Bendy and the Ink Machine

Bendy and the Ink Machine
Developer(s) Kindly Beast (as Joey Drew Studios Inc.)
Publisher(s) Joey Drew Studios Inc.
Rooster Teeth Games
Designer(s) theMeatly
Mike Mood
Matt Goles
Dan Tozer
Writer(s) theMeatly
Bookpast
Composer(s) theMeatly
Engine Unity
Platform(s)
Release
  • Chapter One
  • February 10, 2017
  • Chapter Two
  • April 18, 2017
  • Chapter Three
  • September 28, 2017
  • Chapter Four
  • April 30, 2018
  • Chapter Five
  • October 26, 2018
  • Console
  • November 20, 2018
Genre(s) Survival horror
Mode(s) Single-player

Bendy and the Ink Machine (often abbreviated to BATIM) is an episodic survival horror video game developed and published by Kindly Beast, under the name of the game's fictional animation studio, Joey Drew Studios Inc. (TheMeatly Games, Ltd. until August 1st, 2018).[1][2] The game takes place in 1966 and follows Henry, a retired animator who returns to his old studio upon an invitation from his old friend Joey Drew and discovers a nightmare of cartoon characters seemingly created by the titular Ink Machine.

The game's first chapter was released for Linux, macOS and Microsoft Windows via Game Jolt on February 10, 2017, with a second chapter bundled with a remastered version of the first following on April 18, 2017. After the game succeeded in its Steam Greenlight campaign on February 28, 2017,[3] both available chapters were released onto Steam on April 27, 2017. The third chapter was released on September 28, 2017 and the fourth chapter was released on April 30, 2018, after a short delay. Mike Mood, the game's programmer, describes the game as an "accidental success".[4]

Bendy and the Ink Machine was announced to be published by Rooster Teeth Games for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 26, 2018 after the fifth and final chapter is completed and released,[5] but was delayed to be released on those consoles at the same time as a Nintendo Switch port on November 20, 2018

Gameplay

Bendy and the Ink Machine is a survival horror game that uses a mixture of puzzle solving, environment exploration and combat to aid Henry on his journey through Joey Drew Studios, where he was formerly employed as an animator. Players explore through a first-person view and have limited physical actions such as running and jumping. Different items can be collected, some of which are required to perform various tasks before proceeding. Cans of bacon soup, a reference to the game's creator TheMeatly and his partner Mike Mood, can also be collected for both achievements and to restore Henry's health if he is injured.

Combat is primarily focused around a variety of different weapons, such as an axe, a pipe, a plunger, a wrench, a syringe, and an M1921 Thompson Submachine Gun with unlimited ammunition. In-game enemies all have different strength levels and resilience to damage, forcing players to be tactical about keeping out of reach and striking when necessary. Henry can retreat inside a Little Miracle Station whenever one is nearby in order to recover or remain obscure. If he takes too much damage, he can escape from the ink that consumes him and respawn at one of the numerous statues of Bendy that act as checkpoints. Cardboard cutouts of Bendy (known as Bendy cutouts) will also appear around the character acting as jumpscare attempts. When the main enemy, "Bendy", catches Henry, "Bendy" will instantly kill him.

In addition, players can find numerous audio logs throughout the studio that give more story details about the fate of the studio and its employees, similar to the systems used in games such as BioShock. Some of these logs can be missed and require further exploration to uncover the secret areas they often reside in.

Chapters

Chapter One: Moving Pictures

Henry, a retired animator, returns to his old animation studio, Joey Drew Studios, after receiving an invitation from his old friend and former employer, Joey Drew, to be shown something important. Having not been to the studio in thirty years, Henry finds the place seemingly abandoned. He eventually discovers the titular Ink Machine after locating two battery cells needed to power the generator that lifts it out from underneath and decides to turn it on after concluding it is what Joey wanted to show him. During the repair attempts, Henry uncovers hints from old tape recordings from two repair workers, Wally Franks and Thomas Connor, which imply that Joey was taking part in bizarre occult practices and was not taking care of the ink machine properly as Connor remarks about the pipes constantly bursting. Henry suddenly encounters the gruesome discovery of a corpse in the shape of Boris the Wolf, one of the studio's characters.[6]

After completing the necessary steps to fix the Ink Machine (which requires finding six objects needed to restore the ink pressure: a wrench, a Bendy doll, a record, a book, an inkwell, and a gear), he finds the path to the machine boarded up. Henry is then suddenly attacked by a humanoid, skeletal ink monster who sports the same name of the studio's most popular mascot, Bendy. Henry attempts to flee from "Bendy" as the studio starts to flood with ink and just before he reaches the exit, the floor collapses underneath him, sending him into a room below. After draining out the ink, using an axe to clear the path, and approaching a pentagram drawn on the floor, Henry is racked with a vision of the Ink Machine, a wheelchair, and "Bendy" before he passes out.

