I Was Messaged About A Game That Doesn't Exist - Inside A Mind 

I think the "accidental creation" was just him having a mental breakdown and ruining the game.

imagine being a child in an alternate timeline where this was released and finding that damn decapitated crow scene-

The decapitated crow on life support was I think the creepiest part. It’s making weird struggling breathing sounds that sound too realistic for those old games almost like one of those weird badly written creepy pastas brought to life

Usually lines like "The player is gone." is just inserted mindlessly in horror games just to be creepy without adding any real meaning to it. I'm genuinely surprised that they made it work in this context since the game was made for the daughter.

"I'm your german son, don't mind it if I speak to you in english"

That decapitated crow scene was genuinely disturbing and sad.

Even ignoring the symbolism of the headless crow child scene, His child is sick, he's stuck at work and he feels like he's drowning. I own birds, I even once had a sick one from a filthy place and his lungs made that exact sound. He got the potrayl of sick birds so right I feel like he researched it.

Imagine that guy's search history: "Crow sounds" "Choking crow" "Super Mario 64 assets" "How to make arg game" "Arg games" "How to fake your death wikihow" "How to abandon your company wiki how" "N64 free assets" Edit: "Girl screaming sound effect" "Girl scream"

When the older crow in the computer says “H WQ HT ROEE” It translates to “I am in hell” stating how it was hell for him to continue programing the game after she passed

when i have a close school deadline for the choice assignment "i am in hell one i made myself"

Ah, the good old "video game necromancy gone wrong"

Imagine making a game so that your daughter/son can see it but instead a random stranger plays it and get the message that was supposed to be for your daughter/son instead.

Me and the boys impersonating a grieving small child to disprove a suicide case.

Basically this guy made a game for his Daughter, she died and he broke down, planned his suicide, coded his suicide into the game and also fucking up the code himself, and then killed himself

Jaime: "Game started acting strange..." Me: It's a demo cart.

PLEASE HEAR ME OUT there’s a music artist called “BNNY RBBT” he made music from 1980-1994 he disappeared and left only tapes and was never seen again

Damn, inside a mind really is active these days. Dont stress yourself too much now

The breathing of "the dying crow" surely sounds like a little girl on a machine having problems breathing , so I feel like that was a sound byte of his daughter and when the player became gone that was him trying to keep a piece of her alive in the game at the end or a dedication to her idk but it sounds like a female child breathing

If anybody is wondering what the crow said to the “I AM IN HELL”

this ARG is absolutely f--kin amazing, creating a fake n64 game, to making a fake lost media retrospective to tell a story of an absolutely tragic family loss of a daughter. It's honestly amazing.

I'm so sleep deprived I thought his ending was "..for now, this is where our story draws to a *crows* "

In a way, recordings have the power to raise the dead. They're kind of scary.

"Discovering something that doesn’t exist!" - Phineas and Ferb

This is so fucking crazy. This should get so much more attention, its crazier than Petscop I hope this story comes to a conclusion.

The way the email was phrased, it makes it sound like Nils' birthday is hidden within the game somewhere. If someone contacts the creator impersonating Nils, and is able to "prove" it with his birthday, then they might be able to get a response from him.

The father: Petscop The son: Catastrophy Crow The holy spirit: Polybius

The most unrealistic part of the story is him getting a development cart for so cheap, lol.

am I the only one to notice that manfred not even being fazed by his creation talking back to him could hint that the game is sentient?

That...that child's room scene was deeply upsetting. It left me with a deep frown and a weird feeling in my chest.

I think the man who found the copy labeled "crow" was Nils himself, he must've forgot about the game and just decided to sell the cartridge.

When you connected the "the player is gone" line to his daughter being dead I started to cry. I know it's not a real story but that's probably happened more than once in real life. Kind of makes me think of That Dragon Cancer, in a way.

just imagine chilling on the ocean floor and suddenly a bunch of emails appear

The decapitated crow scene gives me shivers, the fact that it's possibly ML's daughter is just depressing af

“catastrophe crow” is such an ironic name for the tragic life of the developer, lost his wife and his daughter before ending his career by supposedly taking away all the game software along with his life.

Every copy of Catastrophe Crow 64 is personalized.

