Project 11:Timeline

It begins

In June 2016, A Forum user by the name of Fleskhjerta posted to the Facepunch forums about a Discord user named Project 11 who had joined their server and sent a link to https://projecteleven.comuf.com, the center of this ARG (since it often goes down, an archive is available here).

The website showed the following words:

This project involves the leak of a game which you shall know its release date only when the time comes.  
It is divided into three steps, ran two times to ensure effectiveness.  
Only to the worthy, the date and the game name shall be revealed.  
In the meantime, you can keep track of the progress below.

Its favicon was the Steam logo.

Hidden in the source of the page was this:

<link rel="icon" href="icon.bmp" />
<!- A picture is worth a thousand words. -->
<!- /watch?v=3tNMHYD9IJY -->

This link leads to the following video entitled "clue"

The video was uploaded on June 2nd, 2016 on the Project 11 YouTube channel.

Video: clue

The YouTube video "clue" is 11 seconds long and is mostly comprised of static, except this time 2 seconds a image showing what may be blue and green writing flashes up on the screen. At 4 seconds the image changes to the message:

IT HIDES IN THE LAST 2 BITS

---

Favicon Steganography

In the "clue" video a blurry tab of the Project 11 website as well as the HTML code. These linked towards the :: :: websites Icon (The Steam Logo). This was combined with the quote "IT HIDES IN THE LAST 2 BITS” to produce the solution to the puzzle.

Extracting the last two bits from each byte of the RGB values in the altered steam logo and combining every 4 into a series of bytes produced the hidden message:

Good things come to those who wait. https://bit.ly/1r4iQHE

The bit.ly link linked to an imgur which shows the following message:

---

The Projector

The picture of the projector

The linked image from above shows a projector. There appears to be no stenography in the image.

Video: It Begins

The YouTube video "It begins" is also 11 seconds long. The video itself is static before switching to a message after 6 seconds stating:

THE FUTURE IS GLORIOUS

An Image of a building and a crane shown was later found to have come from the "Water hazard" level in Half Life 2.

The audio appears to be raw data.

Video: AAAA

The YouTube video "aaaa" is 12 seconds long and mostly static once again, but starting at the 0:02 mark, text appears saying:

 NATIONAL ALERT
 LOS ALAMOS County, NM
 Primary Entry Point System
 
 Issued An
 
 Emergency Action
 Notification

Then, at the 0:06 mark:

 APPEND THE BYTES

Discord users connected this text to the concepts of Emergency Alarm Systems, Specific Area Message Encoding and Emergency Action Notifications.

An image from the video was soon after found to be a color-inverted photo of a Black Mesa HECU Marine wearing night vision goggles. The same type of marine can be seen in game here

---

Discord Hint

On June 3rd, 2016, a hint was given out on the server by Discord user Project 11, stating:

 I'd like to take this moment to give you an unique hint that I shall reveal in this very chat room only.
 The two iterations shown in my website are in fact represented by two people.
 I shall make my leave

It was unknown whether this message was from a troll or the creator of the ARG, so many Discord users didn't take the message seriously.

Video: steps

Another version of "steps" was uploaded, this time lasting 25 seconds, and contained the text:

 THE NIGHT GIVES WISDOM
 
 I HAVE YET TO SOLVE IT
 
 AND SO DOES MY PARTNER
 
 YOU HAVE FOUND YOUR WAY INTO THE ICON
 
 THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY LESS TRUE
 
 PATIENCE WILL REWARD YOU GREATLY

---

Video: Wisdom

A new video titled "wisdom" was uploaded. It was once again 11 seconds long and, starting at the 0:05 mark, showed the text:

You can see it too

At the end of the video a Frame with hidden text is shown. It appears to say:

E * R * P * O * E * T * N *

The answer to this was believed to be "DECRYPTOVERTONE"

At about the 0:04 second there is what seems to be an A, similar to the P in the later discovered video titled "time". The A is in the same font as the word PLAY on a VHS tape (VCR OSD Mono).

