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The prototype is lying to us, again. While they send us to run small errands for a supposedly sacred task, they hide the true objective from us. A goal that repairs a hole that has remained in the timeline for years. Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that always tries to escape Poppy Playtime, but has never succeeded It's the franchise that keeps attracting me with new ARGs, new developments, and even a completely new game, this time in the form of Escape from Playtime. A new online survival horror experience where you and your seven closest friends play as the Smiling Critters, trying to collect items throughout Playtime Co. But of course, it 's never that simple. As you explore the
facility, some of your favorite experiments will be hunting you down, including CatBee, Boogie Bot, Bronzo Bunny, and the terrifying Mr. Light. In fact, I had the opportunity to play it during the original beta test at the beginning of last month, and then again last week with Ash on Theory Cast. And honestly, I had a lot of fun with this. To be honest, I really like those games known as " friend games", mostly because they give me an excuse to have fun with my friends. Where is Tom? This always happens. It's.it's downloading the story. Yes, it turns out my friends aren't amused by me disappearing to analyze random resources while they try to complete ridiculous tasks, all while avoiding
CatBee's constant stings. But I had to do it, because even though our Barry cart starts empty, as you play, you not only fill it with useful objects, but also with history. The mere existence of the game, along with the ARG they had before launch, and the new notes give us a lot of information about what's coming for this franchise. Specifically, regarding the prototype and its best location. So, faithful theorists, it's time to choose your favorite little creature because we're about to clock in for our never-ending shift at Playtime Co. Like most Poppy releases, Escape from Playtime came with an ARG. But unlike most previous ARGs, this one was quite short. It started just a few days before early access opened and only lasted
three days. But each day was filled with new and fun content for the community to investigate in depth. A huge thank you to everyone who helped solve this mystery, especially to its flare, Dari Doe and RT does stuff for compiling this amazing master document of the ARG. The links will be in the description. Anyway, the first day of this ARG began with a video posted by Mob simply titled "keep watching". It's a Boogie Bot entering the scene and, at the end of the video, this screenshot of the Playtime Co. bulletin board appears on screen. At the same time, Boogie Bot dropped by Discord to tell us we had a review in 3 hours. 3 hours later, Boogie Bot started a conversation on Discord with an account called O O_crazy_O. It seemed to
be some kind of therapy session, but we didn't know exactly who she was talking to. All we knew was that, well, she was crazy. But there was one message that gave us a clue as to who it was. He mentioned having sisters, and the only character we know canonically who has sisters is Mr. Light. This speculation was later confirmed when they released a file on Discord called webcam. Obviously, that attachment doesn't look like a photo, and if you try to open it, you only get blurry text. However, in previous ARGs, not just those related to Poppy, one of the tricks we learned is that you can change the file extension to another one. If you do, it will show you new information. In this case, if we
change it to JPEG, we get this corrupt mess. But if you remove the text added to the photo, the image improves, although it's still not great. However, that did not stop the community. Some members were able to make the photo much clearer using special hexadecimal editing. One of the clearest, and the one used in the master document, was that of Callist_Corny; It clearly shows our Mr. Light with her beloved Barb sitting in front of a computer, ready for her therapy session with Boogie Bot. Honestly, it's nice to see these characters getting a little more time in the spotlight. Before this, what we knew about Mr. Light was that, before meeting her in Chapter 3
, she was one of at least nine identical Mr. Lights, and that a group of them helped teach children using the special childcare curriculum approved by Playtime Co. But after the "Hour of Joy," things got weird. According to the notes , all the sisters were locked inside the school and none of them could open it. So the happy family quickly dissolved into a " Lord of the Flies" style situation. After her sisters left her out of the kitchen for days, the Miss Light we know and love to fear went berserk and ate all her sisters to survive. And you think your Thanksgiving was bad. But according to Miss Crazy, it seems that one of her sisters survived. She even took notes on their conversation, which she
