SKINSCRIBING is a cosmic fantasy horror game about bodies and memory, art as historical record-making, and navigating grief as the world you knew comes to an unexpected end.
Featuring 2D hand-drawn art, dual-handed gameplay, and a branching narrative, your task is to interpret and depict in tattooing the history of your dying world as the foundation for the Era to come.
The world as you know it is in its final days.
For all of living memory, your world has been suspended in the stasis of warring gods and their acolytes…natural law bends to those in service of the victor.
Thus, when the monarch of the most powerful Empire suddenly and mysteriously dies - You, a Death Nun, must use the tools of your trade alongside an extra “hand” gifted to you by your Patron Deity to explore bodies and environments alike in performing the bygone death rite known as skinscribing.
You will have Six Days to complete your sacred tasks - cremating the Former King, researching the history of his reign at Court, and then tattooing an official record onto the Heir, a Child King, with the ashes of his forebear.
This multi-session full-body tattoo will be the sole surviving archive upon which upon the New Age is built.
However, there is limited time in a day, and you are only mortal…
Half your day is dedicated to appointments with the Heir and Prayer - with your remaining hours, its your decision on the duties, mysteries, or clients you wish to pursue…some of whom not only have existing tattoos, but potentially other secret artifacts hiding just beneath the skin, discoverable with surgical exploration using your same sacred scalpel-liner used in tattooing.
What stories are remembered, and what future will be born from that influence…whether you live to see it or not…will ultimately be decided by what you choose to skinscribe.
Proudly Partnered With
Ontario Creates is a provincial agency that facilitates economic development, investment and collaboration in Ontario’s creative industries including the music, book, magazine, film, television and interactive digital media sectors.
We're looking for funding. Interested?