Devil Maker

In 2019, I had received my very first tablet. I was STOKED, as I had been asking my parents for one for months.

I was excited to finally play some new games on this tablet. For years I had been stuck with a 3DS and very little games.

However, my parents didn’t buy me a Play Store gift card, and as a result, I had to stick with free games. Despite this, there was still a large selection of games to download.

I played many different games, but I was especially into games similar to the Super Mario Bros franchise. I owned 3D Land on my 3DS, and it was my favorite game. I must have beaten it a thousand times.

The games were mostly bootlegs due to Nintendo taking down games that used their properties. One Mario inspired game quickly became my new favorite, and it was called Level Maker.

This technical marvel had me HEAVILY invested from the moment I first opened the game. I never owned a Wii U, and as a result never played Mario Maker, but this game finally allowed me to fulfill my dreams of making my own levels.

All day I would play Level Maker, building levels to my heart’s content. I was ADDICTED.

I remember being so invested, I made an entire fangame filled with multiple worlds to play through. I was having a BLAST with the game. That was until I saw the dead man.

The dead man was a skin that I saw one day when changing my account settings. If you’re unaware, the game has multiple skins that you can pick from to play as.

This skin wasn’t there before, I would know as I’ve been in this menu HUNDREDS of times before. I checked the Play Store to see if the game had been updated, but it hadn’t received an updates in almost 2 YEARS.

The image of the dead man was very realistic, more so than anything in the retro style the game adopted. I almost threw up upon seeing all of the BLOOD the poor guy was covered in.

I went on with my day thinking it was just some weird glitch. Still, I couldn’t get the image out of my head. I just had to look around for more, and that’s when I saw it.

When I went into the challenge section of the game, I was greeted to a new level after the previously final bee level.

“Funeral”

I was surprised to see such a gloomy level in this previous cheery and wholesome game. When a level of this nature is put next to others with silly names like “Not the bees!”, it makes one feel a sense of uneasiness.

The thumbnail of the level didn’t help much either, as it showed a picture of a lone tombstone in a field of nothingness, adorning the title of “Love”.

I wanted to learn more about this “Love”, so I entered the level to look for answers.

The level was EMPTY, as empty as it could get. NO item blocks, NO enemies, not even a BUSH or TREE. All that resided in the level was the ground made of grass blocks (but without the grass) and a background I had not seen before. The background seemed to be a png of an empty field during a stormy night.

There was also the starting sign that appears at every level’s start, but this one was different. It was BROKEN, and the top half was missing, just leaving the post the arrow part would rest on.

I started walking to the right as one would do, and… NOTHING. I walked and walked for probably around 10 to 20 minutes. I should probably mention the level had a timer like any other level, but it was stuck on 666.

Eventually, I saw one of the item bubbles jumping about. This one was different from the usual fire and rocket powerups. This one was a PISTOL.

I picked it up and tried to fire it with the A button, but nothing happened. I tried the B button, which just led to my character jumping. This jump was very half-assed though, being only 1 block high compared to the normal 3 block high jumps. My character also let out an unusual groan sound when it jumped.

I continued to walk when I saw a structure resembling an abandoned home. There was a portal where the door would be, which I decided to enter.

Upon entering, I was greeted to an empty room made of default blocks, a noose decoration hanging from the ceiling at the opposite end of the room, and blood all over the floor.

I was also greeted to EXTREMELY LOUD screaming which startled me. My tablet was at the second quietest volume it could be at, and despite this, the scream was loud enough that it could wake my parents had I stayed in the room any longer.

I should probably mention now that it was 3AM at the time of playing this level. I was unable to sleep after seeing the dead man.

When I left the abandoned home, I saw something run off to the right at INSANE speed, faster than anything in the game. I knew I had to investigate.

I continued right to try and catch up, but seeing how FAST that thing was, I was a little hopeless.

On my quest to catch up to the thing I saw, I found a cemetery. It was filled with the tombstone decoration found in the editor. I had a feeling that the “Love” tombstone from earlier could be here. I entered the cemetery.

