A monk, a knight, a jester and a peasant with an angry goose charge across an open illuminated codex at a giant armoured snail and an army of crossbow rabbits, through a storm of ink blots and gold leaf.

Inkfernal

Don't read this book. Too late. Now fight your way out through killer rabbits, armoured snails and one very petty Devil, alone or with a friend.

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Bullet-hell roguelikeOnline co-opPC & browser

Read on

Incipit

The Devil's Night

E ight hundred years ago a monk had one night to write the greatest book ever made. At midnight he knew he would fail, so he made a deal, and the Devil finished it for him. The price: every soul who ever reads it.

You just read it.

Now you are a doodle in its margin, drawn as a joke beside everyone else the book has caught: a crusading knight, a king's fool, a plague-year peasant and his goose. The book is stuck in the night it was written. Every run replays that night, hour by hour, from midnight towards dawn. Fall, and the clock strikes twelve again. Dawn has never come.

Lege, et meus eris. Read, and you will be mine.
Midnight in a scriptorium: an old monk despairs over a half-finished codex while a long crimson hand with a gold ring reaches from the dark and takes his quill. Red doodles of a knight, a jester, a rabbit and a snail are already coming to life on the page.
Midnight. Somebody offered to help.

Every night, the same night

  1. An old monk dozes over an enormous codex in a moonlit scriptorium

    One monk, one night, one impossible book.

  2. A tiny painted monk climbs out of the margin and tips over the inkwell

    Every reader wakes as a doodle in the margin.

  3. Ink floods the page and the marginal creatures climb out, indignant

    The Devil's ink runs through every page.

  4. Living ink boils out of a book as snails, rabbits and doodles pour into the scriptorium

    Fall, and the clock strikes twelve again.

Read on

The deeper you read, the stranger the book becomes. Faint brown writing hides under the red. Some chapters are sealed. And some pages, the Devil would much rather you never found.

Glossae

Write in the margin. The Devil writes back.

The book is the Devil's contract, and every reader may amend it. Three times a chapter you write a new clause in the margin in your own ink. He answers every one in red. Both lines are law until the chapter ends.

In play

Amend the Devil's Contract

  • You write: Let the flying ink take its time.

    The Devil replies, in red: ...but let every drop swell.

    Enemy blots fly slower, but every one of them is bigger.

  • You write: The rabbits shall be slower.

    The Devil replies, in red: ...but there shall be more of them.

    Killer rabbits run slower, and one more joins the last wave of every fight.

  • Three clauses on offer each time, his reply shown before you sign. Passing costs nothing.
  • Pick the trouble your build can bear, and make the chapter yours
  • Want a harder night? Choose a tougher Reading and give him more of the margin, for richer rewards
  • In co-op, each reader writes in their own margin and he answers across the gutter

Capitula

Every run, a new reading

The clock strikes twelve and the book opens. Clear its pages, crack its chests, dodge-roll through its storms of ink. Fall, and it is midnight again. The book is never the same twice.

  • 200Weapons
  • 200+Relics
  • 39Achievements
  • 2POnline co-op
In play

Capitulum I

Every page is a battlefield

The doodles open fire in spirals, rings and fans of ink. Read the pattern, roll through the gap, and paint the page with your answer.

  • Fast, readable bullet-hell combat with a dodge roll you'll swear by
  • Chests, shops, hidden rooms and a guardian waiting at the end of every chapter
  • Keyboard and mouse or controller, with button prompts to match
In play

Capitulum II

Dry his ink

Real scribes dried their pages with pounce, a fine sand. So do you. Throw a pinch and every blot in the air dries to dust, and the dust lies on the page for a moment, slowing anything that wades through it.

The Devil writes, in red ink: Sand? In my beautiful book?

  • A screen full of blots, gone in one throw
  • Your pouch is topped up at every hour of the night
In play

Capitulum III

Arm yourself with literature

Shout Beowulf's first word and watch your foes fly. Harpoon a beast and let it drag you across the page. Roll a wooden horse up to the enemy and let it open. Crossbows, bagpipes, hand cannons and the greatest stories ever told: 200 weapons, and every one of them has a trick.

  • Relics that stack, combine and gleefully break the rules
  • Hidden pairings: bring the Siren's Lyre and the Bow of Odysseus together and see what happens

Every weapon tells a story

A few favourites from the literary armoury.

