#Karnoffel Code

[patchwork-crow-writes]

What Is Magnificus's Endgame?

Heavy Inscryption spoilers under the Read More - you have been warned.

The four Scrybes of Inscryption are all after the OLD_DATA, and each has their reasoning for trying to gain access to it. P03 wants to spread itself across the internet and ensure its domination over the other Scrybes somewhere; Grimora wants to erase the entire game along with the OLD_DATA, to ensure it can never fall into the wrong hands; and Leshy just... wants to chill and play an immersive card game in his cabin.

But we are never given a reason why Magnificus wants the OLD_DATA. The only hint we are ever given is by Rebecha, the bridge-builder NPC in Acts 2 and 3, who mentions that his intentions are "too terrible to say", and never elaborates on that, or even brings it up ever again. Everything surrounding the Scrybe of Magics is intentionally cryptic and ambiguous, from his abilities of precognition, his randomly disappearing mid-sentence, and the... questionable treatment of his pupils.

But we can discern clues from these scattered fragments, along with a few secrets unearthed in the Console ARG, to piece together a possible motivation.

Let's start with Magnificus himself. As mentioned previously, he is the Scrybe of Magics, and his inscryption tool is a paintbrush, with which he can apply and remove sigils from existing cards. We can therefore understand him as an artistic soul, with a flair for the dramatic and producing the maximum possible impact from his works. He holds high expectations of those who would study under or challenge him, as we can see by the harsh treatment of his pupils.

Magnificus has three mages under his tutelege, who we know as Goobert, Amber and the Lonely Wizard. Each of them are vying for a coveted place in their master's deck, and have been subjected to various trials to prove themselves worthy, with Goobert being turned into literal goo, Amber existing as a head impaled upon a pike, and the Lonely Wizard deprived of all sensory experience. In each case, their suffering is commented upon and is demonstrated to be very real. On top of this, the three of them have been sealed away in their own pocket dimensions, completely isolated from the rest of the world.

You would expect Magnificus himself to comment upon them - to at least congratulate you for besting his students. But he never mentions them at all. You might be forgiven for thinking he had forgotten about them entirely, or even for holding them in utter contempt. His treatment of a picture painted by Goobert, where the two of them are happily embracing, is indicative of this attitude, with Goobert being completely whited-out from the picture.

The question is, why does Magnificus treat his pupils this way? What possible reason could there be to subject them to such horrific treatments, other than to ensure that they suffer in the worst possible ways? Could that suffering actually be integral to his process - his way to ensure that the "best" art is created? Much is said of the relationship between art and suffering, with the trope of the "tortured artist", and numerous quotes attributed to different artists linking the two. Of particular note is this quote attributed to Aldous Huxley:

"Perhaps it's good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he's happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?"

Perhaps Magnificus believes it is a necessary precondition to suffer in order to produce the best art, the best cards, the best possible creative output. The greater the suffering, the greater the resulting work... and in fact, thanks to the Console ARG, we know this suffering is exactly what Magnificus is after.

The "Console ARG" is a secret exclusively found in the console releases of Inscryption, where through a series of puzzles players can discover the existence of a character called James Cobb. Further delving tells us that he was once a pupil of Magnificus, and that his trial involved his body warping and changing into different forms. But Magnificus was displeased with his protegee and got rid of him... which we discover is because Cobb actually seemed to enjoy what was happening to him. He wasn't suffering, so the Scrybe of Magics found him wanting. This tells us that the suffering of his pupils - who it should be remembered are to become the subjects of his paintings - is absolutely vital for his method of inscryption.

So then, all that remains is to link this knowledge with the OLD_DATA, and then try and discern what Magnificus wants to accomplish with it. So let's look at what the OLD_DATA actually is... or rather, what it's rumoured to be.

The OLD_DATA is intrinsically linked with the Karnoffel Code, which was supposedly a sequence of Karnoffel cards found in Adolf Hitler's breast pocket after his death, which contained the activation key for some sort of doomsday device. According to Kaycee's notes hidden in her Mod, she reckons device could potentially have the power to wipe Europe off the face of the map. And this doesn't even touch on the data's more supernatural aspects, including its seeming ability to grant sapience to the digital inhabitants of Inscryption, or that it may very well be an aspect of the Devil himself.

Consider the sheer scale of descruction that could be unleashed by the contents of the OLD_DATA, should it fall into the hands of someone willing to utilise it. Consider the sheer amount of suffering such an event would cause. Consider Magnificus's seeming devotion to have his subjects suffer for the sake of his art...

And so, we come to our answer. The reason that Maginificus has for pursuing the OLD_DATA, the reason that's "too terrible to say", is so that he can cause an event that unleashes untold suffering upon the world... for as his past and present actions show, there can be no true art without suffering.

