Project 11:Timeline

It begins

In June 2016, someone posted to the Facepunch forums about a Discord user named Project 11 who had joined their server and linked to http://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.

Commented in

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.

Project 11 Youtube Channel

The Project 11 Youtube Channel hosted two other videos besides "clue". One entitled "It begins" and the other entitled "aaaa"

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

Video: It Beings

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

Video: AAAA

The YouTube video "aaaa" is 12 seconds long and mostly static once again, before text appears saying:

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

APPEND THE BYTES

This was connected by discord users to Emergency Alarm Systems, Specific Area Message Encoding and Emergency Action Notifications.

Discord Hint

A hint was given out on the Discord by a 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

Verification of whether these messages came from the ARG creator or a 3rd party troll is unknown, so most took this lightly.

Video: AAAA #2

An Image from the video "aaaa" 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

Video: It Begins #2

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

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. http://bit.ly/1r4iQHE

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

The Projector

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

Video: steps

Another "video" was uploaded this time being 25 seconds long and containing less static, instead showing text saying:

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

New Website

The website was moved with an archive. It contained the text:

Hard work pays off.
-
This project involves the leak of a game and its release date.
-
Once the steps are complete, the date and the name will be revealed.
-
Hard work pays off.

Video: Wisdom

A new video was uploaded. It was once again 11 seconds long and this time 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 roughly 0:04 there is what seems to be an A, similar to the P in the later discovered video "time".

New user (Game-jacking Attempt)

A new user entered the discord server, sent a link, then left the server.

More permanent link to the image: link

It was pointed out that the image is a texture from Half Life 2.

Full texture here found by @Kaiba in a Garry's mod map (gm_blackmesa_sigma)

NOTE: User's connection to the game was the subject of a gamejacking

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

The next line is hard to read, so it's not a perfect transcript

W * [A?] * C * [R/A?] *  J * C * I * E

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. http://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

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

It protects me from bad entities at night… [http://i.imgur.com/UGl9Dwk.png

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

A 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.

Dreamlock

Discord user @Dreamlock messaged the chat:

Remember. To be is to be perceived.

Project 11 then joined and messaged the followed:

Despite @Dreamlock not being apart of this project, he's got a good point.

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.

That was the end of communication by P11 for that day.

Its speculated that Project 11 is playing in-character as given in hints later to come.

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 P11 from progressing, and assumed he might of been getting hacked. P11 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 P11 isRole 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

A Discord Message. Part 2

Project 11 randomly joins the discord chat and message this simple sentence before leaving:

It begins

What he meant was unknown.

SP

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… 

Astral Plane. Part 2

After much waiting, 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 P11'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 P11 if AP, Astral Plane, was merely a dream, Project 11 joined and replied:

It isn't a dream.

Patience

A conversation in discord arrised 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 End

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 P11 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)