  • Hwæt!BeowulfBellow the first word of the oldest epic and blast enemies off their feet.
  • Thar She BlowsMoby-DickHarpoon the biggest brute in the room. If it's big enough, hang on.
  • Drink MeAlice in WonderlandTiny bottles that slip through anything, then cakes that swell enormous.
  • Bow of OdysseusThe OdysseyTwelve axe-heads in a row. One perfect shot through them all.
  • Quixote's LanceDon QuixoteCharge the giants. Miss, and tilt at the windmill you leave behind.
  • Pandora's JarHesiodUnleash every evil in the world. Keep Hope for last.
  • Aladdin's LampThe Arabian NightsKeep rubbing. Something with a scimitar is about to grant your wish.
  • Wings of IcarusOvidFly ever hotter. Mind the wax.
  • Poor YorickHamletDig deep enough and a cackling jester's skull joins the fight.
  • Siren's LyreThe OdysseySing them in. They can't resist, and they won't survive.
  • Gift HorseThe AeneidRoll a wooden horse up to the enemy. Then let it open.
  • Dagger of the MindMacbethIs this a dagger which I see before me? Several, and they're all for them.
In play

Capitulum IV

Guardians of the margins

A snail no knight has ever beaten. A rabbit king who hasn't touched the ground in years. A hydra of spilt ink that writes two heads for every one you strike out. Every chapter ends with a living illumination, a grudge, and a storm of ink you'll learn to dance through.

  • Hand-painted guardians, each with its own style of fight
  • Wind-ups you can read, and openings you can punish
In play

Capitulum V

The Devil writes back

He is in every room, writing in fresh red ink at the edge of the page: about your footwork, your hat, your taste in weapons. Before each guardian he steps up like a museum curator to introduce the exhibit. And every hour of the night opens with its own title card and the toll of the abbey bell.

The Devil writes, in red ink: Exhibit one: the Great Snail. Do not touch.

  • Live commentary in every room, never written over the fight
  • Chapters named for the hours of the night, rung in by church bells
In play

Capitulum VI

Power, at a price

His bargain stands wait in the margins. Sign one in your own hand and take the power now. The price is ink: Stain creeps up your drawing, red-black and dripping, and the more of it you carry, the closer the Danse Macabre comes. Carry too much and the dancers arrive to collect, room by room. Win the dance, or run.

The Devil writes, in red ink: Signed in your own hand. Excellent provenance.

  • Bargains that bend a run, paid for in Stain
  • Watch the Stain creep over your hero, and decide how much is too much
In play

Capitulum VII

Finish what he started

Some rooms hold a half-drawn soul, a sketch the Devil got bored of. Stand in their circle and ink them in while the fight goes on around you. Finished, they remember their names and walk home to the Scriptorium, which grows a little fuller every night.

  • Lost souls to find and finish, each with something to say
  • Faint brown writing under the red marks a hidden page: cut it open with your penknife
  • In co-op, both readers can ink at once

Horae

The hours of the night

Every chapter is an hour of the night the book was written. Begin at Midnight in the Prologue, where the margins first woke, and fight on to One o'clock in the Bestiary. Beyond that, the book keeps its secrets. Some chapters you'll read. Others you'll have to find.

  • MidnightIThe Prologue
  • One o'clockIIThe Bestiary
  • Two o'clock?Sealed
  • Three o'clock?Sealed
  • Four o'clock?Sealed
  • …And pages not in the contents

Leap through the pages

Silk bookmarks stitched into the floor wake once their room is safe. Open the map, pick one, and the pages riffle you straight there.

Secrets in the margins

Read the Latin on the floor. Spot the faint brown writing under the red. Bring a penknife. The book always hides more than it shows.

Ready for Steam Deck

A Deck graphics preset, full controller support and button prompts that match your pad. Read the book on the sofa, or under the covers.

39 achievements

Thirty-nine marks in the margin for the brave, the thorough and the merely stubborn.

Dramatis personae

Choose your doodle

Each was drawn in a margin as a joke on a cold night. Now they have a score to settle.

More to findMore heroes wait in the margins, for those who find them.
Brother Quill, a young tonsured monk, fires his quill pistol in a spray of ink and gold.

Brother Quill

the Illuminator

The first reader the book ever caught. He trod in the Devil's ink on the way in, and it has never come off his foot.

Illumination

Ink your foes until they blaze with gold leaf and crumble faster. Fell one, and its glowing letter leaps to light up the next.

  • Wieldsthe Quill Pistol
  • Carriesa Scribe's Kit
Sir Loin of Beefton in a dented great-helm, a smoking hand cannon on his shoulder, one fist raised in a vow.

Sir Loin of Beefton

Knight of the Dented Helm

Lost a duel to a snail. Has been looking for a rematch ever since.

