Skibidi Man

Skibidi Man

Produced by Studio Nagarajan Inc.

Led by the twisted mind of the one and only Shizukana Doku

There is no future. Skibidi is the future. For those who've lost their eyes and still want to find their way home...

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A dark psychological horror game that touches you in ways you don't notice but later have to come to terms with. Don't read ahead. Please go play it as long as it's around! 

Please visit https://www.studionagarajan.com/wallz for more fun!

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A famous singer and scientist named Johnny Yoraks is abducted by an unknown being after finishing his narration to young Jeremy Hrajen at the Bo Jhun Monastery in Tibet. He wakes up in a strange world on an impossible structure hurtling through a red sun constellation. Shrouded in darkness and due to his limited visibility/disability he uses his metaphysical camera as a source of light although the camera brings something unwanted to life if it is used. 

Take a trip through a psychedelic experience like none other within which you discover the darker shades of Johnny's childhood, his battle against bullying, abuse and other resistances including shaping an unknown dimension of existence that people refer to as gender. He goes onto winning a Nobel Prize and releasing several hits on the Billboard top 100 but then having to also deal with the tragic loss of his family and eventually discovering the secret of our universe in his quest to unify physics through an advanced cosmological equation. Who knew the pursuit of art and other dimensions of life like ones identity would help uncover the secrets of the universe but it all comes with a price. It must be paid to the...

Skibidi Man

FAQs at the bottom! More on the studionagarajan.com/wallz webpage!

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Note from the developer:

We thank everyone who spent some time to explore this game and big respect to those who choose to finish it and experience the strange yet satisfying ending! We apologize for any bugs that may surface. This game was designed  by a disabled game developer while going through their chemo treatment currently. The developer has neuropathy that has burned the nerve endings in their hands and feet so every key stroke and every click is hard due to the pain and numbness. This info is shared just to let you know that they love playing and making games as much as you do and recognizes if our situations were reversed, the outcome would be the same. But also to thank you very much for contributing to the game community. Please support the other games by theirself, Shizukana. We hope the minimal artsy design in this game is appreciated and if there are any constructive suggestions, they are most welcome. These games offer a way for all of us to escape this reality and this particular game speaks a lot to that existential philosophy that we all have come to enjoy. I wish you all the best and if you're looking for a paid branded version of this game it will be available soon as the sequel to DUCTZ, titled WALLZ on the Epic store and other stores, so please support this cause monetarily or with your love! Cheers!

-Shizukana Doku

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*******SPOLIERS*****PLEASE DO NOT READ UNTIL AFTER YOU FINISH OR HAVE TRIED TO EXPERIENCE THE GAME IN ITS ENTIRITY*****

The ending explained: The dark mirror universe presented in the game is a reflection of Johnny's real life and it transpires while the player goes through the game and witnesses the events as they happen, over and over again. If the player can make their alter version take the agreement in the other universe, the player swaps places and lives in Johnny's body witnessing all the horrors and good first hand. The possibility of swapping is an illusion as the deal was done man googolplex of aeons ago and now Johnny pays the ultimate price of reading his own memoir as the only reward as he evades his shadow self as the Skibidi man. The shadow self is also the mirror of the real Johnny as it happens but he's paralyzed when the lights are out just as one would be in real life as a child witnessing horrifying things and normalizing them after accepting them. Whether it is the years of abuse he overcomes, his tragic loss of his family, his search for this identity via gender, race, etc... through dark experiences, Johnny feels the walls of the prison from which he must escape in both universes. Skibidi man is what he is, if he chooses to explore the unknown only when there is a light available. Skibidi man is what he becomes if he doesn't accept the dark, gruesome, erotic, crazy ride through which he must go. The game uses sight and sound via memories, colors and other fragments to prime the player with the memories and the stage of life the alter Johnny, the Skibidi man, is going through. Of course - the ending is best understood when you feel it. If you can give it a good run start to finish. It can be more forgiving than you know. And no, the above discussion explains why everything happens but still does not reveal what the ending actually is. Shame on you if you read this for that reason. Now go be a good child and shine on!

