Okay, here are some questions (and a thread to put them in):

First, what is with the race between the Greyhound and the White rat?
Now, of course these clearly aren't the only influences ...what about Alexander Bogdanov (of tectology etc.) for example?

Anyway, I started reading the Ugly Swans and ...you're right about the similarities. There's even Odonge of a sort... Its interesting that the two universes can have so many similarities (eg. the walled off compound) and yet such different underlying plots. Anyway, there is a very impressive scene in chapter eight which makes it worth the read.

Do you know if the red and white checkered scarf/flags have special significance or was it just chosen because it has never been used?

This I one didn't get. Could you xplain what you meant just now? Not sure, but almost 99% that yes, subconciously - most people of our team read quite a lot, so... I'm not sure of what you're talking about right now either. Getting old... )))))

1.
Er... on, I think, day four there is a giant white rate and a black dog apparently racing each other down one of the canals... I was wondering what they were up to? I probably shouldn't have shot the dog ...I was pretty rattled at the time. Its just one more neat detail in the game.

Does a greyhound and white rat = a tortoise and a hare or a black rat and a white rat or something else?

2.
The nice thing about a game which is played partially subconsciously ("he who is thinking logically and straightforwardly...") is that you pick up on the authors subconscious influences. So not knowing exactly what they are is really irrelevant I guess. Still, the game has a reach texture and depth to it that makes it worth exploring its origins.

3.
Ah... well the Strugatskys' book is clearly set in a universe where there was a white victory in the civil war. I was wondering if the state symbols were chosen to allude to or deliberately not allude to something etc.

4.
How are the localisations on Turgor coming