Inscryption isn’t just a mind-bending indie horror game with deep lore and tons of hidden secrets—it’s also a continuation (through crossover characters) of the meta story developer Daniel Mullins has been crafting since the release of Pony Island in 2016. After emptying hell at the end of Pony Island and helping several player characters escape their digital prison in Mullins’ 2018 game, The Hex, players will find that several of the characters from these games have made their way into Inscryption as well. Not only do these characters tie Mullins’ games together, but their appearance answers some of the questions Inscryption itself leaves unresolved.
[Warning - spoilers for Inscryption, Pony Island, and The Hex follow.]
The Hex takes place in a run-down old tavern known as the Six Pint Inn where six player characters from different video games have gathered, and the inn’s owner gets a call alerting him of a murder that’s going to take place. As players try to solve the murder like a mystery RPG, they dive into each of the player characters’ games, all of which were developed by a designer named Lionel Snill. Like Inscryption, the characters in The Hex are sentient and aware that they’re video game characters, though they aren’t confined to the games they were created for and are able to travel between games and even beyond them.
The characters in The Hex were created using GameWorks development software, a mysterious engine that’s able to grant them sentience. However, GameWorks is also in control of which games they appear in and exerts oppressive control over the characters to ensure their compliance, often going to extreme measures to get their way. Like Inscryption and Pony Island, it’s apparent that there’s something sinister lurking beneath the surface of each game featured in The Hex, though once the player characters escape the game, it seems their ordeal is over. However, several of the characters featured in Pony Island and The Hex still manage to wind up in Inscryption, not only placing the games in the same universe, but connecting them narratively as well.
Sado From The Hex Appears In One Frame Of Inscryption
Dark Clown Sado is one of the main antagonists in The Hex, and while she only shows up for a split second in Inscryption, her presence in the game should not be overlooked. Unlike the other characters in The Hex who were created by Lionel, Sado was created by his childhood friend, Carla, as she pushed the GameWorks software to its limit. As a result, Sado is able to wreak havoc through Lionel’s games, creating in-game glitches to trick players and toying with the player characters for sadistic reasons unknown. While her motivations are never revealed, her malice is palpable, and an in-game tarot card of her refers to her only as “The Error.” After the credits roll, it’s revealed that Sado managed to escape into the real world thanks to the activation of the Hex.
At the end of Inscryption, a representative of GameFuna named Amanda shows up at Luke Carder’s house and shoots him to recover the game disc, causing the screen to glitch wildly for several frames. During this glitch, Sado’s face appears over Amanda’s for a single frame. While Sado's connection to Amanda is unclear, as are her intentions, it seems that this creepy clown has managed to get her hands on Inscryption's OLD_DATA at the ending.
Inscryption’s Bridge Mechanic Is Rebecha From The Hex
Although her name is never mentioned in Inscryption, the green bridge mechanic from Acts 2 and 3 is actually Rebecha from The Hex. She appears in several of the video games featured in The Hex as a mechanic, though she’s also a fighter in Lionel’s "Combat Arena" game and is briefly drafted to be a player character in "Walk." Like Inscryption, she serves as a gatekeeper that prevents players from progressing until they’ve beaten a boss in the "Secrets of Legendaria" game. However, she also appears in "Waste World" later on as a shopkeeper selling items in exchange for scrap metal. Rebecha was one of the few characters left in the GameWorks engine by the end of The Hex, allowing her to be reused as a mechanic NPC in Inscryption.
The Blue Man From Inscryption Is Actually From The Hex
Players can track down the Trader in P03’s lab in Act 3 of Inscryption to exchange some Holo Pelts for secrets about the game’s development. While the Trader’s knowledge is limited, they mention a “blue man” who was around during the creation of Inscryption, as well as a “triangle” that Kaycee Hobbes used to make the game. These cryptic bits of information might be mystifying for players who aren’t familiar with The Hex, but the “triangle” refers to the GameWorks software, which has a triangular logo, and the “blue man” is Irving, GameWorks’ Assistant AI.
Irving is another of The Hex’s main antagonists and is not only responsible for generating NPCs and enemy characters in Lionel’s games, but is also in control of which games the player characters are assigned to. He’s manipulative, coercive, and even violent towards the player characters, especially when they resist his commands. The mention of his role in Inscryption’s creation confirms that the game was built using the GameWorks software, just like all of Lionel’s video games in The Hex, which explains how the characters of Inscryption became sentient. However, it seems Irving was long gone by the time Luke Carder found the game in the woods, leaving only a few NPCs with the knowledge of his existence.
Satan Is GameFuna’s CEO In Inscryption
In the credits of Inscryption, Louis Nathas is attributed with providing the “Beeper” for the game, and players were quick to note that the link provided in this credit led nowhere and was actually a clue for Inscryption’s ARG. However, “beeper” is a reference to Mullins’ first game, Pony Island, in which the phrase “a beeper, perhaps” could be heard when playing a secret audio file that said “His father is pure evil” backwards. Not only do both of these phrases appear several times throughout The Hex and Pony Island, but the name Louis Nathas is also a reference to the CEO of GameFuna in The Hex, Lou Natas.
Natas spelled backwards is Satan, and Lou is the first syllable of Lucifer, who is the main antagonist of Pony Island. With the direct connections between The Hex and Pony Island, it’s safe to say that the CEO of GameFuna is, in fact, the Devil himself. Having Satan for a CEO certainly explains GameFuna’s dubious business practices, and while this still leaves a lot of questions unanswered about the nature of the OLD_DATA and Satan's connection to Inscryption's puzzle, it seems likely that he’s the source of the pervasive evil that’s present in the game’s code.