---

Video: plan

The video, "plan", was uploaded and contained DTMF tones transcribed below:

5 3 7 4 6 5 7 0 2 0 7 3 6 3 6 2 7 6 6 9 6 3 6 7 2 0 6 9 7 3 2 0 7 0 6 1 7 2 6 1 6 2 6 2 6 5 6 2 2 0 2 6 2 0 6 1 7 4 2 0 6 3 6 9 6 7 6 8 7 4 2 0 6 3 6 3 6 2 7 9 2 3

These numbers, when converted to letters, then grouped in groups of two and converted to hexadecimal, this was the result:

Step scbvicg is parabbeb & at cight ccby#

This was later deciphered to:

Step solving is parallel and at night only

Meanwhile, a fight broke out between two users claiming to be the [Puppet Master|puppet master] resulting in a temporary lock down of the chat. Neither user could provide proof.

Video: time

A new video "time" was uploaded. The video itself contained the text:

WE SHALL LAY LOW FOR A BIT

WE NEED TIME TO SOLVE IT

NEW VIDEO SOON

P

Later, the Project 11 discord user joined the channel to say:

time 0:10

This time corresponds to the P in the video. The user left the server shortly after.

---

Announcement

The Project 11 discord user (now confirmed to be the PM by an HTML comment on the website) made an announcement of an upcoming Q&A session:

Greetings, friends.
-
I shall announce an event.
-
Within the next 2 days, I will come into this chatroom for exactly 2 minutes, feel free to talk to me and ask me questions within that time.
-
Stay safe my friends.

---

Q&A

Here are the questions asked and answers given:

What is the difference between the 1st row of steps, and 2nd?

There is practically no difference between 1st & 2nd iterations of steps, only the soul changes.

What are the steps, and where does one begin after another ends?

The steps are sequential, both in their own iterations in parallel, what the steps means is up to you to discover, clues are hidden in "wisdom", "plan" & "time" about it.

Who is Sancora?

We do know Sancora, he was one of the few aware of this project weeks ago, though he is not linked in this project in any way, we do believe that he was simply framed just because he was ahead.

What is being solved in parallel, and at night, exactly?

The steps towards the release date leak of this game.

Is it the leak a leak of assets,a leak of footage, or a leak of information?

It is a leak of information, of both the game name and the release date of said game.

Is there another group working on this? -y, Are we competing against them, or are they working alongside us? Where are they? Are we row 1, or row 2?

No, there's isn't any other group.

Are you with the company the game is being leaked from? -n, Is this game yours?

No, we are not from the company where the game release date is being leaked from, it is not our game.

What is the link between the items on the list you sent us?

That is up to you to discover, clues are hidden in "wisdom", "plan" & "time".

What do the overtones mean, if anything?

The overtones do not mean anything.

What game is it?

That is up to you to discover.

Is this game an indie game?

It is not an indie game.

After answering these questions, Project 11 left the server, as usual

Video: progress

The video, "progress", was posted on June 5th and contained the following:

OUR PROGRESS HAS SPED UP

W * A * C * R * J * C * I * G

IT COULD TAKE WEEKS

---

A Direct Message

User and Wiki editor @Nauthas got a direct message from the confirmed Project 11 stating:

It is within those 210 definitions. https://www.abbreviations.com/serp.php?st=AP

A following message came half an hour later stating:

As soon as this is over, a global uprising will happen

After a discussion on possibilities another message was sent:

You misunderstand, I meant global uprising about AP.

When Discord user @HyzerBlade linked this video on quantum sound, one further reply was made by Project 11:

@HyzerBlade "Quantum"... yes

Later on, the website's `style.css` was updated with this comment:

/* The quantum world has many relations to AP. */

Video: cryptography

The video, "cryptography", was posted on June 7th and contained the following:

128

THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO

It is speculated that 128 could be AES-128. The text This is what you have to look forward to most likely means that we are going to need use the 128 clue at a later time.