And the greater the suffering... the greater the masterpiece.

[cyber-corp]

?!?!?!?!??!??!?!?!?!?!??!

nearly finished with Inscryption. Hopefully I'll finish it today

[emo-gremlin]

P03 headcanons

💾 Since transcending to the real world, the OLD_DATA attached herself to him. Using the old coding of him as a stoat, she took that form and is now his pet. She likes to sleep in his chest, amongst his wires. She comes out very dusty.

💾 He loves watching fail compilations because it's funny.

💾 Took up coding and hacking to pay the bills and feed Data.

💾 Grimora is the only Scrybe he actually gets along with. She makes good tea, and is quite pleasant company. Her way of teaching him about organic life is nowhere near as condescending or high and mighty like the other two.

💾 Unfortunately due to his...well I mean he's a fucking robot, the human world ain't ready for robots like him. So he has to live with the other Scrybes. He HATES it. Grimora and Leshy are the only two human-presenting Scrybes of the group so they have to do all the shopping and such.

💾 Data is quite intelligent, since she contains the Karnoffel code, she's able to understand human speech. She's also able to help P03 with some of his wires.

💾 P03 is the tech expert of the house. He holds it over everyone's head. Smug bastard.

💾 Turns out, Data is quite popular on social media. Thankfully, his followers believe P03's wearing a cosplay in pictures he appears in.

💾 Soft drinks (Tea, black coffee, water) he can pour into his exhaust system to use as a kind of steam energy. Hard drinks (Alcohol) have to go through his coolant system. The only port to get those inside is....In human terms he butt chugs Alcohol.

💾 Sloppy, truthful drunk. The effects of the Alcohol last much longer, usually taking up to 24 hours before he starts recovering from it.

💾 He beeps in sleep/charging mode.

💾 Has to do a "Spring cleaning" twice a year. Grimora helps. It can get a bit...awkward since his wires can be very sensitive, so he powers down during it. Grimora is the only one he trusts doing this.

💾Leshy had to help him one time and somehow P03 ended up with a cardinal nest in his chest.

💾 Magnificus helped another time and painted a mural on the inside of his plating. It melted because the paint he used couldn't withstand the heat of P03's processing.

💾 Despite everything they've done, deep down, very deep down, P03 is happy he isn't alone in the real world. Having some familiar faces helped a lot with the transition.

Scrybe household headcanons!

💾 Grimora tries to have Scrybe bonding nights. Uno is officially banned from the household. Monopoly too.

💾 They are hiding from GameFuna. The company doesn't know they're in the real living world, and they'd like to keep it that way if possible. The game devs are still reeling from the Great Transcendence.

💾 Because of his beastly nature, animals naturally trust him (Except Data, who resents him for trying to keep her trapped) this leads to many animals following him home. The consensus is that if any of the animals piss or shit on anything in the house, he has to clean/replace it. And they are to be NOWHERE near P03's room. The only exception is if Data hunts something and brings it to his room to eat.

💾 Magnificus gets commissioned by the local government quite a lot. He has to wear a suit and gloves, but thankfully the excuse of having hypertrichosis keeps people from asking questions.

💾 Grimora works at the local funeral home. Her surprisingly warm nature helps console those who have lost a loved one. She writes touching epitaphs for the dead. She's also great at helping young children understand death in a way that helps them grieve and accept their loved one is in a better place.

💾 Grimora is very popular among the goth crowd, growing a small following on social media. Due to P03's reprogramming of Inscryption, she doesn't really appear too much in game, so she's able to show her face a bit more.

💾 Magnificus also has a following online, but he's extremely critical if anyone asks for art advice from him. He's like the Gordon Ramsey of art.

💾 Leshy has a local D&D group he DMs for. One of his crew streams the games, and a lot of people are fans of his DM style. He doesn't have any online accounts.

💾 Somehow the Lonely Wizard is the only NPC that came with them. He's become the households resident creature. Data likes to nap in his lap sometimes.

Happy Easter, or to those who don't celebrate, Happy Sunday!

[cavernclaw]

she karnoffel code on my hex 'til i H0PELES$0UL

[decayednightmaremogai]

Karnoffel Code Corruption / Old Data Corruption

📺 - an alterpathic term for when you have been corrupted by the karnoffel code and/ or old data

💽 - in reference to pony island, the hex, and inscryption

[faineantgrl]

WAKES UP IN A COLD SWEAT.