sent us in a new photo. Except that all the notes are mixed up and written on top of each other. Fortunately, it's simple enough to solve. You just need to rotate the jumbled sections to align them and then check the RGB and alpha channels to isolate each text layer. That leaves us with four different messages. And the first thing you'll notice is that at the top of the report there's a date, which is always something to celebrate because dated notes are uncommon in these games. We don't get an exact date, but at least we get a year. 1997. That places the events of Escape from Playtime just two years after the Hour of Joy. But besides more interesting things than the date, in the notes we learn that this new Delight is
known as Dancer. This was his nickname because, well, he loved to dance. Apparently, just before the Hour of Joy took place, she was moved to another location in the factory. Which means that she was not with her sisters while the whole cannibalism thing was happening. Since then, he's been hanging around mass production with a small group of toys. Miss Crazy asked him about the mysterious voice she'd been hearing over the intercom, but Dancer had no idea what that voice was, or so he said. And even if she had more to say, unfortunately she wouldn't get the chance because she was captured by the Raiders the next day. And half of Playcare's food also ended up being stolen along with it. Despite
trying with Barb, Mr. Light was unable to stop them. Right after this conversation, Mr. Light sends a file titled "next time" with a rather terrifying message. And the file is password protected. The password came from hidden letters in a video Mob tweeted, and it reads: " Enemies made". Once you enter the password, you gain access to an MP4 file featuring the one and only Catnap. Which means that the next time the Raiders come to town, they'll send in the heavy hitters with the red gas. Those annoying Raiders are, of course, us, the characters we play as in Escape from Playtime. We are collecting resources across Playtime. There are even notes that mention that we specifically collected food from other parts of the
facility. And, of course, we're listening to the voice, the same one Miss Crazy hears through the intercoms. And of course, the voice she hears through the intercoms is the same one that guides us from an old toy radio during these incursions. But the confusing thing here is that I thought all these toys were on the same side. Sure, in chapter 4 we met Doe's group in Safe Haven and we learned about the Joyless in chapter 5 who definitely challenged the prototype, but the voice and Catnap seem to be serving the prototype. In the game we get a lot of story notes that seem to confirm that the Raiders and the voice serve the prototype. So what's going on? Okay, let's start by taking a closer look at this voice. It's shrouded in complete mystery. It's a
toy radio. Although, to be fair, that's probably not her real body. It's just the medium through which he speaks, because in one of his voice lines we hear him say this. "It makes me shed a tear from my marble eye." The radio doesn't seem to be made of marbles. In fact, the only Playtime Co. character we know of so far who has confirmed marble eyes is Boxyboo. To be clear, I don't think Boxyboo is the voice because he's too cultured for our friend Boxy. But marble eyes in toys were largely phased out during the 1950s and 60s. So, whatever the actual toy behind this is, it probably emerged around a similar time to Boxy. The Voice's radio body is on what appears to be some kind of altar. Something we're very familiar with thanks to
Catnap and all the teasers for Chapter 3. But this time it has candles and a circle of sticks surrounding it, reminding us of the religious halos that are placed behind certain characters to denote their divinity and glory. However, it also reminded me of something less typically Christian, as has historically been the case with most of our analyses of this franchise. It reminded me of the concept of magic circles, a ritual technique used by witches and Wiccans. They use circles as barriers from the outside world, creating a protected space. This coincides with other details we have about this game. Throughout the game, one of the lines spoken by the voice says: "The great work continues." Now, this has a
more Judeo-Christian meaning, since the great work refers to the story of Nehemiah in the book of Nehemiah. This great work was Nehemiah returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the protective walls of the city. Another protective barrier from the outside world. In addition, when the game was initially released to beta testers, all participants received a data sheet about the game; One of them said that we were gathering all these materials to build the "best place," the location the prototype mentioned in chapter 5, where they keep the orphans. This was also initially mentioned on the Steam page, but unfortunately both the page and the datasheet were updated to remove the reference to the best place, but I still think it makes sense given the references to the
