Schastye

> A miniature frozen between the atmosphere of a small room and Castaneda with Lovecraft. The story of radical spiritual practices in the search for truth among panels and stacks.
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***Schastye*** is an experimental "visual novel" game, the first one developed by Garage Heathen. It was originally released on itch.io on May 9, 2020 under the title *A Short Story*. It was later released on Steam on August 27 of the same year, which coincided with a major update that added several new features and changed its name to *Schastye*.

The game's story features many connections to the concepts and characters of *Who's Lila?*.

## Premise

The player controls a character by the name of Ivan Yatuow, who is inside a room containing a computer and various other knick-knacks. The main form of gameplay involves sitting at the computer and typing onto the keyboard. No matter what keys the player themself hits, Ivan will type a story about himself and a man that he met during a low point of his life, Fedor I. Ryibkin. The player can choose to either complete the story, or leave the room before finishing it, which is referred to as the "good ending" by the achievements.

As Ivan types the story, it is revealed that he is typing something known as the Prophecy, a piece of text that will cause anyone who reads it to become enlightened in the way that he had. He claims that he will vanish from the world when he is done writing it, and eventually so will all those that read the Prophecy. The game suddenly cuts to the credits right before Ivan types the last word of the Prophecy, seemingly proving that what he is saying is true.

## Connections to *Who's Lila?*

There are countless factors that intertwine the stories of *Schastye* and *Who's Lila?*. First and foremost is Ryibkin being mentioned in both stories. He never appears on screen in either game but his impact is definitely felt, as he is one of two main characters alongside Ivan in *Schastye*. His presence in *Who's Lila?* is more minor, but nonetheless important as he is tied into some of the game's deepest secrets, such as the concepts of the Prince and UIW-AMs.

Ivan's vivid description of a forest also heavily ties into the forest that appears in *Who's Lila?* and sheds light on the nature of its existence. It confirms that the trees are sycamores, and shows that the music that is heard is diegetic, a sound that is actually being made by the trees themselves. As described in *Schastye*, the Forest seems to be a home/domain of sorts for the Emperor (known as the Nameless God in *Schastye*), who waits to be approached by people in order to grant them some sort of wish.

Ivan also mentions that he saw the Emperor sitting on the underside of the Forest after walking off the Forest's edge. If one does the same thing in *Who's Lila?*, they will be met with similar results, falling down past a massive entity that appears similar to the Emperor.

Tucked into a corner of the Forest of *Who's Lila?*, behind a gap in the boulder wall, one can also find a GAZ-24-02 "Volga" car. This is the exact same model of car that Ivan and Ryibkin had used to travel to the Forest. The presence of the car seems to prove that this story is true.

Both games also mention Teth Mushrooms, with *Schastye* revealing their connection to the Dogon peoples and their use of it in order to communicate with the Emperor. Teth mushrooms are also used by the Lawrence Fraternity (and by extension, William).

Lastly, Ryibkin's Apartment is a secret location that can be visited in *Who's Lila?*, with the address being found on Ryibkin's website. Here, the player can find that the computer is powered off and the chair Ivan used is tipped over. Narration describes a smell of ozone in the air and the feeling that someone had just been there. The ozone scent could imply something supernatural, and therefore that the "bad ending" where Ivan finished typing the Prophecy is the one that is canon.

## Trivia

* The game was originally published on Steam by Nikita Kaf Publishing. However, Garage Heathen was getting none of the revenue from these sales so at a later date he switched the game to being published by Missing Calm instead.
* Schastye means "happiness" in Russian.
	+ The last sentence of the game before it abruptly ends is "Where we are going, there will be no sadness, there will only be". Therefore, it is possible that the last word is meant to be "happiness".
* Girl2Bits, the song that plays during the party at Matt's House in *Who's Lila?*, can occasionally be heard on the radio in *Schastye*.

## External Links

* *Schastye* on Steam
* *Schastye* on itch.io