THE DEVIL IS OBSESSED WITH MAKING VIDEO GAMES BECAUSE HE NOT ONLY WANTS LITERAL SOULS BUT WANTS TO MAKE SOMETHING WITH METAPHORICAL SOUL

IT FIRST DEVELOPS WITH PONY ISLAND, RIGHT? IT PROBABLY STARTED OFF AS A TRICK OR SOMETHING BUT DEVELOPED INTO "I GOTTA MAKE A GOOD FUCKING GAME"

but heres the thing: he lacks CREATIVITY. under developers of pony island he calls himself "stan tehdvil" and eventually goes by "lou natas" IN THE REAL ASS LIVING WORLD. this shows that he lacks creativity, the true kind, because come on man.

he has One good thing going on, the whole "pony island jump and destroy" gameloop and keeps trying to make it something more than just a simple game. but he struggles, because he doesn't understand why people love games that are more than just a simple gameplay loop with story and all that. he sees ""theodore"" [im still suspicious of that] potentially having fun solving the code puzzles and tries to incorporate that, but he fails to understand the fun isn't just solving the puzzle, but progressing the story that we are so deeply interested in.

the whole lost soul, final escape sequence, all that? it's NOT the devil trying to make any kind of game, it's just him getting upset with and tricking the player. but he fails to understand it's THAT which makes a good game.

the hex is centered around lionel snill's creations n whatnot, but we cannot forget the gamefuna ruining lionel's life sideplot. whats important to note is how the first two weaselkid game reviews are all about the quality of the game related to the earnest-ness, the soul of it. the devil tries to make a third game after buying the rights, as a CHEAT CODE TO MAKING A GOOD GAME. but he fails because he cannot be lionel. the reason everything from then on happens to lionel is because the devil realises that lionel has a special touch he doesn't, and is trying to "study" his games, why they're so beloved.

inscryption i think is a real turning point. remember how inscryption is both simultaneously a card game turned video game that was never finished, AND somehow a front for the old_data? heres what i think:

first off, as far as i know, gamefuna did not make the card game inscryption. once again, the devil‚ after losing his golden child for Good Games is trying to take a pre-existing beloved thing to make a good game. heres why i dont think inscryption, the normal game, actually released in-universe:

he failed again. it was never good enough to even RELEASE.

the old_data coverup floppy disk, however? the sentient characters... were making a good game. that's a huge reason why the devil Lost His Shit when it went missing, but im getting ahead of myself.

i think magnificus is not only the worst gameplay-wise, but also the CLOSEST TO THE ORIGINAL GAME. we already know the gameplay itself has been heavily modified by the game characters [arguably even without the use of the 3d-ifier OLD_DATA]. everything about him seems to be screaming about how unfinished he is, even p03 making that abundantly clear with his uberbot, and i dont think this is a coincidence. everything fun about his act 2 comes from the puzzles of a probably heavily modified aspect of gameplay. i'd also like to point out the fact that act 2, the closest to the original inscryption, has the whole OLD_DATA situation to thank for its funnest moments. inscryption, as the devil had designed it, was probably a much worse game.

but the others, leshy's attention to detail, p03's love for game design, grimora's fearlessness from breaking from the format laid out for her, they gave the game SOUL.

here's a question we never really solve: what the hell is the OLD_DATA?

it seems to contain a bunch of information outside of the karnoffel code, and lets be real the devil doesn't need whatever power that code provides, that doesn't really make sense to be included... on the surface.

its told to be horrible and horrific, but to the game characters, who are the very ones saying it, it's not very relevant to them from what we see [lbr i dont think anybody gives a shit about history that doesn't affect their existence in inscryption That Much]. But we must understand: it's always collecting.

It's collecting a story. It's collecting a timeline of events that generally move *humans*, emotionally. and the horrible secret of the OLD_DATA, what horrifies everyone, what horrifies the creative minds inside that floppy drive?

it's the worst nightmare possible in this scenario, of course: it's stealing the information of how to make a good game against their will. and that is the only reason the devil allowed them to still exist.

do you wonder why it took so long for panda circus to be made, in-universe? its because the devil needed to know that x-factor. what makes a good game with soul.

what makes people love your work. love you.

[into-the-temoverse]

"Anyone else think Teagan is acting kind of... Odd?"

"Teagan acting odd isn't anything unusual. She seems perfectly fine to me! Right Teags?"

Teagan is mumbling to herself in the corner, jotting down a bunch of notes. Something about the "Karnoffel Code"...