great work and the other details in the new notes. But there are other religious ideas with references to the great work, and one that caught my attention while I was researching was Hermeticism. It is an ancient religious and philosophical tradition that is often associated with alchemy, magic, and the occult. According to Eliphas Lévi, a more modern 19th-century ceremonial magician-yes, that's a real term-, the first task of the great work is to take control of one's own faculties and one's own future. In note 6, we learn a term used by these toys: the blessed ones. According to that note, being blessed earns you a place in the future. In the same note, they refer to
those who scavenge for supplies as " hands." They are at the bottom of the food chain, but according to the voice, if they work hard enough, one day they could become blessed. These things, building a better place, becoming part of it, taking control of its future; Everything is part of this great work. But the more I read these notes and listen to the incessant voice, the more I began to think less about the occult and more about, well, actual cults. You see, using terms like the hands, the blessed, the great work, is what we call loaded language. Basically, words or phrases that have a strong emotional or moral charge that can be used to influence someone, instead of
using normal, fact-based language. According to psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton, loaded language is one of the key fundamental tactics used by totalitarian governments. Given what we know about the prototype and what it does to traitors, yes, I think it fits perfectly. Loaded language and totalitarian leadership are also super common in, you guessed it, cults. The specialized jargon makes participants feel special and expert simply by knowing the words and their meaning. Furthermore, it makes outsiders seem inferior for being so clueless and ignorant. But they also use manipulative language to take advantage of easily molded minds, essentially brainwashing them. It sounds a bit like science fiction; Upon hearing the term, you might imagine
someone forced to sit in front of a television that plays strange subliminal messages for hours. But in reality, brainwashing is usually a slow process. It is usually incredibly subtle, and you may not even realize it is happening until it is too late. In Margaret Singer's book "Cults in Our Midst", she defines six conditions for creating the perfect atmosphere for thought reform. These conditions are: keeping the person unaware that there is an agenda to control or change them, controlling time and the physical environment, creating a sense of powerlessness, fear and dependence, suppressing old behaviors and attitudes, instilling new behaviors and attitudes, and presenting a closed system of logic. Each of these conditions is met during
Escape from Playtime. The children have no idea that there is an agenda at all. They only know that the powers are there to help them if they collect enough tribute. There is a limit on the amount of time you can spend in daycare, and the physical environment keeps changing. And I don't know about you, but I definitely feel powerless in the game. The voice also constantly talks about how their old lives are much worse than their new reality. The purpose feels good, doesn't it? Accept it. The chains of an old life loosen on your wrists. And as for the closed logic system, there isn't much room to disagree with the voice without receiving severe punishment. So how does
all this connect to our good friend Catnap? Well, while I was playing, I managed to find the second part of note six, which lists some more terms and apparently groups within this cult. One of which is called The Powers. Describe these types as the top of the hierarchy, the big, bad toys that everyone fears, like Prototype, Mommy, Catnap, and Dog Day. Although they later say it could be something completely different, since all these toys hate each other. This game and these notes take place two years after the Hour of Joy. Poppy and Dog Day deserted almost immediately after learning the truth about never leaving, which led to the civil war between him and the Prototype that we discussed in chapter four
. So at this point, he's probably already deserted. But the fact that Mommy, the Prototype, and Catnap hate each other shows that perhaps it wasn't a simple black and white war between good and evil as we initially thought. In another note, they mention going to get food at the game station, even though they know it's not theirs. The arcade is Mommy's domain, another example of these groups working against each other even though they are apparently all part of the same evil faction, according to those murals in chapter 4. So, Mommy has her own faction, Dogday has his; Lightning bolts, even the Fists and the Powers could technically be their own factions in this disastrous cult. And then, of course, there's Catnap, who is also clearly
part of a prototype cult. But he and Mr. Luz believe they are serving the prototype by protecting the Playcare. And so, when other toys go there to collect or steal resources, Catnap eliminates them. Despite serving the same god, the prototype side in this war is dysfunctional, full of internal conflicts, all trying to prove that they are the blessed ones and deserve the paradise he offers. Sadly, I think that's part of the design and that it was always too late for Catnap. The Hands are clearly helping to build a better place.
