Anthology of the Killer

Anthology of the Killer
Developer: garmentdistrict Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux Released internationally: May 28, 2024 This game has unused text.

Anthology of the Killer is a nine-game series of comedy horror games by Stephen Gillmurphy, also known for Space Funeral and Goblet Grotto. The game themselves were released for free between December 4th 2020 and March 5th, 2024, with a paid compilation with bonus content releasing on May 28th, 2024.

To do: Document unused sprites, textures, and rooms. At least one unused room (BOTK_Testing/BOTK_TownSquare) is only present in the Anthology compilation, not the standalone game.

Voice of the Killer

Unused Text

There is an alternate version of BB's commentary on the Life Contracts building in the files.

Early	Final
The company building is next to the sea which would be nice if it didn't smell like piss. Night and day the waves make an awful sound, like a vast mouth trying to suck something out of a tooth. This is said to be the result of Geology, the baleful science.	The company building is next to the sea which would be nice if it didn't smell like piss. Night and day the waves make an awful sound, like a vast mouth breathing. This is said to be the result of "geology", the baleful science.

This line seems to have been intended for BB's dream, but is unused.

Someone on the beach was selling clams with googly eyes. They were the most beautiful things I'd ever seen - I related so intensely that I started to cry.

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Drool of the Killer

Unused Text

One of BB's lines has an alternate version in the files.

Early	Final
The water has a horrible gel feeling and I love it. I can't sense the bottom or see beneath the surface - something underneath brushes past my leg. I love it here. Soon I will see TAMMY again.	The water has a horrible gel feeling and I love it. I can't sense the bottom or see beneath the surface - something underneath brushes past my leg. I love it here. I never want to leave.

To do: Check this isn't used in the final game.

Unused dialogue from Tammy.

Wwwhere are you going, going. Don't you remember all good times. Sinking swimming drowning floating together with in me. Gasping on my fog and in my tunnels. Aren't we friends, friends?

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Eyes of the Killer

Unused Text

There is an unused early version of the dialogue between Mappy and Count Masko.

Early	Final
Uh. Is that... safe? I mean...	Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean...
Dumb beasts pay heed to natural authority. Don't worry about it! As soon as he sees the steely resolve in your eyes, he'll bend to a mere instrument of your will once again.	Of course! Once PRISONMAN is restored to his old power you can order him to do away with your opponents. Your own intrinsic, natural authority will keep it all under your control.
Well, if you say so. Let me see - how did I do this? Alley kay bab too knee pap en yal...	Well, I am pretty impressive. Let me see... It's been a while... Um... [whisper] [whisper] [whisper]

There are also an unused early version of the News Serf's plot summary, with a different plot and character names and taking up two dialogue boxes instead of one. Interestingly, these are stored with the lines for the first room of the Immersive Theater, not the second room where the final game's line is, suggesting a rearrangement of scenes and characters during development.

Early	Final
The story so far: Prince Fabrizio has abdicated the throne, leaving behind a mechanical double to rule it in his place. Yet he does not know the robot is in fact his estranged twin Horace, whose dreams of a mysterious furniture company grow more vivid every night.	[n/a]
What is the source of the strange green light from Smuggler's Cove? Who is the lady imprisoned in the secret well? Meanwhile the war to the east continues... and Lord and Lady Darlington's party has attracted a MOST unwelcome pair of guests! Let's listen, shall we?	NEWS SERF ...earning the ire of his father, Prince Fabrizio, who he does not realise is also Beatrice in disguise. Meanwhile the war to the east continues and the peasants are all dying in the fields. And Count Masko's dinner party has recieved a MOST unwelcome pair of guests!!

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Flesh of the Killer

Unused Text

Early version of one of Ray's lines in the opening.

Early	Final
We're wasting time!! Let's keep going!	Anyway, we're wasting time!! Let's just keep going!

Originally it seems the Museum of Moral Art's manifesto was found where the second-floor keycard is in the final game; the early line, along with identical duplicates of the manifesto and the line about the board of directors, are stored with the lines for the final game's keycard room.