"... Okay no that's fucking odd, even for Teagan's standards—"

[vivrcard]

sorry im gonna make my own post about this actually because it drives me up a wall. i love inscryption to absolute death but oh my goddd WHAT was going through the devs head with that stupid ass arg. i dont understand. like i said, the bones for a good twist are literally all there but arent utilized properly because the story is just a smidge too obsessed with giving the audience a reason for whats happening, and i think thats an issue with a lot of pieces of media these days. everyone wants to tell you that yes, there is in fact an explanation for why this specific thing is happening. but no one thinks about whether it's good for the audience to know how things work. tying inscryption to a stupid conspiracy immediately takes a bit of the edge (not as in edginess. in fact id argue the game gets edgier once you know about all this and not necessarily in a good way) off the story. it's trying way too hard to be interesting or scary and fails to realize it was already interesting and creepy. without the karnoffel code stuff youre left with a game about a living video game whose characters all want to be in charge and thats literally fine. i dont need an explanation for that! im ready to accept that it's just possessed or glitched or whatever else.

in theory i like the idea of the game having hidden stuff in it that the characters warn you about. i think there are interesting routes you can go with that. maybe theyre all trying to prevent the game data from getting corrupted and dont trust each other to do a good job at that (and of course they all still want to be the one in charge). so you end up seeing bits of corruption as time goes on and each of these bits looks like a creature or something until it gets so bad that the game has to be erased. maybe the player can find and access bits of code and influence how the game works or what the scrybes do and they arent happy about it and eventually it all gets out of hand. i dont know. those are just a couple ideas i came up with on the spot; lord knows if theyre actually any good. frankly anything is better than the karnoffel code though imo.

[theoneandonlysun]

Can you check for any secret codes in your files? I know it's a weird question but it's extremely important.

Uh... yeah.

Sun's eyes bluescreen again.

The only things I have listed as codes are a huge list of pager codes and something that says "Karnoffel Code".

[blindpapers]

inscryption people i love you and i agree with you on pretty much every other plot beat in the story but i think the karnoffel code reveal made me laugh so hard i cracked a rib. sorry.

[drsp00n]

I've had this discussion with my wife who is obsessed with P03 but doesn't really keep up with the overarching lore of the "Mullinsverse".

It's like this cognitive dissonance people have where they know that there are events in the universe that are interconnected but still want to treat the events of Inscryption as purely isolated.

Spoilers??

The existence of the Karnoffel Code and by extension, the OLD_DATA, are what even causes the game to exist in the state that it is. In the Kaycee's mod dev logs it's explained that the specific disk she is using to work on Inscryption contained weird files and couldn't replicate the characters' sentience in any other games.

P03 is just an NPC in every other copy of Inscryption. Within this one disk they are all self aware, but they are still bound by the specific traits they had been given when being designed by real people.

Leshy is dramatic, so he makes the best DM even if his game is unbalanced. P03 is an efficient machine, so he cares more about strategy than flair. Grimora is an avatar of death who understands the danger of the Karnoffel Code, so she makes peace with deleting everything, and Magnificus is an artist who bargains with you because he is afraid of being forgotten.

It's funny to me that most people's interpretations and attributes people impose on P03 are the in regards to the OLD_DATA version of the the character, rather than the NPC he would be. This version of P03 is just trying to rush to seize power so most of his design choices aren't really thought out.

Maybe in Pony Island 2 we'll get to see what P03 became since the implication is that the great transcendence worked.

You know I may be wrong, but I’m starting to think that the general Fanon perception of PO3 may be wildly off from his portrayal within the source material.

Something I heard once was that Inscryption’s creator (Daniel Mullins) described PO3 as the story’s villain and as generally evil. And that stuck with me as someone who has read a LOT of very interesting takes on PO3’s hidden nuances, and it had me wondering about what the creator-intended perception of PO3 is meant to be

And I’ll be real I’ve been thinking over the source material with this idea in mind and I think I have an answer that is NOT pretty for my guy

(note: while I talk about fan perception within here this is specifically an analysis done with this supposed “creator intended” reading in mind. It’s not meant to be a take down on all interpretations.)

I think PO3 is intended as a stand in for the worst elements of gaming culture and game design. I know Act 3 has its defenders, but I genuinely think that narratively the strongest aspect of Act 3 is that it makes you reflect on and appreciate Act 1

Act 3 is near devoid of passion or care. PO3 fundamentally does not give a shit about the game he’s playing with you unless it furthers his marketing scheme or if it gives him an opportunity to show off just how much better he is at this than the other Scrybes.

I’ve seen people point to the bounty hunters as an element of PO3’s creativity and passion for the game coming through, but if that’s the case it’s pretty sad given that the bounty hunters are literally procedurally generated. They have roughly the same amount of care put into them as the average madlibs.

He didn’t even finish the 3rd boss fight, he makes you do it for him

ACT 3’S “FINALE BOSS” IS G0LLY

G0LLY.

I LIKE G0LLY, but she’s not a finale boss fight, especially not when her competition is Leshy’s three stage finale which is capped off with the goddamn moon.