They are the ones who are truly serving the prototype's vision. What is Catnap doing? He's just watching the Playcare. They keep him out of the way, hundreds of meters high, so that his fanaticism does not interfere with the great work. I suspect that toys like Catnap and Mr. Light are considered too disturbed to join the prototype's perfect little society. They have lost their sense of who they are, or at least of who they used to be. They are not the chosen ones, so the prototype has sent them to do menial work in the Playcare. Therefore, when the Hands appear to obtain resources, they spring into action, because they believe that this will earn them the right to be blessed. And when we appear in the
main game, the same thing happens, only for the prototype to prove that it never intended to let Catnap join its best place. That he was always a failure, making Catnap become a part of him. And this is not the only lie he has told, not by a long shot, because I think he and this voice have been lying to us throughout the entire game. I mentioned earlier how the Steam page changed to remove the mention of the best place. Well, instead there was a new phrase: "Try not to ask too hard who or what you're really working for." Obviously, telling your subjects not to question things is very cult-like, as I mentioned before. But I'm not part of this sect, so I do question it. As we have established, it seems quite clear
what we are working on: The Best Place. But what if that's not the only thing we 're working on? What if we're working on something else to help win this war, enhance the prototype, and fill a gap in the timeline that never made sense? The legs of the prototype. The prototype's legs have always been a source of frustration for me. It is those enormous, spider-like legs, half mechanical and half organic, that in no way match the central design of the prototype. But we also had no evidence to say that they were not part of its original design. Aside from some concept art shared by the team, where he is shown as a surprise toy, a jester on stilts, or that strange octopus-shaped thing. With all these
different concepts, it was difficult to determine which, if any, was the original canon design. So I just had to ignore the legs as if they had always been part of him. In past timelines, they were simply attributed to Elliot Ludwig when he created the prototype, as they were the same organic mechanical hybridization that we see in his iconic arm. But it never fully convinced me, especially when you consider that this guy could supposedly fit under an orphan's bed. And we see those beds at Playcare. There isn't much space down there. Now we're here at Escape from Playtime, and once again, the prototype's legs are on my mind. If you reached the final turns of the game
, you unlock this image about the Best Place. But it also came with a custom link. A link that took you to the trailer for Chapter 6 of Poppy Playtime. It's available to everyone now, and it's a pretty standard trailer. It's very similar to the preview of Chapter 3. I notice a recurring theme here. But, just before the end, we see a glimpse of the prototype and the silhouette of a child in a wheelchair. Given that this development is about the prototype, it's not unreasonable to believe that this child is Ollie, Elliot Ludwig's adopted son, who was turned into the prototype. We theorized earlier that Ollie was physically broken. We saw
X-rays of a child's hand on VHS tapes, and he mentioned his parents raising a hammer against him. You think I'm a hammer, just like him Elliot was taking broken things, the title of Chapter 5, and supposedly giving them new life, all with the goal of fixing his own broken daughter, Poppy. So, Ollie being disabled isn't a huge leap, but the fact that it's being revealed here for the first time makes me think it's important to what's being revealed at the same time, the things we 've talked about today. Think about the objects we are collecting throughout this game: metal objects, red smoke collectors, Poppy's gel, toy pieces.
All these things, yes, are important for a civil war against Joey, they are important for building the place better, but they are also the things that the prototype has in its legs. Poppy's gel is essential for the creation and life of the toy, so it's likely pumping all over her body. The gas that we see coming out of it in chapter five. They are obviously made of metal, but they are also organic. At first, I wondered if they were the humans he killed, but now I think they could be the organic parts of the toys we're collecting. Mommy did say, and a sort of altar, which is supposedly a visual representation of the prototype, uses many toy pieces, regardless of whether Mob
used that design in the end or not. This is why the Steam page questions who or what we are working for, because the basic idea they promise you, the idea of building the best place and earning your blessing, is a complete lie. The prototype, like most cult leaders, is simply getting richer, fixing the broken part of himself that Elliot promised to fix, but never did. Just like she's doing with the better place Elliot promised her, but she never got. He will become all-powerful in order to win the war and control everything, shaping the world as he pleases, regardless of what the toys that helped him get there say. He no longer wants to be just a savior. He wants to be a god. But, well, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.
World premiere on Game Theory. How deep is Poppy?