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FAQs

0.  I haven't seen him. I want to see him now! Why why why can't I see him why is this world like this why is this game not designed the way I would design it if I were Shizukana? - Answered at the end

1. Wow! What games were used as references?
2. It was a trip to remember. In terms of game design, what were some of the considerations?
3. So if I were being serious for a moment, where did this idea come from?
4.  But wait a second, why can’t I save my progress in the game?
5. Ok I get all of what you've said but what the huck is Skibidi?
6. So all of this was for nothing? What the hell does the ending mean?
7. What’s this whole thing about gender? Are you shoving politics in this or are more like a misunderstood Black Myth: Wukong?
8. I can’t finish this brodding thing. Can you just tell me about Johnny’s life since you care so much about telling his story like Valerie’s story was once given to Evey? A hidden piece of toilet paper with a biography will do?
9. What keeps you up at night?
10. This is amazing. What ever you’re on seems like good stuff and it is all for medical purposes right?
11. Why is it a “man”?
12. Johnny seems to find success in the arts and sciences as well. Was there a reason for this?
13. Would there have been any worth to playing the novel version of Johnny’s story?
14. What’s up with the non existent tools in the Doku games, especially the torch in Ductz and the camera in this one?
15. The answer for #4 says anus instead of ans?
16. What’s next for Shizukana Doku?
17. Last question for now. What’s all that about E8?
18. The 0 question is answered here or by the nature of the question, you probably know what's coming. And thanks to the people who focus on the good in all games around the world. It's totally fine to be angry Joe for a persona to make a living. And I'm sorry people go around playing everyone's elaborately designed experiences criticizing their 2 minutes of gameplay. To other game designers/directors, please ignore these and shine on! If you're ticked off a bit by these lines, please grab a nice dark ale and ctfo, life has not been kind to a lot of people and everyone really deserve a break once in a while.

Ans 1:Limbo, The Stanley Parable, Games from The Chinese Room, Point and Click games from Amanita Design. Basically walking simulators but also horror games like Alien, Slender and Amnesia.

Ans 2:The size of the game was carefully picked just like the other Doku games to be large enough such that it could comprise the size of an indie game like Firewatch or Slender the eight pages, basically last for a couple of hours or short enough to provide some good entertainment for a shorter sitting or to play with friends in the room. Some hard core gamers could play it all out in an evening along with some friends or take longer and go back to it, to be a completionist.

Ans 3:This idea was meant to be a sequel to DUCTZ and another game in the Kanma series. We were trying to work on a challenge of limiting light and locomotion using game physics and sound just like DUCTZ but in a different way. This game will be updated and released as WALLZ sometime soon after which the third entry is planned which is CROPZ. That one will be a lot of fun too and we welcome people to join the series and become a fan, if this type of game is something you like or you would like to support us as developers. You’re welcome to add any info that would make you a fan if that idea was implemented in some way in future games or an update for any current games.

Anus 4:The approach to these style of games is minimalism and hence although many things are considered, they are left out for various reasons and also since we’ve come a long way in gaming history and some ideas can be different than they were before. Menus are one such things wherein there doesn’t need to be a home menu screen as any options can be accessed from within the game. Many games like to get you right into the action. This game does have a way to let the player respawn as they may get ahead in the game but it does encourage the player to finish the game in one sitting as the experience is designed to be that way. For example, the increasing tension as you progress is part of the fun and no different than a souls game where you die a lot. This game does present more situations where one may lose and as such, compared to DUCTZ, there are spawn points.

Ans 5:It’s just slang for bad or random. In this game it is expanded into a noun form of something that is extra-dimensionally bad or random or randomly bad. It is also an adjective to describe this indescribable creature that travels between dimensions like a demon or a god of sorts that has control over space time in unknown ways. It is cosmological horror at its code in this sense. One could also accept the possibility of the Skibidi man being a member of a type 5 civilization who uses quantum reality manipulation to bind infinitely looping dark universes to subjects from our universe in the sense of “selling their soul”, such that simple short term material outcomes are the manipulations needed to perform a mechanism similar to quantum entanglement but between universes and imprison the subject for ever. In our story here, it is possible that we are witnessing an infinitely looping dark universe within which the main protagonist roams around witnessing his own life in the forms of notes from his biography and restarting various stages to relive those tragedies again and again. The strange part is that these loops are all bound to one life that he led in the prime universe. The shadow of himself in this mirror universe is the Skibidi man who performs various ritual of mental/psychological and physical imprisonment.