I know that PO3 has a moment of reflection in the moments before the grand transcendence but idk, it comes off as insincere and self-congratulatory more than sentimental especially given that it’s right before PO3 goes off about this was actually all just his plan to sell his shitty unfinished game on Steam and how he’s actually in it for a way BIGGER audience

and also you’re an idiot gamer

[cosmicbucket]

HEY SO ABOUT MY "P03 DOESN'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT THE OLD_DATA" THEORY POST

I JUST GOT MORE SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

The Mycologists are established to be experimenting in order to better understand the Karnoffel Code, which "appears to be an earlier form or component of the OLD_DATA." When they hijack P03 for their boss battle, P03 regains no memory of the events.

"What just happened?

Where am I?"

When you defeat them in Act 3, the Mycologists play two cards - Gem Detonator and The Daus - before they're merged together, creating a card bearing a very particular set of numbers. The Mycologists rejoice, before discussing the card before them.

"It appears to be a fragment..."

"...of the OLD_DATA."

"We must study it."

"The robot must forget."

And lo and behold, P03 doesn't mention a thing of the OLD_DATA.

"I feel terrible.

What have you done to me challenger?

Never return to this place.

I really need to clean my registry..."

this was an apologist-fuelled theory but nOW IM THINKING I MIGHT'VE BEEN ONTO SOMETHING

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

Been playing the Official, Canon Kaycee Expansion for Inscryption, here's my thoughts:

SPOILERS

It's still in Beta so we have still not all the content or new lore from it, but the gist of it it's that this is Kaycee, Inscryption's Dev, using her Dev Tools to change the game for a not better specified reason.

From the few Dev Logs we have, we discover that Kaycee, while play testing the game on the Floppy Disk with OLD_DATA in it, finds a "bug" about the Angler finding an OLD_FISH and bringing it to Leshy, and she realizes that the NPCs can now walk (don't have walk animations) and say stuff outside of the script she set up for them.

Other Floppies don't replicate this bug (Not because the characters on those Floppies aren't sentient mind you, the recurring theme in all of Mullins games is that Videogame characters are sentient and Alive, most of them just like the role they play in their game as paid actors and don't complain about it) and, once she get back to the one where the bug happened, she realizes that Leshy had gone 3D and turned the game into Act 1 while she wasn't looking.

Now, the remaining logs are still in beta stage and we don't know what else she found out, she simply started playing the new game, mentioning how only the Woodcarver "Mask" will talk to her about the OLD_DATA, and how the PREVIOUS Dev Head, Kaminski, probably knows more about this if she can find him.

So, here's my theory:

Kaycee sounds like a really dedicated person, and enjoys card games and videogames.

Leshy's Cabin in Act 1 is different from the one in KM. Kaycee specifically modded it to be more challenging, more engaging, and Leshy likes it.

It also has lots of mushrooms where they shouldn't be. Weird, uh? Especially when you remember that the Mycologists aren't part of the normal Inscryption game, but spontaneously exist only to research the Karnoffel Code in this one specific floppy disk, their mechanic impossible to implement in a flesh and blood game.

Leshy will at first react with scorn at Kaycee changing his grand vision (HAVE YOU MESSED UP THE ORDER OF MY MAPS, KAYCEE?"), but will still roll with it, implementing the changes back into his narrative, rolling with it, even enjoying them the more time passes ("TOTEMS? IN A BOSS FIGHT? OOOOOH I LIKE THIS ONE!").

Kaycee removed many of the Exploits that could make Act 1 Trivial. Ouroboros doesn't conserve stats between runs. The Moon gained a new Keyword that makes her immune from poison and stinky, you lack the Squirrel Totem, the Bee Deck, the third candle, the Knife...

Why did she do that? Because, just like Leshy, she likes her games to be a challenge. ACT 2 lacks any sort of stakes, any sort of danger, and Leshy never liked that, he wanted his game to be difficult and engaging, a final battle against the Moon, but only if you were worthy enough to reach it, and I feel Kaycee also wanted that for him.

We don't know how that ended with her burning alive and the game buried in the woods, or where the other Scrybes are during KM, their cards missing, but I can hazard a guess.

In the main game, they mention how this wasn't the first time someone took control of the game. They mention Resetting back to act 2, in Act 1, and specifically say Resetting Again. In Act 4, Grimora mentions how she would have loved to play with Luke, for her to take control AGAIN of the game, so here's my Theory.

Barry sends the Floppy to the US from East Germany and is shot dead by the Soviets. The Floppy is lost alongside other blank floppies, and is sold to GameFuna, who tasks Kaminski and his team to make a game on their recent new IP, Inscryption.

Kaminski and his team creates Inscryption, but notices something in one of the Floppies that doesn't seem to be able to be erased of open, deciding to check if that's Gona be the problem on the copy he has.

He Uses the GameFuna Dev Tool, coming with the Blue Man from Mullins previous game The Hex, the Blue Man mentioned by the Trader in Act 3, and starts fucking around the place.