---

Smith and Wesson

Picture of the gun

Project 11 joined the discord chat and quickly messaged the following:

It protects me from bad entities at night… [1]

The gun itself appears to be a Smith and Wesson Pro Series 1911. Notably a real firearm, although it is unknown if this intended)

---

Discord Message

Project 11 joined discord and messages the chat the following:

Today, I shall be silent, tonight, perhaps...

A little later Project 11 joined again and said the following:

The Date is just 1 dimension away...

A discord user then discussed whether or not this ARG would be soon be over or not and Project 11 joined and replied:

This is far from over.

The Astral Plane

Discord users were trying to figure out what AP could of meant as an abbreviation from the list of 210 abbreviations, but were coming up short at every turn.

Eventually, Project 11 joined the chat and simply messaged the following before leaving:

P

After speculation by discord users what P could represent, Project 11 rejoined to message this:

SP -> AP

Again, after much speculation by discord users, Project 11 rejoined once more to message the following:

AP -> Date Retrieval 

At this time, discord users were still stumped by that this could mean. And almost by pitty, Project 11 once again stepped in for this hint:

Remember: SP -> AP -> Date Retrieval

An hour later Project 11 joined and said:

AP Consists of a new world.

Eventually, some discord user mentioned the Astral Plane and Project 11 soon joined to mention the following:

The Astral Plane, yes...

Twenty minutes later, Project 11 joined and told the discord users the following:

We have yet to solve it fully, progress is being made, be patient.

The next day, Project 11 messaged the discord chat with the following:

I have achieved AP, my partner has yet to achieve it, when we both complete Step 3, we will compare, and it will be glorious.

It is highly speculated that Project 11's partner is represented by the second column on the Project 11 website. Step 2 on the second column has since been completed.

A discord user asked Project 11 if AP, Astral Plane, was merely a dream, Project 11 joined and replied:

It isn't a dream.

---

Thunderstorm Inducer

Project 11 randomly joins the discord chat and messages the following:

Someone is trying to stop us, stall our progress.
Thunderstorm inducer, he is violent. If you are responsible, STOP RIGHT NOW. More information soon.

Some discord users were lead to believe that someone was literally trying to stop Project 11 from progressing, and assumed he might of been getting hacked. Project 11 soon replied to this claim by saying the following:

We are not being hacked, someone is trying to stop our progress in AP by scaring us, the thunderstorm inducer, it happened to me, it's terrifying.

Its speculated that Project 11 is Role Playing or playing in-character, as someone besides his IRL-self. He claims to have been in the AP, the Astral Plane, and had met these thunderstorm inducers which are the entities slowing down his work in the Astral Plane

The hunt for what SP could mean finally lead a discord user saying Sleep Paralysis in chat. Project 11 joined almost immediately and said the following:

Sleep paralysis...my old friend…

---

Patience

A conversation in discord arose about whether or not the discord group should be patient and wait or continue to find clues and connections, Project 11 joined and replied with the following:

Yes please, wait for it, do not let Chaos Theory ruin it all.

The discord chat then stopped looking for clues and waited for further instructions. It is also unknown if the mention of Chaos Theory has connection to anything.

A discord user then asked if we were required to Astral Project, Project 11 soon replied:

You do not have to Astral Project, we do all the work, you just worry about solving the end game of this ARG when we are done. You are on the right path.

The next day, Project 11 made an appearance in chat, breaking the silence since he told users to wait patiently, and said the following:

Greetings, the end will now be slowly rolling out for the next days, stay safe my friends.

Discord users were then concerned about how long this ARG would last, due to the number of videos the Project 11 YouTube channel appeared to have in total. Some worried that the ARG would not finish in time for the 2016 E3, as the the channel had a handful of video left that were all set to private. Discord user @Espilon mentioned this and Project 11 gave this reply:

The private videos are merely a glitch in YouTube, I am uploading them in real-time in Public.

Some discord users were skeptical about this "YouTube glitch" while others accepted it.

