Bonus Fact #1: The game's winding roads are part of a secret, imagined highway through Kentucky's Mammoth Cave. It's a nod to Colossal Cave Adventure, the very first text adventure, which also took place there.
Bonus Fact #2: Southern Gothic works like Kentucky Route Zero often feature eccentric, sometimes disturbing characters whose unique personalities challenge the "backwards hillbilly" stereotypes about the American South.
Bonus Fact #3: The creators, who have ties to Kentucky, drew on real places they've been there but only sought to capture the lived-in, memory-laden feel of those places rather than literal recreations of them.
Bonus Fact #4: The iconic band is the game's Greek chorus, helping the player understand what's going on. They first appear playing cards in the basement of the opening scene.
Bonus Fact #5: Even though dialogue options don't change the story, the creators suggest that the player's experience constructing their own dialogue is meaningful in the same way that a reader's interpretation of a novel would be.
Bonus Fact #6: When initially pitched on Kickstarter, Kentucky Route Zero was a side-scrolling platformer. They stripped that down to just narrative and exploration gameplay with positive feedback from their backers.
Bonus Fact #7: Setting up props in Unity to construct their levels reminded the game's creators of theater setpiece design, so they decided to embrace that theatrical element and weave it into their game design.
Bonus Fact #8: Kentucky Route Zero is meant to explore the uncertainty of the 21st Century, with the spiritual and physical displacement caused by factors like recession that are beyond any one person's control.