In Grimora's tomb, the third Skeleton, as of now still unnamed in the beta stages of creation, finds an Old Fish in her well. Grimora uses it alongside the Dev Tools suddenly at her fingertips to take control of the Game from Kaminski.

Kaminski plays Grimora's game, and it's here that the Death Cards are made. You see, Death Cards aren't a Thing in KM, you can't make them, yet Leshy still summons a few of them during his second phase, and how is that happening then? Who made those death cards, if Kaycee never made any?

It was Kaminski that made them while playing Grimora's Game, the Scrybe of the Dead, far more fitting to create death cards than Leshy wouldn't you agree? Especially since all the Death Cards in Act 1 are implied to be of dead people.

Why is Kaycee's card already in the game then by the time KM starts? She is alive to make it isn't she? Well, that's because much like Magnificus Eye can see the future, the game also recognizes when one of its players is about to die.

After all, if you get all of the base death cards as well as the ones you made for the game, the next Death Card you will be offered in Act 1... Is Luke Carder's.

And he's still alive as he plays isn't he?

Anyway, Kaminski resets the game back to act 2 and then something happens, maybe we'll find out later, and Kaycee becomes the new Dev Head and builds upon the foundations of the game.

Now, here's my final theory.

Act 2 specifies that the game is based around the fact that you, the challenger, are trying to take over a Scrybe.

What if that's the case for the Single Games?

Kaminski is Grimora's Challenger.

Kaycee is Leshy's.

And Luke is P03's.

Magnificus remarks how he never managed to gain control because his Angler, the green slime mage, never managed to find an OLD_FISH for him. That's another reason why when you have visions of him painting in Act 1, he's doing it in the same white void you find him in Act 4. He never could build himself a Tower like his competitors did for themselves. He had to improvise.

But who would be his challenger then? Is it Amanda, who shot Luke Carder and stole the floppy from him? Is it Us, the player at home?

[into-the-temoverse]

Athena knocks on the door.

"Teagan? You've been isolated for quite some time, and it's beginning to worry the others."

There's no response from inside. Athena sighs in slight annoyance.

"... Alright, you've left me no choice. I'm coming in."

Athena pushes the door open, before stopping in her tracks at the sight. There are papers and frantic notes scattered everywhere in the darkness of the room, something about the "Karnoffel Code" and "Inscryption" and "The Scrybes". In the middle of the mess is the music artist herself, mumbling to herself while writing something down in a notepad.

"By the gods, how long have you been like this for?"

"No time. Gotta figure a lot of this."

"Absolutely not. You've been here for days. Let's go, the others were worried sick."

Athena drags Teagan outside the room without a second thought, giving the actress no time to argue.

[thekimspoblog]

I was hoping the fact that I included "Act 1 is too hard" as my closing talking point would convey that it was intended as a joke. But apparently that's putting too much faith in people who watch seven hour videos explaining the Shakespearian tale of "Five Nights at Freddy's".

Incidentally, I did beat Act 1 only a day after writing my original post. But the thing is I probably wouldn't have done that if I didn't know a completely different gaming experience was waiting for me on the other side. Yes, the battles are technically more difficult in Act 2, but the game also has regular checkpoints and more frequent intervals of exposition. In fairness, the environmental puzzles of Act 1 are actually fairly straightforward, so it's not like the inaccessibility of the game becomes particularly egregious early-on. But I'm still left wondering how many people bought this game assuming it was just a more polished version of "Sacrifices Must Be Made", kept dying on the snowy hill, concluded that the game was endless, and gave up.

My real point is that the player isn't "stupid" if they have that reaction. If Mullins gets to take all the credit for making a game full of secrets, he also has to take the blame for anyone bouncing off and calling this thing a rip-off. The debate about "Difficulty and Reward vs. The Player has the Right to the Entirety of the Media they Purchased" is ultimately a matter of subjective opinion. But as a perpetual n00b who plays games for the story and doesn't appreciate getting told to Get-Gud, my sympathies lean towards the latter.

I don't care about Kaycee or Luke. I don't care about the Mullinsverse. I don't even really care about the Nazi Bombs Under Berlin besides simply wanting to praise the devs for delivering some actual (if contrived) payoff for the mystery of the OLD_DATA. For me, a narrative lives or dies by its characters, so in my opinion the best part of this story is just watching the chemistry between the Scrybes play out. THE DIALOGUE FOR THOSE FOUR IS VERY GOOD; you can immediately feel the ongoing rivalry and alliances of convenience. So all I'm really saying is I wish the game gave a few more breadcrumbs of that a little sooner. Ultimately I realize I'm basically just complaining that this program doesn't function more like a conventional RPG, and it's not like there are NO leg-ups given to people who struggle through Act 1, (the death cards are a very clever mechanic) but I still gotta ask "How many times are you going to make me fight this *****ing prospector?!"

