I decided to create a live action version of Inscryption

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > I decided to create a live action version of Inscryption

GlyphGryph: Jun 23, 2013; Down came the glitches and burned us in ditches and we slept after eating our dead.

Note entirely sure if this belongs here, but pretty much all the "art" I do is experience based interactive stuff, and this is the first time I did something I could take some non-boring pictures of. My last major project would have just been photos of blindfolded people stumbling into stuff and falling out of trees, and who wants to see something like that? Even if I did make and embroider all the blindfolds myself.

But this one, as derivative as it may be, was not only fun but actually generated a few good in progress and during-the-event photos as well, so here goes. First, a glimpse of the final product:

But how did I get there?

I was going to LoveBurn in Florida, I needed an idea for a compact project to bring with me, and my brother had an idea. Why not make a live action version of Inscryption playable at the event? We both loved the game, and I jumped on it after getting the developers blessing. My primary duty was to make the cards. But I also had to 3d print the totems we were going to use. I used the files created and provided by Davision3d on Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4950134

Heads could be screwed on and off at will! How cool is that?

Unfortunately, 3 weeks in I made an unfortunate discovery while creating the final packing boxes. The modge podge I was using as gloss does not actually ever dry, despite advertising itself as a gloss that does? Meaning that once the cards were pressed together they could never be separated again. I probably lost over a thousand cards I'd printed, glossed, and cut out. I needed to start over completely.

And I did, this time without the gloss, and they were ready to go. It only took me a week to finish the second batch - I wasn't glossing anymore, and I cut some corners by not cutting the corners. A lot of the original time was spent compositing the cards on the computer from game assets and drawing myself anything necessary to fill in the gaps (thankfully there weren't many).

My son also enjoys the game, and wanted to participate. First, he created his own card, the "Man Men" and required me to print out many copies of it. Finally, he insisted on playing the game himself, losing, and getting this overpowered deathcard. It ended up proving crucial to at least one winning run at the event.

It wasn't just totems and cards, though. Along with all the shopping I was doing mailing props and lighting and stuff to my brothers address so it would be waiting for me when I arrived, I was also in charge of the maps. First, I had to practice with the symbols and maybe make some tweaks, so I made a reference sheet to use when drawing the maps. Then I started work on the maps themselves. I was running close on time by this point, and didn't have time to add the trees and decorative elements I wanted. But I still like how they came out.

I was also in charge of the music, but the speaker I bought I later realized couldn't be brought on the plane because of its battery, so we ended up running it out of an mp3 player - not the best, but hey, it got the job done.

Once I arrived in Florida, it was time to get all the props together and start creating my "Battle Boxes" - set up clusters of cards, dialogue hints, and instructions for how to run the various game encounters, from getting new creatures to the timing and placement of cards coming out in fights. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this earlier but I also went through and created two variants for every possible fight in the game (except the boss fights, for which there was only one)

My brother had been working hard as well. In addition to acquiring a large number of really amazing props, he'd built us clay masks. Unfortunately he was new to the medium, and the mistakes he made lead to them being unusable - we tried a few alternatives, but ended up abandoning the mask idea completely. If we run it again, we'll have them and they'll be amazing.

Once I arrived at the event, I found a nice spot between some big bushes to set up our table. Come night-time, I'd be nestled deep in shadow with only lighting provided by the candles we brought (plus some el wire trim and a concealed light aimed at the board itself). The crates were a last minute purchase and proved incredibly valuable to the experience, providing ambiance, organization, and an easy way to transport the goods too and from the table in the case of rain. It rained, off and on, a lot.

To the far right you can see our "sacrificial altar" - a manual paper shredder. We required players to actually insert and shred their cards for both the bone lord and the sacrificial stones. We also destroyed cards with the scissors, surgeries, and when devoured at campfires. We destroyed a LOT of cards. It was very fun, very satisfying, very tactile.

Props from roughly top left to bottom right: Extra candles, totem pieces, bag of genuine coyote meta-tarsal bones to count as bones, an actual crocodile skull for sticking boss candles in, the candleabra and player life candles, a bowl for teeth, a spare mask base for ambiance, and some mood lighting. Then the map and battle board, the players squirrel deck and regular deck, a coffin to hold damage tokens and teeth (the teeth were resin, not real, but people still reacted viscerally to them). The ding bell for ending turns. Our "scale" - a simple track with a coyote bone moving back and forth between the players. A pair of "scissors" (shears), plus the Angler's hook (used as both a player item and for the boss fight to hook and drag cards). A "chest" that contained rare card rewards, and below that is where discarded cards went.

Here's a quick view from behind the box, with the battle boxes and rolled up maps, plus the Moon cards that didn't fit anywhere else and a marker for drawing sigils and changing stats on the fly. You'll notice some small items on the right - these were sacrifices people made to the game. Sacrifices would grant various bonuses, like extra candles or starting items. We also had a bunch of lucky tokens to allow redraws, but never ended up using them.

Here were various items the players could earn. Bottled critters, scissors, hooks, and our replacement for the knife and pliers, the "blood needle" - which required players to actually draw their own blood to use. And it did get used, some of these people were crazy committed to winning. (most of them still perished, in the end)

A better look at the bone bag and totems, plus the items inside the right box - my matches, the mp3 player, and the instant polaroid camera used to make...

Here are some examples of death cards we made in the game. This was still early on, so Mega is our only event player - the others were our playtesters. Many more death cards were created as the event stretched on.

You could "rescue" a death card, saving the soul shard of the associated player, if you won. It only happened once by the person in this picture, the same one I linked above, and required them to create a victory card in exchange.

We mostly ran the game at night, mostly. But we still played during the day a bit too.