Ans 6: The Skibidi man could easily be a being from a higher type of civilization and evidence of this is seen when we hear the last chapter of Johnny. He finds that the way to accept the impending trap or imprisonment is to accept that he is not only the Skibidi Man or the mirror universe in flesh, but actually is everything there is, which is true in a sense because all that exists in this game considering it as a separate structure of existence is the game and nothing more. Johnny is part of the code, the dlls whether it belongs to him or anything else is irrelevant. More like the anthropic principle. The real question you need to ask is who are you? Hukkus Bukkus Telyi Wan Tschkus... - Full article: Hukus Bukus Lyrics English Meaning: Aabha Hanjura - https://lyricsraag.com/hukus-bukus-english-meaning-aabha-hanjura/

This is because if indeed The Skibidi Man is a type 7 civilization being, then we could be the mirror of a dark universe exactly like what you witness in the game. Another way to look at all this is to realize that the nirvana version of playing this game is to live in that world as role play as Johnny. Don’t try to beat it or get out. Just roam around listening to sounds and when you see the shadow, say hi! And move along. And yes animate it if you will or accept the reality of it being animated if you want to animate yourself by seeing with what is effectively a third eye. A virtual camera from which it spits out light. But more on that later, you can read more online about the third eye spitting out light and all that. Much of all this was put into the thought of the game design and the experience. It is very spiritual in that sense and was very fun to make. The game designer is fighting a terminal illness and has been forced to grapple these questions and thoughts and hence this game was designed to offer a safe way for one to experience some of that.

Ans 7: The story presents an exploration of gender identity as experienced by Johnny which is flawed as much as it is whole. The bizarre sequences, years of abuse and other matters are not in any way pre-requisites for any of the gender related discoveries however they are not differently entwined that a cup of tea in the fabric of life. While growth and reproduction drive the small, agriculture and war drive the large, love drives the universe. This is a very deep idea and doesn’t need to be hippie or liberal any more than a dark man running around making deals with kids and giving them nightmares forever is a conservative one. It’s a wholistic thing to think of attributes as an epistemological requirement in understanding ourselves within and without ourselves.

Ans 8: Yes, you can find the audio playlist of the entire novel and the story in written form on the FAQ page on the studionagarajan.com website. Look for this game under the  “Games” section of course, not the "Hyperdrive" section. Here is a link for those who would like to follow things that should never lead : https://www.studionagarajan.com/wallz

Ans 9: The Skibidi man being a type 8, 8 dimensional being. The fact that it is not just everything but nothing and not just nothing but every nothing and concordantly a nothing’s nothing’s nothing,.. infinitely down into an abyss of non-existence.

Ans 10: Let’s keep moving please. Rest in peace Terrence M.

Ans 11: Because it’s fundamentally bad or fundamentalistically bad, because we live in a time when they are considered so and all of them sadly because there’s no way out and we need a villain to ignore the large bank accounts floating around and selling a third of time to buy a third of it back and lose a third of it doing so landing up with nothing in the end. Not the philosophically deep nothing, just the empirical one, a tomb stone.

Ans 12: It was just a step further than Bob Dylan. To make it seem more worth the trade.

Ans 13: And read a novel about running around in a maze…? Not really.

Ans 14: They are present for the purpose they serve and their actual presence would create more questions than they would solve however the camera in this one is tied to the years of photographic abuse that the main character faces. The clicking is a PTSD flashback to the countless pics that were taken in the past and thereby stealing a part of their soul. You could argue that since this universe is mirroring the real world, every click you take in this one is either someone taking a pic of Johnny or Johnny taking a pic of something he loves and eventually tragically loses. Shizukana love photography and has had to bear this same scenario in recent years especially losing many people he loves or the people he loved stealing his identity away with varied versions of capturing moments. The physical act of clicking over and over is also a mirror of Shizukana’s current situation of neuropathy wherein every click or type sending shooting pain from his fingers to his hands. Every single click or type is like hammering an anvil or metal structure and it hurts too while being strangely numb in surrounding areas.