---

Later on in the day, Project 11 made an appearance once more saying the following:

Consider the next few days a mental preparation of the end.

He later went on to answer a question by a user, the question is unknown, and replied with this:

Yes, the last stretch is something only heroes could accomplish, and you will be seen as heroes.

Two hours later, Project 11 gave the discord chat their final clue for the day, that being:

Cryptography lies deep within the end game.

Users speculated what Project 11 mean't by end game and most assumed he referred to the final puzzle.

---

A Secret AMA

At around 1:53 UTC, Project 11 came in and allowed the few users in the dead chat room to ask more questions for 2 minutes, opening with this message:

Gentlemen, I am back, you are now assisting a secret AMA, the timer has started, two minutes, please proceed…

The following are the questions and answers given and received.

Will the game appear at e3?

That I do not know, I will be as much surprised as any fellow here.

Where do you work?

I work at my house, my partner is far away.

Is it an indie game?

It is not an indie game.

Is this game a AAA title?

I very much believe that this game will be an AAA title.

Are matrices important?

Matrices are not important, not as far as i'm concerned anyways.

Why are you doing this?

Because the world deserves to know.

At this time, 2 minutes was up and Project 11 said:

Timer is up, goodbye.

Useful information from this AMA:

• Highly likely to be an AAA title
• Confirmed not an indie game
• Matrices are not important (dealing with the 128 from the cryptography video)

The Key

Project 11 joined the discord chat to share the following:

Once we are done, the reveal will be hidden in this encrypted message, until then, reassemble all the clues, it will help you in your quest to find the key.

It is speculated that the key P11 is referring to is yet to be revealed, as we are to wait and assemble all of our clues to help us when the time comes to finish the final puzzle

Video: website

The video, "website", was posted on June 8th and contained the following:

IT WILL LIE IN THE WEBSITE

AES

As suggestion in the cryoptgraphy video, AES could make mention to AES-128. The text It will lie in the website is speculated by most users to mean that the next clue will reside in the source code of the website, or an another unknown website.

Discord Message #2

On June 8th, Project 11 joined the discord chat and messaged the following:

New video tonight.

An hour later, Project 11 joined again and had this to say:

The last step is the hardest, yet it'll take only 2 seconds in the end, it will be all worth it.

User speculated that the it'll only take 2 seconds in the end could mean that after we find something like a string of text or a code, we can trigger something or decrypt something within seconds.

Video: ap

The video, "ap", was posted on June 8th and contained the following:

THE SEPARATION IS THE HARDEST

THE DATES WILL MERGE

A Canvas For A Revelation

On June 9th, Project 11 joined the chat and messaged:

The website is a canvas for the revelation that shall soon come true.

It was pointed out by a discord user this may mean the website will play host to the last/final puzzle.

A little later, Project 11 joined back and said the following:

Look deeper. 
My canvas will have much more meaning that you think.

A discord user noticed a link in the website’s stylesheet to a background.png that appeared to be dead. After users did some digging and seemed to turn up nothing with a 403 error, Project 11 again joined to say:

403 error was a mere technical difficulty, it should be fixed now.

Many users soon speculated that this image had to have some importance if Project 11 had to update it for us since it was broken.

Soon after the background.png was found to be accessible.

Project 11 later joined to message this:

https://i.imgur.com/CpXU8Cu This is my new gun.

A discord immediately identified it as another Smith and Wesson, the model 645. Most results returned are in French, with the exact image appearing here

After many discord users were trying to figure out the significance of these two new images, Project 11 interjected and had this to say:

I wonder... https://i.imgur.com/oHptcp8

After discussion of what could be hidden in these files, one discord user suggested it was text while another suggested it had to be an image. Project 11 then joined and messaged this:

It is text.

At this point, the discord chat was in full spin, trying to figure out what was hidden in these images. Users were all over the place, trying different methods until Project 11 interjected:

You are rushing it.
You do not account for compression.
Compression or not, my message shall remain intact.

