The game developer told us not to believe "his" lies, but whose lies?
This is a question that has been driving most people crazy since 2014. So crazy that some actually traveled to a specific location to send a specific email to the developer, believing this would lead to an answer.
Do Not Believe His Lies is a mobile puzzle game developed by Polish designer Lukasz Matablewski. The game is simple. Every stage features a mysterious picture, or a buzzing sound tape, or a video recording that looks like an edited CCTV clip – there are so many possibilities, you name it. After solving the puzzle, the player should be able to get a line of English words. This line is the key to proceed to the next stage, and this is a part of the story that is unveiled as the player clears more and more stages.
The game is simple – yes, but no one ever says the puzzles are easy.
The first stage is quite easy. It only requires me to brighten up the screen in order to see the words on the top of the screen, which is "the first time".
This is the first line of the story. Type the words to proceed.
After the first stage, I felt it was a bit tricky. I thought every puzzle should involve a hint that leads us to think of a solution. This stage doesn’t even have a hint!
The second stage is better. This is a Morse Code.
Translating it should get "I saw him there".
The stages afterwards got more and more confusing, for example, a CCTV video that required me to play it second by second in order to spot a line of words, an autostereogram picture that took me hours to look at and some codes from a computer language called Brainfuck, which I had never heard of.
These puzzles have got some people addicted. Some fans have even gathered on Reddit to form a community and solve puzzles together. Yet, this is in fact somewhat necessary.
The geniuses on Reddit are now on level 48. The puzzle starts out like this.
After a month of decoding and looking up books, this picture eventually led them to five unlisted Youtube videos, which means the videos are not searchable on Youtube. They are basically identical except for the locations (Berlin, New York, Brasilia, Hong Kong, Sydney) and the numbers mentioned.
Here is one of the videos.
Reddit users are now guessing they have to send an email containing the said number to the developer at the said location. The developer does know where the email is sent as the app requires location data. Some have tried but to no avail. Level 48 is still an unforgiving puzzle.
Not only is it unforgiving, it is also incomprehensible. As mentioned earlier, each answer is a part of the story. We have 47 answers now, but putting them together does not make it an intelligible story.
Level 1: The first time
Level 2: I saw him
Level 3: I was just a child
Level 4: He keeps showing up
Level 5: In my dreams
Level 6: I cannot escape him now
Level 7: He is watching you
Level 8: Please help me
Level 9: I am scared
Level 10: I hate me
Level 11: I have to go now
Level 12: Be careful friend
Level 13: Give up now
Level 14: Spider web
Level 15: Budapest Hungary
Level 16: I am still here
Level 17: The nightmare
Level 18: 5916172443
Level 19: Less is more
Level 20: Ursa major
Level 21: Stop and die
Level 22: He he he I c u
Level 23: Not expected
Level 24: Church of bones
Level 25: Defaced cafe
Level 26: Is it you mom
Level 27: Burning questions
Level 28: All is lost
Level 29: 12349996238444
Level 30: Loopis
Level 31: I like you
Level 32: More to come
Level 33: Shadow puzzle
Level 34: The wrong way
Level 35: Ac00ac7000ace800e7ac0055
Level 36: Shepard
Level 37: It is all in vain my lord
Level 38: I have suffered enough
Level 39: We await you at the end
Level 40: Open door at night
Level 41: The tell tale heart
Level 42: My mind is tumor help me find it
Level 43: The recession of my mind
Level 44: Five dreams
Level 45: One angel
Level 46: Devil door death
Level 47: The five are amongst yourselves
Except for the first few answers, the rest can hardly make up a consistent story. How does a string of meaningless number relate to Shepard? I have absolutely no idea, but I do admit reading them creeps me out a bit. Perhaps all these answers are another puzzle. Perhaps we are just too stupid to figure it out.
I am not savvy about computer, so I looked up Reddit to see if there was any way to crack the app. Some engineering expert explained that, whenever we put in a code in the app, it kills the spaces and calls to an Amazon web server, the file being named the code you just put in. After doing some math that I don’t understand at all, that user concluded it would take 36 years to search all spaces and crack the app.
This means, there is no telling as to how many levels are there. What we have been doing is chasing after something that is assumably endless. Perhaps there is no answer to level 48. Perhaps there is no level 49. Perhaps we are just too stupid to figure it out.
Of course many have resorted to messaging the developer, hoping to get some useful info to end their never-ending misery in solving puzzles. Up until now, no one has once got a proper answer. Kotaku has previously done the same. Lucky for the writer, the developer responded, saying that he did expect people to beat the game but not anytime soon because "it’s not how it has been designed". He also suggested that the puzzle could be solved only if people around the world worked together.
▼ Developer Lukasz Matablewski
All players have been stuck on level 48 for a very very looooong time. At first, most wanted to know who is the person that tells lies. However, after two to three years since the app’s debut, some have given up, some have forgotten the app, some are too obsessed with solving the puzzle. No one has ever asked that question again.
After browsing tons of websites and reading all Reddit threads, I do believe "his lies" is actually the developer’s lies. I can’t help but think there are no further puzzles. There are no stories. Level 48 is not a complete puzzle. The game has stopped running. The developer has stopped operating it. The title is the way it is because he told everyone there was an ending (he has put up an official solver count, which suggests a final stage), while there is actually none.
The incentive of telling lies – there are many possibilities. For example, he could be doing this to get more people buy the game. Let’s admit it – the reputation of being an unforgiving puzzle is pretty damn attractive. I am one of those who downloaded it just because I wanted to be the one and only one that enjoyed the glory of solving this puzzle. Or I have taken it way too serious, and he is just a pure devil that enjoys watching us fuss over an unsolvable puzzle while eating popcorns.
Or perhaps, after all, we are just too stupid to solve puzzles.