"The player is gone" a person playing the game: *understandable, have a great day*

Bruh the decapitated crow in the child's room was thr creepiest part.

The “Crow jumping from a boat with a computer” footage, in my opinion, does not represent Manfred himself doing the same. It represents what he wanted to do with himself, yet he pushed himself to continue further on the game. The “Eternal Revival System” did not bring him back, because the code simply didn’t work due to the limitations of the software. In my opinion, because of the emails, he is still alive, and simply faked his death.

This man seriously made a whole N64 game for an ARG.

Perhaps this game IS the eternal revival system, he is being remembered, thus he won’t die fully

I think the eternal revival system is supposed to emulate how if you die in a game you just come back. It’s obvious, but what’s a common thing is that it’s never told to the player why they respawn, but using the term ‘eternal revive system’ has a purpose for more than just the game. But here’s the thing: the player is gone. The respawn didn’t work. And I think that’s going to be the big catch of this ARG

Friendly reminder that this actually is an ARG, no matter how well-made.

Dude's voice is so calming it makes me want to have a British accent

Theorys -Manfred Faked he's death =it might explain that he's answering emails -Is Nills alive =Probably -Daughter's death is a head injury from the stairs =Explains the brain scan texture on the glitched floor =Explains the headless crow -More coming soon, for now we wait

Remember: The person responding to emails is a PERSON. Treat him with respect. edit: don't mean to be repetitive, but this is my most liked comment ever. wow

me clicking on this video: oh maybe this will be an interesting story this guy: did a video game feature bring this man back to life?

Wow this video really put me in a loop first I was thinking “is this real” then “no this can’t be” then “well maybe it is” very well made ARG I’ll give them that.

Maybe the end of the ARG will have Nils receiving the copy of Catastrophe Crow and then he’ll start playing the game on RU-vid and suddenly all the levels and stuff are totally normal and innocent and something you’d expect to see on N64. Just an idea.

The part where the little crow screams and dies actually terrified me

We aint gonna mention that when the employee said, "Think of the player" and then ML said "The player is gone." "Player" means his daughter since he intended to make the game for her.

Wait, you should investigate the actually reddit account,they have to be part of the story, you can probably get some answers, they were a beta tester after all

the fact that im watching this to create a musical album based on liminality and detachment from reality makes things exactly like a college work for an essay

It'd be cool if someone made an ARG like this that actually sold the cartridges of it on Ebay to people so they can buy it and figure it out themselves as the internet is figuring it out too.

Y'all spent all this time trying to solve this... Imagine Nintendo finds this and just copyright strikes it for simularities.

"Decapitated crow on life support" oh, i thiight that was a fish, guess not

this video gave me chills. the part where towards the end, the crow (probably representing Manfred), goes back to the what used to be perfect home (with his wife and two children), enters Thea's room, and seeing a decapitated crow, and watching the crow decay and eventually passing away, with the scream.

The community could of called it ‘crow scratch’ instead of crow language (Like chicken scratch but ya know crow)

Why should his son, write him in English. Just text him in German.

The sound when the crow enters his child's room was disturbing as all hell. Does catastrophe crow remind anyone else of Petscop??? Especially reguarding the Google comprehensive document

I love 17:05 "a cryptic response," and then just a picture of a liddol frogg

This is it: The cartridge was meant for Nils. Tht guy is looking for proof that it's Nils by showing his birthday. Perhaps the date on the cartridge was the day that it would be given to Nils, IE his birthday. To move forward, all we need to do is email him that date.

Now let's wait for Nick Robinson to find the game physically

The game is called Crow. and the creator had a sickening obsession with the game. Poe Reference.

"So he never received it..." Ah shit this is sad...

For context, the email Inside A Mind has gotten stated this is an ARG, so an Alternate Reality Game. So just so you know, all of this never ACTUALLY happened, this is all just a ARG.

"An eternal revival system" Are you sure you wanna try your hand at this? It may cost you an arm and a leg.

"It's possibly his son" no, not possibly, it is 100% his son...you even read it out in the part where the father/brother(can't remember which) acknowledges the son/brother as the relative family member...