At this point, many discord users were scrambling to find the solution, trying every possible method they could think of. Project 11 interjected to add:

Did you look everywhere?

It was also noted that the main site text that before read “Hard work pays off” now similarly repeats “It will pay off” as the first and last line of the header. Link

---

Later that day, Project 11 joined the discord chat to say a few words. Our bot Andrew Martin was down, so these records will be incomplete. The following are merely Project 11’s messages in chronological order.

This is merely the preparation of your success.

You haven't looked everywhere.

After a discord user found something promising with the images, Project 11 made this comment:

You are on the right path, keep going.

At this point, it seemed to many users that Project 11 was almost spoon feeding us hints to get us on the right track.

Project 11 soon after messaged this:

Look harder. In the channels.

A discord user almost instantly thought of RGB channels located in photo editing programs like photoshop, but when tried, nothing of importance came out of it. But Project 11 soon added:

The last 2 bits, they're at it again…

After much time, Project 11 gave us another hint:

You are closer than ever. 
APPEND

The users of discord soon realized we had to use a method called Steganography to extract text from a image.

And a little bit later, Project 11 messaged:

(These messages are over the span of a hour or so. Exact time stamps unknown)

Remember, this part is all a training, but it will be the key to your success.
Think clearly.

Three channels per pixel, one byte per color, the last two bits...account for compression.

@DankParrot You did not account for compression.

Let the decoder take care of the work.

Yes PNGs are lossless

But nonetheless, they are compressed

Do not account for compression

Rushing it through ruins it. 

You are rushing it.
You do not account for compression.

Compression or not, my message shall remain intact.

@DankParrot My personal stenography encoder/decoder works in this situation, you can do it.

No passwords required.

Eventually, @DankParrot solved the steganography puzzle and got the follow text from this image:

My partner is starting to do fairly good with AP.
He might even get a date before I do.
If all goes very well, the revealation may be before E3

After the final paragraph of text was decoded, Project 11 joined and messaged this:

I am here.

You did good.

There is though the last stretch.

For both us and you.

We yet have the get the dates, we are now closer than ever.
When we have the dates, I shall declare the end game.

You will need all the manpower you need.

I shall still tell a few hints there and there.
But for the time being

DO NOT FORGET US.

Video: prepare

The video, "prepare", was posted on June 8th and contained the following:

YOU ARE NOW MENTALLY PREPARED
ALL IS LEFT IS FOR US TO GET THE DATES
DO NOT FORGET US

Discord Message #3

After 30 minutes or so from the upload of "prepare", Project 11 joined and messaged the discord chat:

Conclusion message of this preparation:
For the time being, I will come once each day to keep you updated of our progress
There will be unlikely any new videos.
Perhaps there'll be hints.
Stay safe my friends.

A little bit later he also messaged:

The date retrieval happens every night. We are trying out best into retrieving these dates. Good night my friends.

Its speculated that by the date retrieval happens every night means they only can enter the AP, Astral Plane, with Astral Project only at night, which limits their progress to advancing only at night. The CSS file of the website mentions TWO SAME DATES WILL CHANGE THIS WORLD, so some believe we have to merge these two dates together, possibly using AES-128, although this is currently unknown.

---

Discord user @Wapiti messaged this in chat, hoping for a response from Project 11:

P11 come on. How long do we have to wait, approximately?

Project 11 joined to say this in response:

Sadly, there is no predefined "wait time", it is also not up to my liking either, the wait time will depend on how good we progress towards those three steps, we are trying our best.

At best, expect one to a few days, at the worst, expect a few weeks.

Discord user @Wapiti messaged this in chat, hoping for a response from Project 11:

Is there something we can do to speed up this process?

Project 11 joined back to say this in response:

It also saddens us just as much that it might take long, because we are very excited too about discovering this date.

Sadly, there is nothing you can do to speed up the process, it is a strict plan setup for me and my partner only.

Progress Update 1

On June 9th, Project 11 joined and messaged this to the discord chat:

Greetings friends.

Daily Progress Update #1

Sadly, I have not managed to enter SP tonight.

