For all of living memory, your world has always been suspended in the stasis of warring gods and their acolytes…natural law bends to those in service of the victor.
When the monarch of the most powerful Empire suddenly and mysteriously dies - YOU are tasked to leave your abbess and perform the bygone death rites needed to prepare the grieving Court for the imminent arrival of your Graven Deity.
You will have Six Days to perform your sacred tasks…most important of which is to draft and tattoo the history of the previous reign upon the New Heir, using the ashes you prepare from the corpse of the Former King. This multi-session full body tattoo will be the record upon which the coming Era is built.
Your time is limited, though, and you are only mortal…
It simply isn’t possible to uncover every truth, to hear every story or consider every perspective. Whatever you choose to archive or censor in your art, whoever’s voice is preserved or lost, your interpretations…all determine the shape of the coming world.
…one you will not survive to see yourself.
Key Features
The Veiled Sister has given you many abilities for your task - most important are your scalpel-liner and your “Helping Hands.”
Two-cursor gameplay with minigames and opportunities requiring multiple hands or your choice of hand…which, depending on your relationship with the Gods, may change the outcome.
Branching choice-based narrative with multiple endings. Your choices are not simply conversational - where you go, who you talk to, who you pray to at night, and even who, what, and where you tattoo a client will all influence the way you experience this world…and the shape of the next.
Tattooing reflects the player's movement, pressure, and includes choices around stencils and ink that you source or craft yourself. Your piece will reflect you, and these in-moment decisions influence future tattooing clients.
Your clients have old tattoos, old tales upon them…and even more hidden under that first layer of skin. The scalpel side of your tattoo liner-needle may be used to explore, discover hidden objects, and uncover lost secrets both in the environment of the world and within the clients’ own bodies.
Full hand-drawn 2D art with wraparound environments by Val Wise
A final blessing - an Eel familiar to provide antibiotic slime, or “green soap.”
Skinscribing is a cosmic folk horror game about bodies and memories, tattooing as historical record-making, and navigating grief as the world you knew comes to an unexpected end.