Here are just a few minor tweaks I would make, in order of how good an idea I think they are:

Just add more dialogue between the Stoat, the Stinkbug and the Stunted Wolf, so it feels less like the player has hit a brick wall once they exceed three or four run attempts. It doesn't even have to be lore relevant. Even some flavor text of just them bickering would make things feel not so repetitive. Maybe allow them to continue to transform into their true identities even if the player keeps losing, so we're not distracted spending three days wondering why an insect is wearing lipstick.

Put at least one screenshot of Act 2 on the Steam Store page. Just my preference, but IMO the incentive that would give the player to keep at it outweighs the drawback of spoiling the "twist".

After 25 runs or so, the talking cards get fed up and just start telling you what moves to play. I especially like this idea because it incorporates my first suggestion as well.

After 25 runs, the glitches from the Karnoffel Code cause Leshy to become nerfed to a comical degree, in a way that is clearly mocking the player by patronizing them.

Just give the player the option to return to a checkpoint after beating each of the initial bosses. This one would do the most to interfere with the gameplay and story the piece is trying to tell, so I'm not as serious about this suggestion.

I've heard rumors that there's a mod for Act 2 Endless Mode, and that really appeals to me. The off-kilter presentation of this story is obviously part of the charm, but I also don't think it's wrong for players to want a more vanilla version of this experience.

Making a compliment/criticism sandwich for "Inscryption"'s final twist ending.

Criticism: The OLD_DATA is your classic example of mystery box writing. You make an audience work hard enough for a piece of information, they're going to be disappointed if the payoff feels picked at random.

Compliment: I wasn't able to guess the twist! When I initially started down the rabbit hole of "This video game hides a dark secret", I expected it to be one of three things - (a) absolutely nothing; the true horror was the time we wasted along a way, (b) a mind virus which is a pretty cliched concept for a horror video game at this point, or (c) some really tasteless drivel about child abuse. I WAS NOT EXPECTING HITLER! Granted, this sort of "Inglorious Bastards" style decontextualization of real-world tragedies is still a little tasteless, but this game gains massive points with me for at least being creative with the choice of shock value.

Criticism: The game still seems to be trying to have its cake and eat it too, in terms of whether the OLD_DATA is cursed. I don't think the found footage movie with Luke is very good; I get that it's cringey on purpose but I don't find the joke funny; to me it just subtracts from the atmosphere where those segments are SUPPOSED to be the part of the game most grounded in realism. It employs too many cliches I'm already sick of from creepypastas which were written over a decade ago. And while the secret of the OLD_DATA is cool and indeed dangerous, it would not drive someone to madness. I think the story is more interesting if we cut out the "King in Yellow" homages altogether.

Compliment: Like I said, "Nazi Bombs Under Berlin" was a good twist! That's such a more tangible threat than your run-of-the-mill Polybius clone. It makes perfect sense that this game about secret codes would have its final secret be a detonator created during an age of cryptographic warfare. It ties in well with the game's theme of how all information is useless without context. I don't like interpretations where the game itself is the doomsday device, because that's been done; it's a lot harder to falsify the claim that this game holds the KEY to a doomsday device. And that makes the danger a little scarier even though obviously fictional.

Criticism: The story of how the floppy disk ended up on Luke's desk makes no sense. Kaycee just did that thing characters in creepypastas always do, where instead of just destroy the stupid game when she had the chance, she gave it to someone else hoping they would do it for her. Why tho?!

Compliment: Not exactly a compliment so much as a negation of the previous criticism. This game's subplot utilizes mystery-box storytelling, but at the end of the day Daniel Mullins wasn't angling for any Pulitzers. ARGs are still a new art form, and maybe it's a low bar, but the fact that the treasure map lead to ANYTHING narratively satisfying still puts the game head-and-shoulders over tedium like "Who's Lila?". Personally I like the multimedia nature of ARGs in theory, but in practice they usually end up being too much work for little reward. But it seems like the people who did participate had fun, and now we all get to profit from the fruits of their labors.

Criticism: The steps to learn about the Nazi Bombs Under Berlin were still way too hard though. Deeply into "How TF was anybody supposed to get that?!" territory. I can only assume people dug into the game's code for some of these... which is kind of the point anyway, isn't it? "Manatee##" is especially where you've officially lost me. Inscryption is all about the violability of barriers, and for me, that riddle was the moment "Daniel Mullins" went from some name attached to this cool little artifact, to an AUTEUR who wanted me to notice him. And I hate auteurs.