My partner has yet to connect today, either he's busy or he is AP'ing succesfully, in which case the progress shall bump up to 83%!

Stay safe my friends.

---

Later that day, Project 11 joined again to give us yet another update, saying:

Daily Progress Update #1.2

My partner finally came back, it seems that he was very close to AP once again.

Perhaps he'll try again in a few hours.

---

List Connections

Full Transcript

For a full transcript of the chat between Project 11 and users on June 9th about the List, please the link above.

Otherwise, below will be the messages needed to understand the connections between the items on the list.

Equinox:

The answer is projection

Project 11:

@Equinox Projection...yes.

Equinox:

But tell me Project 11, what DID projection have to do with WoW? And Town of Salem? And XI?

Project 11:

Well, WoW being the fact that you can get out of your body, you are on the etheral plane when you die, Town of Salem because there is a role that can speak to the dead, the people residing in the astral plane, and Xi being that Greeks astral projected fairly often.

Epsilon:

What does that even mean?

Project 11:

Well

We, all of us, for this game can estimate within how many years it's likely to be release

Say 5 years

1825 days approx

1/1825

=~ 0.0005%

^ This is the chance for the date being wrong.

Square it to account for my partner

You get 0.00000025%

Project 11:

Three things can happen.

Project 11:

1. This project fails, the dates do not merge and they are inconclusive (Fairly unlikely)

2. This project is successful, the dates merge. We are within the 99.99999975% chance that it is correct.

3. The project is successful, the dates merge, but sadly a coincidence happens, we fall into the 0.00000025%

Epsilon:

What does it mean for a date to merge?

Be identical?

Project 11:

Exactly.

Project 11:

We each project independently.

We ask the higher universe: "When?"

We retrieve a date from this.

We come back, we connect, we do a countdown, and we write the date at the same time.

Project 11:

There should be a margin of error of a day.

The day should be exact

If the day, month and year are exact, this is for real.

Project 11:

I shall come back tomorrow for the daily progress update, goodnight.

---

Update 2 / A Secret AMA #2

Project 11 joins the discord chat to tell users his progress for retrieving the dates to this mysterious game. He doesn't have much progress, so instead holds a AMA for the users in the chat

Project 11:

Hello

Sadly, I do not have any more updates, but I will answer to your questions and talk for a few moments.

Do you know anything at all?

I basically know nothing about the game, except its name, and of course, its release date soon.

The image in the crypt video, where did you find this image from?

I can not tell such information.

Was the game's info deliberately hidden in the astral or was that your best way of getting at it?

I don't think it's deliberately hidden in the Astral, but we are desperate like you, we had nothing to do, so we're doing this, so that you don't have to.

Is it a game that EVERYONE in this chat wants? You say it's something that will break the internet, but how do you know that if you don't know what it is?

And yes, I do believe it is a game that everyone in this chat wants.

Is the game a sequel?

Yes, the game is a sequel.

But how do you know it's something we want? @Project 11 You said you didn't know what it is correct?

I do know that it is something you want, because it is something that pretty much the entire internet is waiting for since several years. So i'm pretty positive i'm correct on that one.

How did you do the static video effects for your videos? As a designer, it's quite interesting

I'll be honest, just some random Vegas effects there and there, notably "HitFilm TV Damage" and control it via keyframes.

Will you be holding an AMA after this is all over?

Yes, I do believe I will be holding an AMA after all of this is over.

Is this AP/Process/Project looking bright for you? How much longer do you estimate?

AP is fairly hard to do, sometimes we are progressing fairly well, sometimes it comes to a halt for a few, hopefully within the week-next week it should be completly done. We are really trying our best.

I thought if you could AP, you could see things in our world. Have you tried going into Valve's offices

I have not tried going into Valve's office as I do not have any interest in going in there, I shall simply ask the date.

How can we be certain you know/will know something? To be fair, I'm kind of losing hope with every passing day.

We'll try our best.

