How Sacrificing a Trilogy of Other Games Led to Inscryption

How Inscryption Was Made and Started as Part of an Anthology Series

This Inscryption documentary details the development of roguelike deck-building indie game Inscryption and goes behind the scenes of its creation. Discover how developer Daniel Mullins participated in a Ludum Dare game jam and came up with the concept that ultimately led to Inscryption within 48 hours. Daniel’s initial idea was to make Inscryption part of an anthology trilogy that was inspired by Portal, Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, which are part of Valve’s The Orange Box. Moreover, the original idea for Inscryption’s ending saw players collecting items like running shoes, a flashlight, and other survival tools so that they could try to escape Leshy, the game’s antagonist, and run into the woods. The documentary also explores all the design decisions that Daniel made and shows how he had difficulties creating an effective artstyle while maintaining visual clarity.

It also takes a close look at all the hurdles Daniel had to go through. Finding the right difficulty for Inscryption was no easy task as some playtesters took 20 hours to defeat Leshy, while others breezed through it in just two hours. Additionally, Daniel wanted to introduce a mystery for the player to gradually unravel, much like in his previous two games. While he began adding mysterious elements, he had no idea what any of it meant and hoped that a larger idea would eventually come to him. Furthermore, the documentary explains how Pokémon gave Daniel the idea to step away from creating an anthology trilogy and instead turn his game into a pixel art version of itself. Lastly, it shows how Daniel’s next game, Pony Island 2: Panda Circus, might offer something very different from what we’ve come to expect from a Daniel Mullins game.