I have this theory where maybe Manfred did commit suicide, and the emails responding to people are just pre-written messages that are being sent automatically based on keywords. (I know of some features that can do this). This could explain why the messages are pretty vague, and focus on specific words.

me, a german trying to decipher this dude’s handwriting: ❓👄❓

That death scene of 'the daughter crow' unnereved me. Pretty sure that was an actual sound clip of someone struggling to breath. Gives me the chills.

Reading "That doesn't exist" loses my sanity and gives me existential crisis

I'll try and make a theory of my own "Dearest Thea, I am sorry that I could not be with you in the end. I was too afraid. I ran, and now I am in hell. One I made myself." - This sounds a lot like Thea died("the player is gone."), and he wasn't with her in her final moments because he was afraid of seeing her die, or perhaps he was too occupied with creating the game for her. Now he's ashamed of himself, the guilt of not being there for her is consuming him, and he believes it's his own fault that he feels this way. Maybe he even blames himself for her dying. "Maybe if I was with her, she would have held on." Perhaps he grew obsessed with completing the game to honor her memory, maybe hoping it would bring him peace. Maybe, in his grieving mind, he thought that making her game would somehow bring her from the brink of death, give her a new will to live, but it just didn't work out that way. Maybe that's what broke him and caused him to turn the game into more of a cry for help or elaborate suicide note, detailing what he had to suffer through. The crow on life support, the crow jumping off the boat, the crow obsessively typing code, "he's not been home for days.", it all matches parts of the story. This was the hell he made for himself.

Theory: everyone’s just looking into this to much and this guy just couldn’t get any of his assets right which explains the anomalies he was mad at his employees and fired them all, then went and jumped into the ocean because he was depressed he couldn’t make his dream come true

Everybody else here is like “notifications gang” and I’m just over here randomly seeing it in my recommendations 30 minutes after it came out

“This is only for your little brother now.” “you always looked alike" “Dearest Nils” “I am in hell.” “One I made myself.” “This is only for your little brother now.” “Please forgive me, both of you.” “I ran and now.” “I was too afraid.” “I dreamed of you playing this one day.” “But you never will.” I took all the decoded code i could find in the document and put them in order of how i found them. it gives a slight message? some connect and others dont.

That decapitated crow scene fucking BROKE me. It didn't come across as creepy to me just... Sad

"I was messaged a game that doesn't exist" So Petscop then

I’m interested in where this is gonna go and the “eternal revival system” is giving me vibes of “No Players Online”, I feel like it might take a much darker turn in the coming days.

RU-vid: hey a new inside a mind video was pos- Me: LETS GOOOO

" Think about the player Manfr- " " The player is gone. " " W-What? "

I'm sorry but the effort put into the intro and basically everything??? Wonderful, absolutely gorgeous Edit: People are asking why I'm sorry, my apologies. I'm not sorry for anything, it's an… instinct? Something like that jfksdjf

The crow looks like the bird from "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared"

I never would have imagined a pixleted game would be way more scary than todays high end graphics

What's going on here is... The actual creater of this game and planning ahead is a real Genius

The "eternal revival system", next to "the accidental creation" make me think of this : He was trying to revive his daughter in the game but as we saw, she dies in the end in an horrific maner. The accidental creation is that she revives every time the game is restarted but always dies in horror at the end. This could be the reason he committed suicide in the end. This revival system would also be the reason why he can still answer emails. He revived, but only inside a program, like his daughter revived in the game. He survived thanks to the electronic equipment he brought is his death, and is now trapped on the internet. This allowed him to create these RU-vid videos out of a game that was never published until it was recently bought. The problem with this last idea is, why would he want to buy a physical copy of the game if he isn't material? (I don't know if there is still some activity around this video, I'm probably never going to reach anybody but I thought I was going in a good direction)