Ans 15: That’s not a question, but thank you for reading this far and paying attention.

Ans 16: Apart from figuring out their path to recovery, reminiscing on lyrics like  “Oh, keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel… The future's uncertain and the end is always near.”

Ans 17: It’s a possible answer to unifying physics and providing an everythingship equation using multidimensional mathematics regarding lattices. It’s an easter egg in the game and is a link between this game’s universe and a movie from Studio Nagarajan Inc. called E8. If you like great science fiction and fantasy, drop in now and then and check out our company’s works. Like Miyazaki, we strive to build an organic healthy entertainment enterprise to go where no one has before! Boldy at that!

Ans 18/0: I guess it's fair to say that if you can get to the end of the game without encountering Skibidi Man then whatever strategy you've used, it has worked! Even if it's just running around randomly. The game has been calibrated to allow the player enough room to explore and go deeper. At it's heart it is a maze run with many encounters planned over the span of 8-10 hours or so that it might take to finish the game. But if you want to see him now! then maybe consider keeping left and tread along the left path and you should run into him within 30 seconds or so. You also hear whispers of him when he is nearby. Not to mention if you cared to play till the end or read the available lore here or Johnny novella on the website, you'd know that Johnny IS the Skibidi Man. You're the Skibidi Man. You're the mobius strip with half if it folded into another dimension or in this case dark universe.

***IMP*** The mechanic of control in the game is that every time you click the non real hyper-realistic psychological camera flash, Skibidi Man can move at high speeds and through certain walls and catch you using his extended vision. When it is dark, he is immobile. He will catch you if you go within arms length of him.

Also a note about the level design, the markers toshow some progression through the seemingly infinite maze, designed as such to simulate a dream, are sounds which are carefully placed and line up with the story chapters of Johnnys life. The audio cues tell you if you're going back or ahead as they not only allow you to know where you are in this mirror universe, they also tell you in a way, what is happening to Johnny in the real world at that time. For example, him being bullied in the bathroom or him being chased by patients in the mental asylum or him having an affair with his teacher. The larger objects that are higher than the walls are also carfefully placed to allow the player to barely see them from certain points like corners, when they stand and face or jump up. This also allows them to mark where they are. Everything in the game is carefully designed to be a certain way. This isn't a game like Andromeda where you go from room to room murdering Skibidi Man. It is a slow placed immersive dark psychological cosmological horror story that feeds on noir elements, contemporary art forms and other aspects of the human condition. The subject matter spans from simple struggles of social positions, identity crisis, success and failure to completely bizarre and extreme aspects like forbidden perversions, inter-multiuniversal identity swaps, premeditated executions, nirvana through acceptance of an endless battle with oneself through eternity and other crazy stuff. Not to mention the flashes are all PTSD interruptions through daily life that remind the protagonist of all the times he was used by various adults for forbidden photography. But because the dark universe is bound to the real world, you are the one snapping pictures, or capturing or stalking Johnny throughout his life and that's when his shadow self is animated and just like the universe collapsing when one were to meet their anti-version of themselves, the jump scare that result is a temporary temporal and spatial collapse of the local area of that dark universe. It's in everyone's best interest to just feel it and don't try to analyze it. There's nothing in this experience that hasn't been chosen to be there in a certain way. Is it the way you'd do it if you had to? Maybe or maybe not. For those who'd like to spend more than 2 minutes and go deep, the story, lore and universe has a lot to offer. For starters, try to get to the end of the maze without a single encounter or rather go into it without any expectations. Skibidi Skibidi Skibidi

Please visit : https://www.studionagarajan.com/wallz for more fun!

And you'd like the novel: https://www.studionagarajan.com/wallz/novel

And if you love this journey please check out https://www.studionagarajan.com/ductz