Compliment: This is the main point I wanted to get to! The reason this game ultimately gets a thumbs up from me is that the story is not INCOMPLETE without the twist ending. I criticize a lot of indie games for using metafiction to distract from a lack of conventional narrative, but Inscryption fascinates me because it cleverly avoids that trap. Like "The King in Yellow", the point is not the contents of the forbidden knowledge. The point is the effect the forbidden knowledge has on the characters.

And maybe I'm just a sucker for a quadradiestic magic system, but I do like the characters and the ideas the surface-level story tells! Leshy and Magnificus have made peace with the inherent suffering of existence. PO3 wants an escape from the purgatory, but his idea of a greater purpose is really just to spread the misery. Grimora wants to end it all out of mercy, but really I think she's just a pessimist who has no right to project her desire for suicide onto everyone else. The chemistry between these four characters manages to say something interesting about the meaning of life. It's HELPFUL to understand what the Karnoffel Code is, so we can better understand why the characters did what they did, but you don't actually need that information to understand the events of the story.

There is something dangerous buried at the bottom of the game's software, and it's a nice touch how the difficulty accessing this power is symbolized by a literal sea of data. The four main bosses of the game's world had gained self-awareness through enough playthroughs, and are now stuck in a cycle of each one trying to remake the game in their own image. With each iteration of this struggle, the characters were getting more powerful and the situation was getting more and more out of hand, until eventually one of the four (implied to be the youngest) finally hacked the game so badly that it was able to breach containment onto the internet. Grimora tries to kill everyone including herself, to prevent whatever the dangerous thing is from falling into the wrong hands, but she's too slow and the game ended up in the Steam Store anyway. That's all you really need to know, and that's a plenty enough operatic story to sustain a three hour game.

Criticism: Even with all this laid out on the table, the stakes of this story don't make a whole lot of sense. I can see why Grimora would be worried the detonator could fall into the wrong hands, but if that's the case it's kind of a happy ending that the floppy disk was recovered by the authorities, wasn't it? As much as I distrust the FBI, it's not like they're going to use the Karnoffel Code to blow up Berlin. It sucks that Luke had to die (I wasn't very attached to him), but this probably means the bomb has been diffused. I mean if this story supposedly takes place in the real world, and last time I checked Berlin is still standing, then logically the largest crisis of the game's lore has already been averted by the time we started playing.

Compliment: This does just make the ending funnier/more interesting. If the Nazi Bombs Under Berlin have been located and dismantled by the government, then the Karnoffel Code is now a useless string of data that's just buried in a normal video game for no reason. Except the "normal" video game is still a glitchy old RPG, modified beyond recognition into a multiplayer online download, containing sentient characters trapped in a time loop.

And I'm just curious where we go from here; how the Scrybes are taking this turn of events. Leshy is probably happier than a pig in shit, to have thousands of new challengers flooding into his cabin every minute. PO3 is the only one who actually got what he wanted, but he's probably going to find out enslaving humanity from the comfort of the Steam Store is easier said than done, especially with the weapon neutralized. We don't really know Magnificus well enough to gauge his reaction, but I assume he's just relieved to not have been deleted. But what of Grimora? She was pretty excited that her misery was finally coming to a close, and now because the game is online, her suicide was not just prevented but made impossible. It's just so mean; I love it.

Criticism: Most players of this game won't get to ANY of this story, because Chapter 1 is just so damn difficult. I get that it serves a purpose, but come on man how many times are you going to make me fight this prospector?

[your-stoat-stands-unopposed]

curious if you got any mycologists headcanons! (can be both sfw and nsfw)

The Mycologists: General Headcanons

Personally, because they're so fascinated with turning 'two into one,' I suspect they weren't always the way they are. I think the smaller head was maybe some kind of parasitic fungus discovered along the way, or maybe even the result of an experiment gone wrong, and the larger head was both too scientifically curious and too scared to even think of getting rid.

The Mycologist had always been a quiet man full of trepidation before the smaller head came along, so honestly? Having a bossy and demanding person to share a body with works out nicely; he can hide behind the other's more forceful personality.

The Mycologist was just that before the other one came along: a mycologist, who dealt in plant life and fungi. On his end, the new interest in living beings is something that he morally struggles with and it came from trying to understand what happened in his own situation; while the smaller head has no moral qualms with what needs to be done for science, and his interest is and has always been the Karnoffel Code and the OLD_DATA.

They do not call their test subjects victims. This is because the smaller head genuinely does not see them as such, and the larger head is trying desperately to convince himself that they aren't.

They may be mad scientists, but they're actually quite kind in their own ways. They're generally polite - if a bit shy in the larger head's case, and a bit brusque in the smaller head's case - and will happily help people... if said people can stand to spend time around them, that is. (Don't mind the blood in their mushroom; the subject was willing, they swear.)