Friday, October 2·The Holy Guardian Angels
INCIPIT
GAMES
Here begins.
Beautiful games for the Catholic imagination.
We make pixel-art games that are fun to play and faithful to the Church, with real Scripture, real chant and real history inside. For kids, families, schools, and anyone who loves a good mystery.
"And darkness was upon the face of the deep." GENESIS 1:2
in·ci·pit
Latin, "here begins." noun.
The first words of a medieval manuscript, written in red and gold so the reader knows a new book is opening. Incipit Evangelium secundum Ioannem. In principio erat Verbum. Here begins the Gospel according to John. In the beginning was the Word.
THE NAME
Why we called it Incipit.
Monks opened their books with one word: incipit, "here begins." We named the studio after it because that is what we want our games to be for kids. A beginning.
A child who learns to type by copying a psalm might go read the rest of it. A player who finds a hidden prayer in Lumen might actually pray it. That's the whole idea.
FROM OUR SCRIPTORIUM
Our games.
A mystery you play by holding your phone like a candle, and a typing course where kids copy Scripture. Holy Keys is free to play for now, and Lumen is coming soon for $3. Neither one has ads or in-game purchases.
AEDIFICAMUS · STILL BUILDING
A PHONE MYSTERY · COMING SOON
LUMEN
Restore the scraped manuscripts of a drowned Galician abbey by tilting your phone like a candle.
MEET LUMEN >
A TYPING ADVENTURE · GRADES 1 TO 8
Holy Keys
Learn to type, one holy word at a time. Every right key copies Scripture, rings a bell, or sings the next note of a chant.
Try a verse >
THE CAST
Meet the characters.
They live in our games, and some of them wander around this page. Tap anyone to say hello.
Mrrp?
Did you finish your copying?
Benedicite.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
TAP SOMEONE TO SAY HELLO
MOVE THE CANDLE
Try it: move the candle and find the hidden words.
COMING SOON · $3 · FOR YOUR PHONE
LUMEN
THE DROWNED ABBEY OF VALLIS TACITA
In 1835 the abbey of Vallis Tacita disappeared under a lake. This summer the drought gives it back.
You hold your phone like a candle, rake its light across scraped vellum, and read a thousand years of keepers, one hand under another, down to a girl who kept a lamp burning at a spring.
TILT
Your phone is the candle. Raking light raises the ink that was scraped away.
LISTEN
Bells and chant hold clues. The liturgy is part of the puzzle.
HISTORY
Set along the pilgrim road to Santiago, around the real suppression of 1835.
"The people of Vallis Tacita are imagined. The faith they kept is not."
HOLYKEYS.APP · FREE TO PLAY FOR NOW
Holy Keys
Learn to type, one holy word at a time.
Kids play a young novice in a medieval abbey and learn to type by copying psalms, prayers and Bible verses, starting with the home row. Give it a try below.
THE SCRIPTORIUM DESK
Psalm 118:105 (119), Douay-Rheims
On a phone? Tap the page to bring up your keyboard. The full game wants a real keyboard or a Chromebook.
SWIPE FOR MORE GAMES >
Nine games with a hundred levels each, plus the One-Minute Trial, saint cards, a boss fight against Sloth, and pages of Scripture to illuminate.
For teachers
Make a classroom, share a join code, and follow each student's progress. Class Races keep it lively. Built for Catholic and Christian schools, co-ops and homeschool families.
For children
No ads, no trackers, no open chat, no loot boxes, no paid currency. Classes see a first name, a last initial and practice numbers. Nothing else.
For prayer
In the Sanctuary, prayer is never scored. No timers, no points, no ranks. Just a quiet place to type a prayer and mean it.
WHY WE BUILD
The Rule of Incipit.
Monasteries lived by a rule. We wrote a short one for our studio, and every game we make has to keep it.
Incipit Regula
Cap. I.Of Beauty
We draw every pixel by hand, using the colors of real medieval manuscripts. We want kids to see that holy things are beautiful things.
Cap. II.Of Truth
We quote Scripture and the Church accurately: the Douay-Rheims, the Vulgate, the Rule of St. Benedict, the chant of the Roman liturgy. When something is made up, we say so.
Cap. III.Of the Child
No ads, no loot boxes, no paid currency, and no open chat. We collect as little information as we can, and we never sell it.
Cap. IV.Of Prayer
Prayer is never scored. Our games have quiet places with no timers, points or rankings.
Cap. V.Of Fun
A game has to be fun first: puzzles, mysteries, bells and boss fights. When kids love playing, they keep coming back to what is underneath.
Cap. VI.Of the End
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. Everything we make is for the greater glory of God and the good of the people who play it.
Explicit Regula · Deo Gratias
"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things."
ON THE DESK
What we're working on next.
AEDIFICAMUS · INFERNO FIRST
IN THE SCRIPTORIUM
Commedia
Inferno · Purgatorio · Paradiso
An open-world journey faithful to Dante's poem, canto by canto. Upscaled 32-bit art, cutscenes in Italian with English subtitles. Inferno comes first.
See the plans >ALWAYS
Your idea
From parents, priests and teachers
Tell us what your kids, students or parish could use. A good game idea can start with a short note.
Write to us >WRITE TO THE SCRIPTORIUM
Schools, parishes, families and friends.
Want Holy Keys for your classroom? Found a bug in Lumen? Have an idea for a game? Send us a note. We read every one.
- Holy Keys classrooms for schools and co-ops
- Parish and youth group game nights
- Press, partnerships and kind words