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Games Like Inscryption: Horror Card Games and Meta Horror

Inscryption is a deadly card game across a cabin table that keeps showing you what lies behind the game itself. These games share its grim table games, its meta tricks, or both, from Daniel Mullins' own Pony Island to Buckshot Roulette and KinitoPET.

The games

  1. Pony Island screenshot: the title screen on an old CRT, with two horned pony heads and a 1992 copyright PsychologicalPony IslandThe same maker before Inscryption: a broken arcade game built by the devil, which you escape by looking behind it and rewriting its code.
  2. Buckshot Roulette key art: The Dealer, a face with a huge toothy grin, holds out a pump shotgun in pale hands Co-opBuckshot RouletteA grim game across a table: Russian roulette with a shotgun against a grinning dealer, with odd items to tilt the odds; online with friends too.
  3. Forbidden Solitaire screenshot: a red, mangled skeletal figure drags itself into the light above a stone-framed text box PS1Forbidden SolitaireA bloody solitaire on a cursed 1995 CD-ROM, in a 90s FMV hellscape, while what is on the disc reaches into your life.
  4. ARSONATE key art: a figure in a gas mask with one red eye sits at a table in front of wire mesh with a forest fire raging behind Multiple endingsARSONATEA horror card game in a burning fire tower against a masked host, with a free browser demo on itch.io.
  5. KinitoPET key art: Kinito, a pink axolotl-like assistant with a globe, leaning from a glossy pink and green oval over a checkered floor and a cloudy sky PsychologicalKinitoPETA cheerful early-2000s desktop assistant whose friendliness turns into something you cannot close: the game breaking out of its frame, as Inscryption does.
  6. Buddy Simulator 1984 key art: a dark pattern of grey pixel-art creatures, robots and characters from the game PsychologicalBuddy Simulator 1984Software posing as a 1980s AI buddy that builds whole games to keep you entertained, and grows unsettling.
  7. IMSCARED art: a thin white figure with long hair standing on a black background with large pixelated shapes PsychologicalIMSCAREDMeta horror that pretends to crash and leaves files on your desktop that you have to read to go on.
  8. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus art: Sayori waving, Yuri with a book, Natsuki with folded arms and Monika with a sheet of paper on a pink background PsychologicalDoki Doki Literature Club!Free: a cheerful dating sim about a school literature club that turns into psychological horror, where the fear comes from things not being as they should.
  9. Unlikely: a grinning clown with bloody hands sits at a wooden table in a bloodstained room, dice cards pinned to the wall, as the round begins ShortUnlikelyA small dice game across a bloodstained table against a hungry clown; pay what you want, and it plays in the browser.
  10. FLATHEAD key art: a grainy grinning figure in a white collar whose head is a blur of static PS1FLATHEADA short gambling horror game: strapped to a machine, guess over or under and bend the odds while creatures close in from behind.
  11. the cabin game screenshot: a gaunt grinning man in a hallway with Welcome to Reality scrawled on the wall Co-opthe cabin gameShuffled cards reveal clues and build out the rooms of a locked cabin, and any card can unleash something on you; for one to four players.
  12. Feed The Pit art: black silhouettes of people falling against a red sky into a pit ringed with spikes Puzzle horrorFeed The PitMagical cards that each ask one question about where your target hides, in a cult's hunt through haunted woods.
  13. WORLD OF HORROR screenshot: a young heiress with a strange symbol on her necklace, drawn in 1-bit black and white pixel art Multiple endingsWORLD OF HORRORA 1-bit roguelite of mysteries, choices and turn-based fights, where each run is a new deal of events.

Inscryption works on two levels at once: a deckbuilding card game against a shadowy captor across a cabin table, and a game that keeps breaking out of its frame to show what is behind it. The games here take one side or the other, or both.

Pony Island is the obvious next step: Daniel Mullins' earlier game, a broken arcade machine built by the devil that you escape by peering behind its pony game and repairing its code. It is short and full of the same tricks.

If it was the table that stayed with you, Buckshot Roulette sits you across from a grinning dealer for Russian roulette with a shotgun, with items that change the odds each round, and has an online mode for friends. Forbidden Solitaire is a card game on a cursed 1995 CD-ROM, played in a 90s FMV-style hellscape while the disc reaches into your life. ARSONATE is a card duel in a burning fire tower against a masked host, and its demo plays free in the browser. Unlikely is a tiny dice game across a bloodstained table against a hungry clown, pay what you want. FLATHEAD straps you to a machine in the dark to guess over or under on the next number, bending the odds with gadgets and banking points to buy your freedom while deformed creatures close in behind you. The cabin game is a co-op version of the idea: players draw cards to reveal clues and rooms in a locked cabin, and each card can turn on them.

If it was the game breaking its frame, KinitoPET is a friendly desktop assistant from the early 2000s who will not let you go, Buddy Simulator 1984 is an AI friend that builds games for you, and IMSCARED pretends to crash and leaves files on your desktop. Doki Doki Literature Club is free and the most played of these: a cheerful dating sim about a literature club that turns into psychological horror; it is not for children. Feed The Pit and WORLD OF HORROR take the cards and the run structure into investigation and mystery.

Start with Pony Island for the same maker's tricks, or Buckshot Roulette for the tension across the table.

Questions

What games are like Inscryption?

Pony Island, by the same maker, is the closest. Buckshot Roulette and Forbidden Solitaire share its grim table game, and KinitoPET and IMSCARED share its habit of breaking out of the game.

Are there free games like Inscryption?

Doki Doki Literature Club is free, Unlikely is pay what you want and plays in the browser, and ARSONATE has a free browser demo on itch.io.

Is there a multiplayer game like Inscryption?

Buckshot Roulette has an online mode for up to four players, and the cabin game is a card-driven horror game for one to four.

Who made Inscryption?

Daniel Mullins Games, published by Devolver Digital. Daniel Mullins also made Pony Island.

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