome. The question is, is that a bad thing? isn't an evil spirit. It can be good or bad depending on how you treat it. We see that in how the modifiers work. The game may get harder, but we get more rewards out of it if we succeed. So while she seems like an opposing force to guiding light, who is the one that has been helping

us so far, this new architect isn't inherently evil or against us. They may have power over the entities we've encountered so far, but we have no idea what awaits us in the mines. And much like in the minds of Bolivia, working with her might be our only chance of surviving whatever new threat awaits us. And then, what happens when Curious Light is thrown into the mix? We freed him into the hotel after the backdoors update, so I could see him coming down to the minds as well. He seems to get along with this new architect in some way, or at least they've been in the same place long enough for her to start bossing him around. Maybe he'll offer us a much-needed assistance. That or he'll just mock us the entire time for dying. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what

happens when the Floor 2 update finally releases. But hey, that's just a theory, a game theory. Thanks for watching.