Chapter Two: The Old Song

After waking up on a mass of strange random shapes in a circle (as of the Chapter 4 update), Henry explores the studio's music department and infirmary, encountering hostile inky monsters called Searchers. Henry searches for three switches needed to open a gate and finds several more tape recordings of how the studio fared since his departure, including one by Sammy Lawrence, the musical director for the studio, who seemingly started to worship Bendy as a deity following the ink machine's installment, which the ink machine itself he didn't appeal to. Another tape recording from Norman Polk, the studio projectionist, mentions how Sammy continually disrupted daily recording sessions by attempting to enter a custom built sanctuary. The chapter also introduces Susie Campbell, a voice actress, who discusses her casting as Alice Angel, a new character in the studio.

While attempting to disable the ink flood blocking Sammy's office door, Henry encounters Jack Fain, the studio's lyricist, now a non-hostile Searcher, and has to kill him with a lift control to retrieve a valve handle. He searches for a key needed to unlock a door and plays Sammy's favorite song to open the door to another valve. After activating the pump switch in Sammy's office to drain the flooded stairwell of the music department blocking the exit, Henry is then knocked out from behind by the now-insane Sammy with a dustpan. Upon waking up, he realizes that Sammy's whole body has been covered with ink and now wears an aged Bendy mask over his face. Hoping that Bendy, his lord, will restore his humanity, Sammy plots to sacrifice Henry to him. However, Sammy is presumably killed by "Bendy" off-screen after he arrives. Henry escapes from "Bendy", only to encounter a living version of Boris.

Chapter Three: Rise and Fall

Henry, after awakening in a safe house, works with Boris to find a way out of the studio. They find themselves in Heavenly Toys, the studio's toy manufacturing department. Briefly separated from Boris, Henry encounters a psychotic, aggressive ink creature who sports the same name of the cartoon character Alice Angel, implied that it is presumably a transformed Susie, as audio recordings reveal she was unceremoniously replaced as Alice's voice actress with Allison Pendle. Another audio recording from Joey Drew implies he was trying to motivate his employees, promoting the idea behind the power of belief. Henry finds two pathways: the Path of the Demon and the Path of the Angel, and must choose which path to take. After entering one path, the other closes permanently. Soon after reuniting with Boris, Henry runs into a hostile and deformed living member of the studio's Butcher Gang characters.

They reach "Alice's" lair on Level 9. There, Henry finds out that "Alice" has been harvesting the body parts of Boris clones and other toons, in order to improve her deformed appearance. "Alice" offers Henry his freedom in exchange for a few errands and offers him tools to assist him. While performing these tasks, Henry encounters the Projectionist, who is a transformed Norman Polk. When every task is complete, Henry and Boris are allowed to ascend in an elevator to escape, but "Alice" proclaims she wants to use Boris to fix herself, and makes the elevator plummet down and crash to Level S. As Boris tries to awake Henry, he is suddenly pulled away by "Alice".

Chapter Four: Colossal Wonders

Henry awakens by the remains of the crashed elevator and begins searching for Boris. He journeys through the studio's archives, beginning to get hallucinations, and discovers a large group of harmless ink monsters called the Lost Ones (who are either transformed studio employees or simply just another type of ink creature), some imprisoned in cages. In the archives is a recording from Susie, who states that Joey said he had an 'opportunity' for her, furthering the possibility that she is "Alice".

After navigating through the vents of the archives with the help of a flashlight (briefly encountering "Bendy" again), Henry then finds himself in a large underground warehouse that houses prototypes for a Bendy theme park, "Bendy Land". Created by park designer Bertrum Piedmont, more audio logs imply that Joey intended to take the credit for the park's creation, leading Bertrum to become frustrated with the studio owner. Henry begins restoring power to the warehouse to access the haunted house, encountering a monstrous version of Piedmont encased within an amusement attraction, and is forced to kill him. He also encounters the Projectionist again, Henry fleeing into a Little Miracle Station safe spot. The Projectionist is attacked and killed by "Bendy", who drags his body away.

Henry ventures through the haunted house and is met by Boris, now a large hulking brute. In a boss battle, Henry slays Boris, enraging "Alice". She tries to kill him herself, only to be run through from behind and killed by a second Alice Angel named Allison Angel, accompanied by a mechanized clone of Boris named Tom.