Early	Final
I guess this is near the edge of the exhibit. There's one of those little signs with information about the museum. Does anybody read these things...?	A little display full of corporate promo materials. They all look extremely unread.

BB originally commented on the mechanical monk in the Hall of Morally-Improving Mechanisms.

"Mechanical Monk from the Court of King Philip II of Spain." Automation continues to impact all of the professions.

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Blood of the Killer

Unused Text

Murderer X's last words seem to have originally lacked his reaction to Clarice.

Early	Final
"UNSAFE"?!! WOW, WHAT A PRO.	"UNSAFE"?!! WOW, WHAT A PRO. HM...?

There are earlier versions of several lines from BB and Concerned Citizen's conversation.

Early	Final
Also I don't really... care?	I don't really... care?
Anyway, you don't have to wor...ry about it since soon this... body won't be "you" any... more.	Well, it's nothing you have to... worry about. Just give me a... second and then this body won't be "you" any... more.
It will be a new...thing with your face and name and we're going to use it to kill all your... friends.	It will be a new...thing that has your face and name and we're going to use it to kill all your... friends.

Unused line that from placement was intended to be used in the scene where BB asks for directions to the record store.

(This place is a maze. I'd better ask for directions.)

To do: In some versions of the game none of the text is cut off. Check if this is based on version or resolution.

Concerned Citizen's manifesto "A True Secret History of the Murderers and Wreckers" is so long that the ends of both its pages are cut off in-game. Bold text indicates the sections not visible in-game.

The wrecker-history of the murderers and wreckers that is the false history which stands in place of the true history evident to the merest child is that false history which the wreckers and murderers seek to substitute for the glorious true history of the world. The truth of history is a beautiful house filled with statues etcetera and it is the people without history the murderers and wreckers and conspirators who stand outside this house and try to break in through the windows in order to replace everything with their disease-history and their wrecker-history which a child can tell is the false history but which nevertheless is passed to us as the real history and the true as opposed to the really true and the truly real history which is that of the houses and the monuments and factories and statues and beauty and truth and suchlike which again a simple child can detect and point to and say that this is true this is mine this is the true history passed on to me by my father who is dead. (p1)

(p26) ...to betray the true history to imply our fathers had passed to us the false coin of the false history as our glorious inheritance is the ultimate betrayal and it is in rejection of this betrayal of our fathers that we identify and reject the false history of the non-fathers of the wreckers murderers etcetera from outside of history the dismal room outside the grand and meaningful museum of world history filled with monuments etcetera built by our fathers our duty our inheritance to maintain this inheritance and reject the false inheritance of the murderer-history that the murderers and wreckers insinuate is the true history, the real history, but which we ourselves know for certain is the opposite of true history, it is the false history and the false coin that diminishes the coin-inheritance of the great history of our fathers and their coins and inheritances etc...

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Ears of the Killer

Unused Text

In the game files there are several early versions of lines that differ from the final versions.