Vows & Honour

Before a fight, swear a solemn Vow. Keep it and your Honour grows, and so does your sword arm. Break it, and live with the shame.

  • Wieldsa Handgonne
  • Carriesa Heraldic Oath
Motley the jester leaps in red and blue motley, juggling ink blots, a ghostly mummer copy behind him.

Motley

the King's Fool

Read from the book to amuse his king. The king didn't laugh. The Devil did.

The Mummer

Dodge-roll and leave a painted double behind. Enemies can't resist shooting it, and it juggles their blots right back at them.

  • Wieldsthe Jester's Popgun
  • CarriesJester's Luck
Mudd the peasant strides forward with a pitchfork blunderbuss while his furious goose charges ahead.

Mudd

of No Fixed Abode

Owns one pitchfork, one hazel switch and one extremely angry goose.

The Goose

The goose bites anything that gets too close. One flick of the switch and it charges, honking, straight through the enemy line.

  • Wieldsa Pitchfork Blunderbuss
  • Carriesthe Gooseherd's Switch

Bestiarium

Copied from Pliny. Never seen. Furious about it.

Every creature in the book was copied by a patient monk and then "improved" by the Devil, and every one of them holds a grudge.

The Great Snail, a castle on its golden shell, fires a gun from its mouth across a battlefield of fleeing knights.
The PrologueThe Great SnailA most unhurried doom. Every knight in every margin has lost to it, usually after a very long wait.
The Rabbit Warlord, a crowned rabbit king carried on a litter by his warren, levels his crossbow as his archers loose a volley.
The PrologueThe Rabbit WarlordHare apparent to the throne. His feet haven't touched the page in years; his bolts touch everything.
The Ink Hydra, a many-headed serpent of spilt ink, rears out of a toppled inkwell spraying rings of blots.
The BestiaryThe Ink HydraA many-headed misprint. Strike out a head and the ink simply writes two more.

Most wanted

The first few faces you'll meet. The rest, you'll have to meet for yourself.

  • The Prologue
    The Great SnailA Most Unhurried DoomEvery knight in every margin has lost to it, usually after a very long wait. It does not hurry. It does not need to.
  • The Prologue
    The Rabbit WarlordHare Apparent to the ThroneCarried everywhere by his warren. His feet have not touched the page in years; his bolts touch everything.
  • The Prologue
    The Twin JestersA Double Act of AggressionRouge juggles fire, Bleu juggles cannon fire. Neither has ever been funny; both have always been fatal.
  • The Prologue
    The Scriptorium CatPaws for EffectShe sat on a scribe's page once and left a blot the size of a kingdom. She has not apologised since.
  • The Bestiary
    The Basilisk KingHis Stone-Cold MajestyOne look turns knights to statues. A second look turns statues to gravel.
  • The Bestiary
    The UnicornThe Point of No ReturnOnly the pure of heart can tame it. You are a doodle made of spilt ink, and it can tell.
  • The Bestiary
    The Ink HydraA Many-Headed MisprintStrike out a head and the ink simply writes two more.
  • The Bestiary
    The AspidocheloneIsle Be Seeing YouSailors picnic on it and light a cosy fire on it. Then it remembers it is a whale.
  • And worse, deeper inSome pages are best read for yourself

And a whole bestiary besides

  • inkling
  • killer rabbit
  • hare lancer
  • hare on snail
  • imp
  • snail knight
  • living book
  • inkblob
  • fox friar
  • hedgehog
  • cat archer
  • basilisk
  • owl scholar
  • drollery
  • rabbit captain
  • siren
  • inkling vet

Folia

Leaves from the book

Straight from the game as it is today. Open any leaf to see it whole.

Duo lectores

Two heroes. One book.

Grab a friend and read the book back to back, online or side by side on one screen. Share the loot, split the blame, and drag each other through the worst the margins can throw.

The Devil writes, in red ink: Two readers! A book club!

  1. Host a readingStart an online game and the book hands you a four-letter room code. On Steam, just send an invite.
  2. Send it to a friendThey type it in and drop straight into your margin.
  3. Never read aloneFall, and you'll haunt the page as a ghost until your partner redraws you.
  • Online or local
  • Shared gold & keys
  • Pick any hero
  • Ghosts get back up
  • Tougher foes for two
  • A margin each for your glosses
Join the beta Wishlist on Steam Coming soon
In play

Liber catenatus

Read it before anyone else

The beta is open to invited readers. Play it on Windows or right in your browser, and help us finish the book that never ends.

Join the beta Wishlist on Steam Coming soon