Chapter Five: The Last Reel

The production trailer for this chapter was released on June 4, 2018. The reveal trailer was released on August 31, 2018. The chapter's title was revealed during a video by theMeatly on June 12, which was also when it was revealed that Chapter 5 was set for release in October. The confirmed release date for Chapter Five is October 26, 2018. All console releases are releasing November 20, 2018. theMeatly also stated that Chapter Five started production when Chapter Four was in production. The chapter will most likely focus on a battle involving Henry, Allison Angel, Tom, "Bendy", and the Lost Ones, as well as revealing how most of the events of the game happened.[7]

Characters

The playable character and protagonist is Henry (theMeatly), a former animator of Joey Drew Studios, who returns to the studio thirty years after resigning from the company. The game is played through a first-person narrative, though Henry's physical appearance has yet to be seen.

Joey Drew (David Eddings), the CEO of the studio, invites Henry back to the studio via a letter. He introduced the Ink Machine to the studio, exhibiting peculiar behavior around it. Joey is described as a "man of ideas, but nothing else" by Henry. Other characters view him as an unethical employer and perfectionist, uncaring towards the working conditions of his colleagues. Though acting like an eccentric dreamer, Chapter 4 proves this is just a ruse via a recording, Joey is actually portrayed as a cynical, greedy individual drawing people in with his promise of dreams so he could break them. TheMeatly described Joey's greatest and worst flaw as his "unending desire to make the impossible possible."[8]

Other members of the studio's staff are introduced via audio recordings. These include Wally Franks (theMeatly), the studio janitor; Thomas Connor (Mike Mood), a repairman; Sammy Lawrence (Aaron Landon), the musical director, who serves as an antagonist in Chapter 2, worshipping Bendy as a deity; Jack Fain (Bookpast), a lyricist, turned into a "swollen" Searcher in the remastered Chapter 2; projector operator Norman Polk (theMeatly), transformed into a monster called the Projectionist, appearing in Chapters 3 and 4,[9] a character that was almost left out of the final version of the third chapter due to time restraints;[10] accountant Grant Cohen (Will Ryan); Shawn Flynn (Seán McLoughlin), an Irish toy designer; Bertrum Piedmont (Joe J. Thomas), a theme park architect, who appears as a boss in Chapter 4;[11] engineer Lacie Benton (Lani Minella); and the voice actresses of the character Alice Angel, Susie Campbell (Alanna Linayre), and her replacement Allison Pendle (Lauren Synger).

Susie plays a major antagonistic role in Chapters 3 and 4, appearing as a malevolent, deformed version of Alice Angel. Through audio recordings, Susie is revealed to have been unceremoniously replaced with Allison as Alice's voice actress, causing her to blame Joey for deceiving her.[12] Susie kills numerous cartoon characters and harvests their innards to become a "perfect" incarnation of herself, and specifically targets Boris the Wolf. Allison appears in Chapter 4 as another version of Alice, referred to as "Allison Angel".

Throughout the game, Henry encounters numerous staff members, transformed into monsters made from ink, or resembling the studio's animated characters. A number of these appear in Chapter 4, referred to as the "Lost Ones", but show no hostility towards the player. The stock enemy in the game are the "Searchers", though other variants appear in boss battles.

The studio has created several in-universe cartoon characters who starred in silent animated shorts. The titular character is Bendy the Dancing Demon, the studio mascot, who appears as a recurring antagonist towards Henry throughout the game. Bendy's name was in fact a typo, created when the 3D modeling program, Blender, saved the character's model with the name.

Boris the Wolf appears as several individual characters in the game. In Chapter 2, the player meets a benevolent version of Boris, who accompanies Henry throughout Chapter 3. Several other copies of Boris are found dead in the first and third chapters, used by Susie to achieve her "perfection". She captures Boris at the end of the third chapter, reintroducing him in a new, monstrous and aggressive form in Chapter 4, forcing the player to battle him in a boss battle. Another mechanized Boris appears at the end of Chapter 4, accompanying Allison. The aforementioned Alice Angel debuts in Chapter 2, who theMeatly describes as "quite the gal".[13] Chapter 3 introduced the Butcher Gang, a trio of characters who act as antagonists to Bendy in his cartoon shorts - Charley; Barley; and Edgar, a spider. They appear as antagonists in Chapters 3 and 4 as mutilated versions of themselves, named "Piper", "Fisher" and "Striker", respectively.