We need a clearer mind to do this properly

Which is also why the videos and the hints all around the place have halted.

Do you prefer cheese over or under the ham?

Cheese over the ham.

After the AMA ended, Project 11 stopped accepting questions and said this:

Project 11:

I think it's a fair time for me to leave, stay safe my friends.

---

Progress Update #3

Project 11:

Daily Progress Update #3

 I was a hair's width away from entering AP, I managed to chain 3 SPs in a row last night.
My partner has yet to come back.
As tension arises lately, I will cool down on the hints in the mean time.
Stay safe my friends.

---

On hold

Project 11:

Greetings friends.
Let's face it, since this ARG is at the stage of "very boring", I think it's time for me to declare that this ARG is on hold.
That does not mean that it is over, the big end game awaits, but first we must finish our work.
E3 is coming up faster than ever, we are very close to completition, but not close enough as we'd like. That means that many of you might leave this ARG when E3 begins, but that's okay.
Be sure to keep an eye on this ARG though, because things could go from "very boring" to "exciting" in a few seconds!
We'll try to update you on our progress in the mean time (Coming later today)
When we are done, I will upload a last video.
Stay safe my friends.

It was at this time that the Project 11 Discord was locked, until the PM updated or signaled a moderator.

Discord Briefly Reopened

At about 10:41 AM EST, the discord channel was spoken in by Project 11, having been reopened. Project 11 said:

Greetings friends.

Daily Progress Update #4
---
I do believe I finally received a part of the date, my partner has yet to see it.

Progress Update #4

Project 11 joined the discord chat on June 16th to leave us this message:

Daily Progress Update #4
---
Not much progress at all for those last 2 days.
Stay safe my friends.

Progress Update #5

Project 11 joined Discord on June 18th to say:

Daily Progress Update #5
---
We have made some progress, hints towards success manifest far more than ever.
Stay safe my friends.

Progress Update #6

On June 19th, P11 joined Discord and said:

Project 11
Daily Progress Update #6
---
I have finally reached step 3, I have the date, now I am just waiting on my partner, if my partner completes step 3 today, then today shall be the reveal day!

Video: it ends

The video, "it ends", was posted on June 19th and contained the following:

THE PROJECT WAS SUCCESSFUL

THE GAME NAME AND HIS RELEASE DATE SHALL NOW BE REVEALED

HOW WE DID IT IS YOUR KEY

ARE YOU WORTHY?

THIS IS THE LAST STRETCH

I PROMISE

DO NOT GIVE UP

AES 128

IT'S IN THE BACKGROUND

I WILL DESTROY THIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL IN 1 DAY.

I WILL DESTROY THE WEBSITE IN 11 DAYS

WHEN YOU ARE DONE, I WILL AUTOMATICALLY DESTROY THEM AND I SHALL COME FROM ONE LAST TALK.

GOOD LUCK.

* END OF TRANSMISSION *

It Ends

The following is was the chat log from the Project 11 discord channel and their efforts to solve the final puzzle.

Project 11:

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.
The project was successful.
The time for action is now.
https://projecteleven.co.nf/

Project 11 gave no hints or indication on what to do, so discord users were left with the video "it ends" to tell them what needs to be done.

Eventually, a discord user came across this string of text hidden in the background.png. The string of text went:

LKrTQ82ABx6qQUo7FzfNBiGZ94LOhSE0TOA58VrKeWlhtG+GatS0FumY2sKghRHpVxJyrN3EoHD4l5raldNq75KICSTy01UaFmMa7LVVqa4=

Discord users were on the right track but quickly got side tracked, Project 11 came into the channel to give us the clue:

Hmm, that's a random initialization vector right there.

An Initialization Vector is an arbitrary number that can be used along with a secret key for data encryption.

Even though users had this newest hint, many still couldn't figure out what the answer was. Much time later, Project 11 joined once more and messaged:

We use PBKDF2 for the key.