Early	Final
Well, I did like to daydream about having a pop career, although I always imagined I'd be conscious at the time.	Well, I did sometimes daydream about being a pop musician, although I also liked to imagine I'd be conscious at the time.
No other results found for "Blue D Hans ?" Did you mean: bloody hands bloody hands reaching bloody hands coming towards you in the night wikihow get blood off hands bloody hands to study to Related Sites: Golden Grave Records [enter]	No other results found for "Blue D Hans ?" Did you mean: bloody hands bloody hands reaching bloody hands coming towards you in the night blood off hands howto?? bloody hands to study to Related Sites: Golden Grave Records [enter]
...that just as older forms of pulp hero consolidate into the official shape of the "police man", the monsters and bogeymen of this tradition become the antagonist image of the "serial killer"...	...consolidating into the new cultural form of the "serial killer" just as all previously existing protagonists have been absorbed into the single official figure of the "police man"...
Further synthesis of the two.. bla bla bla.. last man.. bla bla.. protagonist of history... etc..	...further synthesis of the two, into a kind of final protagonist of history or "last man", would... bla bla bla..
The Magic Of History !! Once, prominent theorists fleeing from state violence found accomodation in the beach district of XX City. Thru proximity, their doctrine of negation was assimilated into neighbouring surf culture in distorted and mystical form. The "Church of the Negative" is said to still survive today.	The Magic Of History !! Once, prominent theorists fleeing from state violence found accomodation in the beach district of XX City. Thru proximity, their doctrine of negation was assimilated into neighbouring surf culture in a garbled and mystical form. The "Church of the Negative" is said to still survive today.
A Road Not Taken ? Some credit XX City's own Blue D Hans for having pioneered the cultural shift from "monster" themed horror records to the increasingly popular "maniac killer" contemporary style. Commercially unsuccessful in his time, he is said to have eventually left the music biz for spiritual reasons.	Be True To Your School !! Some credit XX City's own Blue D Hans for having anticipated the cultural shift from "monster" themed horror to the increasingly popular "maniac killer" contemporary style. Commercially unsuccessful in his time, he is said to have eventually left the music biz for spiritual reasons.

There is also an entirely unused line stored with the other lines for the Blue D. Hans fansite:

Welcome to my web site. This page is dedicated to preserving the history of independent-label surf bands active 1961-68. If you have any further information about these bands, please contact me on gidgetfan98@surf.com.

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Heart of the Killer

Unused Text

More early versions of lines.

Early	Final
Sometimes when I wake up there's a moment when I don't know who or where I am - the cloak of habit falls away. I look around. I'm in an alien land, a distant country, filled with objects whose use will remain forever unknown to me.	Sometimes when I wake up there's a moment when I don't know who or where I am. The cloak of habit falls away. I look around. I'm in an alien land, a distant country, full of objects whose use will remain forever unknowable to me.
It's getting harder to tell how long I've been here - for a while I kept a tally, but someone seems to have been adding to it as well. The little pipe is a nice touch, though...	It's getting harder to tell how long I've been staying - for a while I kept a tally, but someone else seems to have been adding to it lately. The little pipe's a nice touch, though.
Well, there's the bell for the Focus Testing. I'd better head inside, since it's as close to a job as I have around here. Too much leisure makes me start to feel nervous...	The face in this painting seems familiar, but no time to think about that now - there's the bell for focus group testing. I'm not sure what happens if I stop showing up, but somehow I get the feeling it's not a good idea to find out.
KKHHH WELCOME TO THE EXPERIENCE ROOM.	WELCOME TO THE EXPERIENCE ROOM.
USE LEFT AND RIGHT KEYS TO INDICATE RESPONSE.	USE LEFT AND RIGHT KEYS TO INDICATE EMOTIONS
KHHKKTHANKYOU	THANKYOU KKHHH
Improbably I find my way back to the bathroom in no time at all - or to a different one that looks just like it. There's no sign of CC, but something is glinting on the side of the mirror...	Somehow I make my way back to the bathroom, or at least to another one that looks just like it. There's nobody around, but something glints at the edge of the mirror...
By the time I found my way out of the resort, the cheap building materials were already collapsing back into the forest Only some fragments of extravagantly fussy carpeting remained.	And then I woke up; the hotel had been abandoned and the shoddy construction materials of the Dream Resort were already collapsing back into the forest mulch.

There are also a few lines that were cut entirely.

Presumably these were for an earlier version of the cover to Marcie's World:

Special Romance Issue!!!

Can you grasp the chaste desires of a maiden's heart?! <3

Cut line from Marcie's first appearance:

We had the Bluebeard sequence all ready to go.

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Face of the Killer

Unused Text

Yet more early versions of lines. Because the lines are jumbled up in the game files, these might not be in the precise order that they appear in the game.