The tombstones that filled this cemetery all had names on them of seemingly REAL people. Kind of unusual for a KIDS GAME.

After scouring the cemetery for what felt like hours, I eventually found it, the “Love” tombstone I had originally entered this level for.

To my surprise, all of the other playable characters were at the tombstone, CRYING as if they lost someone close. I noticed that a character was missing, the red head girl.

As I tried to bring my character closer to the crowd, it quivered in fear. I was so close to getting the answers I sought for, but my RETARDED character wouldn’t budge no matter how much I tried.

When I left the graveyard, I lost control of my character. I tried pressing all the buttons, but nothing happened. Suddenly my character started to cry.

At first it was small tears, but eventually my character just LOST IT, with tears flowing down their face. This was accompanied by very realistic crying sounds. This went on for several minutes.

What happened next is the worst part yet. My character pulled out the PISTOL from earlier in the level, and SHOT HIMSELF right in the head. The victory sound played as he shot himself, and the confetti that is normally released from the flag upon level completion was instead coming from out of his HEAD, all soaked in blood.

I was SPEECHLESS at what I saw. I must have sat there for hours processing what I saw. I eventually decided to return to the title screen to see if anything happened.

When I returned to the title screen, the adventurous music that normally played was replaced with an eerie humming noise. The character that normally stands there was also gone, replaced with a tombstone labeled “Lover”.

I had now realized what happened. The LOVE was actually MY character’s love interest, and HE was the LOVER. He cried for he had lost the one he was closest too, and killed himself in the hopes of reuniting with her in the afterlife.

I also realized what the dead man skin was, it was the DEAD CORPSE of my character after he shot himself. I couldn't believe the outcome of the funeral level was right in front of my face the whole time!

I never actually used the dead man in a level. So I created a new level, which just so happened to be titled “Unnamed 666”, and made the playable character the dead man.

Upon playing the level, nothing happened. The music would cut out, and any attempts at moving the player were met with no response.

After all of this, I was over Level Maker. The funeral level ruined my love for the game, and I knew the time had come to DELETE it. This is when I was met with a horrible realization.

*I couldn’t close the app.*

No matter how many times I pressed the home button, NOTHING happened. In fact, the more I pressed the button, the LOUDER the humming on the title screen became, and the more blood flowed out from the ground.

I kept pressing the home button hoping something would happen, but still nothing happened. Eventually, the screams from before started playing at extreme volumes, LOUDER than before. The whole screen started to slowly fade to a BLOODY red.

I knew I had to stop pressing the home button at this point, but when I stopped, the intensity of the matter just kept increasing as if I had finally poked the metaphorical bear.

I didn’t know what to do. My heart felt like it was beating a million times a second. I thought I was going to DIE.

That’s when I got an idea. I knew the game had the developers contact information in the settings. I opened the settings and attempted to get in touch with the developer to try and save myself. As I touched the button that would get me in touch with the developer, my tablet let out a loud electrical BANG sound, and FRIED itself into an unusable state.

In an instant, everything was quiet, and I was alone in the darkness. I felt relieved, the game could no longer harm me. I went into my parent’s room to try and get some rest, as sleeping alone would cause too much stress.

Life went on, and I continued with my school life. I played for my school’s basketball team, I got good grades in all my classes, and I may have even dabbled in the sex.

Everything was going great, UNTIL one day where my mom gave me a letter with my name on it. The sender had a familiar name that was on the tip of my tongue. I eventually remembered who they were: Vorun Kreal, CREATOR of Level Maker.

I frantically opened the letter. I hadn’t thought of Level Maker for MONTHS, but this letter instantly reminded me of the suffering I went through that night, and the help I never received. Why would the creator of the game message me NOW after all of the pain he put me through?

The letter was very short, but packed quite the punch. I’m going to write it out for you, with my personal information removed.

“Dear X, you have released my final form into the real world, and now I’m going to kill everyone.”