Inscryption, the surprise hit deckbuilding roguelike by Daniel Mullins Games, was inspired by popular tabletop collectible card games like Magic: the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, but its genre-changing second act had some retro influence from the Pokémon Trading Card Game on the Game Boy. The Devolver Digital-published game combines its overarching narrative and roguelike mechanics with the familiarity of popular card games.

Deemed Screen Rant’s 2021 Game of the Year, Inscryption begins with the player in a cabin filled with escape room puzzles and its host wanting to play a card game. However, once the first act is completed, the game changes and replaces its escape room setting with a top-down adventure with low-resolution pixel art, much like the classic Pokémon games. The narrative unfolds as the player continues to learn more about the core card game.

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In a recent interview with The Escapist, Daniel Mullins described his influences and game design decisions. There, he revealed he is a fan of card games in general, particularly Magic: The Gathering. The Hex and Pony Island developer attempted to make both physical and digital card games in the past. He developed Inscryption in a game jam where he utilized his card game knowledge and merged it with clever storytelling. Design Delve’s hosts JM8 and Marty remarked that the game changes genre in a fluid way and asked Mullins where in the development did he decide to have a completely different experience that would continue Inscryption's narrative in an interesting way. Mullins explained he originally wanted Inscryption to be part of a three-game collection. "But then I was really enjoying making Inscryption. Then I started looking for ways of not making the two games, but making it bigger.” Mullins said, "And I think part of the realization was the Pokémon Game Boy Color Trading Card Game, and something in there just excited me: the idea of doing a low-res pixel-art card game, and so I combined that with what I already had.”

See the original video on YouTube here.

Inscryption has plenty of creature cards to play, from the stoat and stinkbug to the ouroboros and urayuli. It is easy to draw some similarities to the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and even more so with the retro Game Boy nature of its second act when a player’s avatar travels across the lands to battle opponents in a card game. Collectible card culture even seeps its way into the game’s overall narrative with a character opening up booster packs, much like how online influencers open up Pokémon card packs on YouTube or Twitch for an audience to watch.

With its simple and engaging card system and its overarching twisted narrative, Inscryption has become quite the success and fans are wondering if the deckbuilding roguelike will get a sequel. For now, Daniel Mullins is working on “Kaycee’s Mod,” which allows for the roguelike elements of the first act to be played endlessly. In this mode, which is currently in open beta, players would unlock new cards, starter decks, items, and abilities while facing more difficult challenges. Mullins has also mentioned in Design Delve that he has plans to bring Inscryption to Mac, Linux, and consoles. Until then, curious card players can find the game on Steam, GOG.com, and Humble.

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Inscryption is available now on PC.

Source: The Escapist/YouTube