Early	Final
As if.. the whole city was one big machine, assembled in secret over centuries by the killer, for some hideous purpose yet unknown..	As though the whole of civic life were one machine, built by the killer over centuries - assembled in silence for some dark purpose, yet to be disclosed...
ALSO, BE SURE TO HAND BACK YOUR KEYS AT THE END OF SHIFT!! I HATE BUYING NEW ONES WHEN PEOPLE FALL INTO THE MACHINES.	AND REMEMBER: HAND YOUR KEYS BACK EVERY SHIFT!! I HATE BUYING NEW ONES EVERY TIME SOMEONE FALLS INTO THE CORPSE GRINDING CHOPPING GRINDING MACHINE!!
The one that just posts pictures of car accidents next to garbled, vaguely threatening headlines....?	Uh.. I get paid $0.02 a comment by one of those websites that just posts pictures of car crashes next to garbled, vaguely menacing headlines...?
So perhaps we should say instead That the Restoration, of dead or imaginary empires, never finished.	So perhaps we should say instead that the Restoration - of a greater, imaginary empire - has never finished.
Look, fellows. I've made a necklace out of ears.	Look, guys. I made a necklace out of ears.
Due to the uprising of armed killers, the immersive theater has now been placed under police control.	You might notice some new decor around here! We've been forced to put the theater under police control, following the attempted uprising of armed killers.
But hey - at least I'm "hip" now, right? I've become mature, worldly, realistic! I know how it is, now. I've grasped the art of the possible!	Now I've peered into the true depths of suffering that make up the world! I'm stoic - realistic!
This time, at least I know just how bad it can be!	At least now, I know just how bad it can get!
If endless artifical suffering was what you wanted, you could've just stayed home and gotten into World of Warcraft.	If you wanted a universe of bottomless artificial suffering you could've stayed home and played videogames.

To do: Check none of these are used in the final game.

There are also several lines that do not appear to have an equivalent in the final game:

And I realised it must have been the same for them, all those massed ranks of the dead

I guess the city founders at least knew how to have fun. Well, why not. What else am I doing with my night?

Gee, you take the time to secrete a nice city and someone just dumps halloween supplies all over it. Although the shape this stuff is in, it might've been the other way round..

(Source: Eldomtom2)

Anthology of the Killer

Unused Text

The compilation has its own unused text intended for the loader and bonus tunnels.

To do: Check this isn't used in the final compilation.

Quote intended to be used in the loader.

"To the priests, the soldiers, the judges To those bodies that educate, instruct and govern men I dedicate these pages of murder and blood." - Octave Mirbeau

To do: Check this isn't used in the final compilation.

Presumably intended to go somewhere in the Bonus Tunnels.

THANX: Tom, Alex, Emilie, Lilith, anyone who left nice messages Dedicated to Jay Reatard

Earlier version of one of the bonus tunnels' captions.

Early

Final

DOODLE STUDIO 95 I saw this tool demonstrated by Fer Ramallo and Natalie Lawhead at the Fantastic Arcade festival in Austin and made a note to try it out sometime. When I finally did I had no particular ideas, so I just redrew the revamped BB character I had lying around (who grew ever more Sanrio-fied with each incarnation). I thought the result was cute and also that having the games take place in 3d space made them a little more naturally grounded and atmospheric than totally abstracted flatgame settings. So I kept going and the first game came out from there. In the end what worked was putting the goofier, cartoon BB from the second version into the more straight horror setting from the first. In conclusion, I don't know anything at all.

DOODLES Another set of doodles from before the RPG Maker version. In the end all the horror characters sat around until I tried out the "Doodle Studio 95" tool and drew BB as a test (who seemed to get ever more Sanrio-esque with every incarnation). The test game grew into Voice Of The Killer.. Turning the games 3D also made them feel more naturally "grounded" and atmospheric, and let them draw more directly on memories of real places. In the end what finally made it work for me was putting the goofy Dell Comics versions of the characters into the comparatively more straight, Junji Ito inspired version of the setting from the RPG Maker games.