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release date
1"Moving Pictures"theMeatly and Mike MoodtheMeatlyFebruary 10, 2017 (2017-02-10)
2"The Old Song"theMeatly and Mike MoodtheMeatlyApril 18, 2017 (2017-04-18)
3"Rise and Fall"theMeatly and Mike MoodtheMeatlySeptember 28, 2017 (2017-09-28)
4"Colossal Wonders"theMeatly and Mike MoodtheMeatly and BookpastApril 30, 2018 (2018-04-30)
5"The Last Reel"theMeatly and Mike MoodtheMeatly and BookpastOctober 26, 2018 (2018-10-26)

Other media

Official videos for a series of animated shorts based on Bendy and the Ink Machine have been released from theMeatly's YouTube channel, with animation done by animator Timethehobo. The first animated short, Tombstone Picnic, was released as part of the Chapter Three reveal trailer on August 11, 2017.[14] The second short, Haunted Hijinx, was uploaded on October 31, 2017, to celebrate Halloween.[15] The third short, Snow Sillies, was uploaded on December 24, 2017, in celebration of the holiday season.

A Halloween crossover mod, Hello Bendy, was released for the game on October 27, 2017, for a limited time, featuring the Hello Neighbor antagonist who takes the role as Bendy in all previous three chapters and even Sammy Lawrence for Chapter 2.[16] The mod's menu features the advertisement of pre-ordering the game Hello Neighbor. The mod expired by the end of October.

Co-creator Mike Mood has talked about wanting to do a crossover with Cuphead, a popular run and gun platformer that follows the same rubber hose animation art style as Bendy and the Ink Machine.[17]

Bendy in Nightmare Run!

A mobile spin-off, titled Bendy in Nightmare Run!, was announced on January 26, 2018 and was released on Android and iOS on August 15, 2018. [18][19]Developed by Karman Interactive in partnership with Joey Drew Studios Inc. and PhatMojo, the game introduces the cartoon Bendy and his co-stars in an endless running-style game, featuring four levels with a different "boss" cartoon monster, as well as collectable items and power-ups, including Briar Label Bacon Soup cans that act as currency to buy abilities and upgrades, and possible future updates.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBt-1lel6Ek
  2. ↑ https://joeydrewstudios.com/
  3. ↑ TheMeatly Games (February 10, 2017). "We did it!! WE ARE GREENLIT!!". Steam. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  4. ↑ https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TylerMcAuleyVallier/20170711/301391/The_CoCreator_of_Bendy_and_the_Ink_Machine_Talks_Accidental_Success.php
  5. ↑ @themeatly (January 29, 2018). "Yup! It's official... #BATIM is coming to consoles! :D It's a huge step and I'm sooooo excited... ^_^ This amazing community coming together made it all possible. :)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ↑ Bearner, David (31 March 2017). "Bendy And The Ink Machine: Darker Than Ink". Early Access Gaming. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  7. ↑ "E3! - "HUGE BENDY ANNOUNCEMENTS!!"". YouTube. theMeatly. 12 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  8. ↑ "theMeatly on Twitter". Twitter. 2 July 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  9. ↑ Asarch, Steven (30 September 2017). "Bendy And The Ink Machine Chapter 3 Review: Alice Is Here". Player.One. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  10. ↑ Asarch, Steven (14 July 2017). "How Bendy And The Ink Machine Lived Up To The Hype". Player.One. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  11. ↑ Asarch, Steven (30 April 2018). "'Bendy and the Ink Machine' Chapter 4 Almost Destroyed Its Creators". Newsweek. Player.One. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  12. ↑ Asarch, Steven (30 September 2017). "Bendy And The Ink Machine Chapter 3 Review: Alice Is Here". Player.One. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  13. ↑ "theMeatly on Twitter". Twitter. 28 April 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  14. ↑ theMeatly (2017-08-11), "Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter Three" – Reveal Trailer 2017, retrieved 2018-01-05
  15. ↑ theMeatly (2017-10-31), Bendy in "Haunted Hijinx" – A Joey Drew Short, retrieved 2018-01-05
  16. ↑ @batimgame (7 Oct 2017). "HELLO BENDY has arrived for Halloween! Play both games for some spooky surprises. ;) store.steampowered.com/app/521890/Hello_Neighbor/ … store.steampowered.com/app/622650/Bendy_and_the_Ink_Machine/ …" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  17. ↑ "Bendy Co-Creator Talks Cuphead Crossover +MORE, Interview w/ BATIM's Mike Mood". YouTube. The Leaderboard. 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  18. ↑ @BendyRun (January 26, 2018). "SURPRISE! :) There's a new #Bendy game …FOR YOUR PHONE!! :) #BendyinNightmareRun #BINR bendy.run" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. ↑ @BendyRun (January 27, 2018). "An Official Bendy Action Packed Boss Runner coming to your iOS and Android devices soon! #BINR #BendyInNightmareRun bendy.run" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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