PBKDF2 is one type of encryption used by the US government. The use of PBKDF2 in this puzzle was unknown. Still, many discord users did not know what to do with all these hints, some users even became frustrated at Project 11 for being to vague. He later joined the chat to give this new hint:

How we did this project is your key, gather up the steps, imagine our story on our side and you may find the answer.

Some users speculated that the steps used to complete Project 11's process to obtain the dates would end up to be the key that the users seek to solve this puzzle, but many ignored these claims.

Project 11 once again entered the chat to give yet another clue to progress the puzzle further to completion with this hint:

We use PBKDF2 for the key.
The password is 21 characters long, it is a sentence, without caps nor spaces not special symbols, only letters.

It was at this moment discord users were finally back up and running on solving this puzzle, many users coming up with 4 word sentences that compose of 21 letters that would act as a key to decrypt the string of text previously found. It was only a matter of time until the correct 4 word sentence was found.

Finally, out of no where, discord lurker @KillySG10 finally came up with the correct 4 word sentence, that being

youprojectedthefuture.

Using the website Infoencrypt.com, suggested by Project 11 himself, users were able to decrypt the string

LKrTQ82ABx6qQUo7FzfNBiGZ94LOhSE0TOA58VrKeWlhtG+GatS0FumY2sKghRHpVxJyrN3EoHD4l5raldNq75KICSTy01UaFmMa7LVVqa4= 

using the password

youprojectedthefuture 

to reveal the answer to the entire ARG. As promised, the name of the game and its released date was revealed to be

Half-Life 3, 9th of December 2017.

The Project 11 discord erupted in anger and frustration, as many users took this has a sign that this entire ARG was a big prank, and that Project 11 must be a troll. Discord users started shamming Project 11, calling him names and making fun of him and his ARG. Many simply did not believe the game could possibly be Half-Life 3, even though many wished from the begging that it would be Half-Life 3.

Immediately, Project 11 joins the chat to say the following:

My friends.
You did it! You have found the release date of Half-Life 3.
You are worthy.
Mr partner told me about Astral Projection.
They say that you can foresee the future in the Astral.
I saw the potential it could hold and so did my partner.
I had a random idea, get Half-Life 3's release date.
But how could we prove that it is the true date?
One simple project.
We both entered Sleep Paralysis.
We both entered the Astral Plane.
We both asked to the higher universe "When?"
We both got a date.
We woke up.
We compared the dates.
They were the same.
It has to be it.
We believe in it.
You should too.
Though, we do not blame you for not believing us.
Infact, we expect most people to not believe us and walk away.

Discord user then asked Project 11 why he should be believed. Project 11 replied with:

That's okay, the project was successful.

Project 11 went on further to say:

This is Project 11.
We are now no more.
But the world now sees all.
Farewell.

---

The Final AMA

The following is the AMA with Puppetmaster Project 11 after the completion of ARG Project 11. Project 11 gave discord users 5 minutes to ask questions before he left the discord forever.

Project 11

I will now take in some questions for 5 minutes.

Who are you

I cannot reveal who I am.

Why did you want to create such an elaborate puzzle instead of just telling us?

Because else 100% of people would not believe me. We had to make it a tad more interesting, but that's okay if nobody believes us.

Are you from Valve or related to Valve?

I am not related to Valve.

Has valve tried to stop you?

I do believe Valve has tried to stop me once.

I cannot reveal myself to this world, no matter the method used to retrieve these dates, I am not safe anymore.

Is Sancora one of your friends ?

Sancora is not one of my friends.

Who would hunt you? Why are you not safe anymore?

For starters perhaps Valve, then possibly the government.

Project 11:

Time has run out.

The 5 minute timer was out. And Project 11 gave his last messages to the users of the discord.

I do not care whetever you trust me or not.

The project was successful, goodbye my friends.

And like that, the Project 11 ARG was over. Project 11 then deleted his website and Youtube Channel (which are now archived and viewable here and here respectively)

The name of the game and its release date that everyone has worked so hard to find was Half-Life 3, 9th of December 2017.

Obviously, it was a hoax.