Originally the Bonus Tunnels featured sections titled "Art" and "Moral". There are multiple different versions of the text for these sections in the files. These were cut because thecatamites "didn’t like the prescriptive feeling of leaving that stuff in the “final package” as if it was something people should feel obligated to engage with" - he later uploaded them in rewritten form on his Tumblr.

"ART" If you've played these games you probably noticed that a lot of the villains are artists, committed to some vague modernist utopia, and might reasonably conclude such commitment is Bad. But many of the ideas parodied in the game are those that mean the most to me personally - maybe that's why they're in here, in distorted form. To give that feeling of meeting one of your loved ones in a dream, looking in their eyes and seeing no-one there. A recurring idea in modernism is that tearing down the old world will allow a better one to emerge - under the cobblestones, the beach! But allied to that dream is I think a fear, that under the cobblestones we might simply find more corpses - that destroying the old world only opens space for something worse to come. One of Max Ernst's paintings inspired by the fascist victory in the Spanish Civil War - portraying a huge and stupid beast, rollicking blindly over the landscape - was titled both "The Angel of Hearth and Home" and, bleakly, "The Triumph of Surrealism."

At the time the games were made a certain strand of the modernist credo had curdled into a mindless, official doctrine of "creative destruction", the gist of which is the idea that it's punk rock to create ever more predatory ridesharing apps. Any fear or doubt has long been bleached away - maybe that's why it can feel to me like to be afraid of these ideas is a perverse way of keeping fidelity to them, to that moment of uncertainty on which they were willing to bet it all.

The motor of modernism was a kind of faith in negation - that by tearing down the old world, we'd clear space for something better to emerge. Under the cobblestones, the beach! But this faith at its most eloquent was always haunted by a secret fear that nothing was guaranteed - that under the cobblestones there might simply be even more corpses, that tearing the civilised mask from brutality was just to allow it to act with more impunity. Max Ernst's despairing picture of a huge stupid beast rampaging over the countryside was titled both "The Angel Of Hearth And Home" - the angel of fascism, conservatism, family values - and "The Triumph Of Surrealism". The horror of seeing the thing you hate appear in the veryguise of what you love, of your secret talisman for what is good in life. And in a way modernism proper needed this fear - without which it was always at risk of curdling into a mindless official ethos of "creative destruction", the final fruit of which is the vague contemporary feeling that it's punk rock to create ridesharing apps. An optimism underwritten by cops and barbed wire, a sense that things will never really be allowed to change. A modernism seperated from fear becomes ever more brittle and unbelievable, while fear itself, seperated from the prospect of the modernist new, becomes ever more cravenly revanchist - as if now that nothing can get better, any degree of violence is justified to make sure that they don't get any worse (at least for the people who believed they'd been vouchsafed an eternal get-out-of-history-free card from the miseries they'd helped sustain).

MORAL: These games were made from 2020-2024 - one long period of lowered expectations. Reaction triumphant, a victory lap for some of the worst people on the planet. I'm sure it shows in ways too obvious to point out. But in fact I also had fun working on them, I got lost, got distracted, in the process of putting them together, and hopefully that shows too. As the well-known saying goes, pessimism of the something, optimism of the other thing. I know there are people who justifiably require something more positive from art, that it should contain an ideal, something which might guide them like a lodestar. So here is something for you. Imagine it's the future, at the dawn of human history, finally set free from the long and incomprehensible brutalities of the preceding epochs. Some young people get a homework assignment to make a videogame, if those still exist, with the archaic theme of "horror".

Well they do their best: something something murder, something something blood. But they don't quite understand it, keep on getting confused. Faces familiar from books are in there, under different names, everything's muddled, nothing seems to make sense. What country is this, what year is it meant to be? Finally they drop it and move on, waylaid by their own pleasure, and conclude that maybe we can no longer even imagine what it was that horror meant. Their teacher reads their findings, and gives everyone an F. No moral.

(Source: Eldomtom2)