Okay theory time: Manfred, like it says in the video, wants to create this game for his daughter based on her drawing. I assume, based on the game play, messages, and the story of this strange game, this: Manfred's daughter could've had a chronic illness (or maybe she was in accident. I am unsure, but I believe that the crow on life-support is his daughter. The thing that drags her away could be a symbolic meaning of death or maybe the illness.). She died before the game was created and, afterwards, all of Manfred's sole reason for the game was lost. I believe Manfred was driven to a point of insanity by her death. The strange assets could be things made for a specific level, where it gives away the reason why or how Thea died. In his insanity, he fires his developers and drives his family away. He begins to fear his own creation (suggesting from the lines 'I am in hell. One I made myself.') because it slowly losing it's real purpose and is spiraling into a game based on Manfred's insanity. 'The player is gone' is losing Thea. The game then turns into a game for Nills. He tries to contact and get to his son. However, he cannot reach him. Maybe, he just wanted to make the game for his son now. After not being able to reach him, he gives up and throws away the equipment made to make the game where it lies in the bottom of the ocean. Manfred, however, could still be a mystery, but I strongly believe he is alive. They found his boat, but this video never mentions his car. So, what if he swam back to shore and drove away? 'I have - finally - gone home.' Could mean he probably went somewhere significant to him, whether that be a place, a city, a country, who knows! That is a mystery. The game, in my opinion, is focused on the aspect of Thea's death. The character we play at first is Nills, trying to find his father busy in his office (I believe this is like his father stuck in his office trying to finish this game on his own) and the last character we play is Manfred, watching his daughter slowly leave this world. While Nills goes through crazier and crazier levels, it's to represent his father's slow spiral into grief and insanity. The last level, I believe, was made by Manfred himself. With the textures missing, the strange teddy bear path, and the house that looks like his own, I believe this is true. That is just my general idea. Some other things confuse me a lot. What do you guys theorize. I'd like to know!

"Are ya winning son?" "Hhuh.... huh huhh......" The headless crow scares me. The scream right after makes me refuse to sleep.

So Manfred wants his children to play a game that he created, but the player is gone and the other player never received it, Manfred is a genius who expected his son to figure out his puzzles but didnt, and his daughter died without even playing his game, someone make a movie with a reference of this it'll be a great tribute for Manfred

“After failing to convince him that we were his son” Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of: *only in the arg fandom* Edit: since this comment is getting a bit more traction: just wanted to remind everyone to have a great day and stay safe!

Just wanted to once again say that Inside a Mind makes the best ARG/internet mystery/horror videos I’ve ever seen. Editing, length, incorporation of other media, commentary, tone, theme: each video is an entire creative work in itself!

This is actually scary and heartbreaking. All he wanted to do was to be with his family but after the death of his daughter he couldn't bare it and went crazy. A baby was probably in the works and he wanted to see him play the game, but it got lost and sold to a guy on ebay.

I’m just imagining Manfred vibing to _To The Bottom Of The Sea_ by Voltaire all the way down at the bottom of the ocean.

This is like Petscop all over again Edit: Jeezus Christ, This was literally based off of the Title Alone. i hadn't even watched the video when i commented this. But thanks anyways, i guess...

im really starting to love this genre of ARGs that are centered around games that don't exist (petscop and this one)!! its super fun to delve into lore thats solely presented Through youtubers and not necessarily discovered on our own accord

>Fast loading times on the N64. That's all I need to know it's fake.

I'd like to mention that that drawing reading "Katastrophe Krähe" immediately sets of red flags, as it's clearly made by an English speaker trying to pass it off as made by a German child. This is simply not how German compound nouns work. A mistake that can happen when translating from English to German obviously makes no sense in a German child's creation, it really should have been "Katastrophenkrähe." Hurts immersion/believabilty of the story. The letter is also suboptimally composed. It is written in a very... non casual, poetic, flowery, old-timey way. Now, while this isn't a problem and the contrast between that and the hasty handwriting and spelling mistake can also be a deliberate choice by Adam, the word "gucken" is really out of place there. Also "dekodieren" clashes in a similar way, and I suspect it was used because it's very simialr to "decode", meaning, we again are dealing with evidence of the text being written in English and translated. Also, the messade the game displays encodes "Dad" as "XWX"? So on top of the previous points, either Manfred calls himself "dad" instead of "Papa" or anything else more common in Germany or rather, looking at how the line lengths between message and screenshot line up, the in-story character just gave up at this point and left the message in English.

Shouldn’t it be called “Katastrophenkrähe” in German instead of “Katastrophe Krähe” which sounds like a straight translation from English?

“Think about the player” “The player is gone” God I get chills down my spine just hearing that How the actual hell did I get 1k likes

Maybe it was a poor idea to watch creepy lost horror stuff at 3am

13:20 in this part of the scene, I confirm it said: "I am in hell" this is what mattpatt (is it correct?) Found out about the crow language