In July of 2013,
a game called Kanye Quest, 3030, would hit the market in any role
playing game where the player character Kanye West, finds himself in the 3030
dystopian future filled with clones of iconic hip hop artists.
Upon release, the Game received a pretty solid reviews
and got a lot of attention, mainly for its interesting story and bizarre concept.
At the time, it seemed like a small indie success story and nothing more.
But the story of Kanye Quest doesn't end there
because it turned out something strange was hiding in the game.
Years after its release, a player stumbled upon a secret room that contained
strange codes, hidden puzzles and even messages leading to a cult.
Even stranger, it suggested that the rest of the game
was nothing but a front for the secret area.
But to what end?
This mystery has dumped its followers for nearly ten years.
But finally, we have an answer.
Today, we're going to be falling down the rabbit hole
of Kanye Quest 3030, detailing everything from the meaning
behind the obscure cryptic rumor to the unnerving cult ties,
and even the elusive developer of the game themselves.
This is the full story of Kanye Quest 3030.
To start off, I should give some background
of the game itself, as it definitely isn't your average RPG.
The game begins with Kanye going about his daily life in 2010,
when one day he falls down a wormhole while taking out the garbage
and transports him to the dystopian future set in the year 3030.
Where we soon learn that the world is in danger.
To save the world and return home, Kanye must team up with the clones
of rappers from years past, which include the likes of Tupac, Jay-Z and Eminem.
It's a strange concept for sure, but that's what made it stand out.
And what caused it to be reviewed by popular media outlets
like Wired, In addition to YouTubers like Dunkey.
However, like many other small indie games, it seemed destined
to be enjoyed before fading into obscurity as time went on.
That was, of course, until one player happened upon The mysterious Hidden Room.
In January of 2015, a year and a half after the game's release,
an anonymous user made a post on Pastebin
detailing what they had found hidden in the game.
While playing, they had noticed the word
ascend was written in slightly scrambled text on a in-game terminal.
So later in the game and NPC prompted them with a dialog box,
they decided to try typing it in.
Trying their luck but expecting nothing of it.
However, upon doing so, they were instantly transported to
a strange building and player's character was changed into a small white butterfly.
In this new area a textbox appeared saying, Congratulations.
You have proven yourself to be an open minded and curious thinker.
We must apologize for deceiving you, but we can reveal that the game
you were playing until this point was a front
constructed to protect what you are currently accessing.
We must ask that you do not reveal this area to the public.
If you believe you may be prone to revealing information
or do not wish to participate, please close this program immediately.
The game then asked the player if they'd like to proceed.
Selecting no would simply close out of the game,
but selecting yes would lead to more information and puzzles to solve.
In order to, quote unquote, ascend.
In total, there were 34 puzzles spinning at the secret room,
which turned out to be in the shape of a pyramid.
Entering one of the puzzles correctly would allow you to ascend
slightly higher in the pyramid until you reached another one.
These puzzles proved to be quite difficult, though
even once the hidden room was made public, none could get very far.
That's when the data miners got involved
by searching through the game's files and code.
They managed to find the solutions and passwords needed to reach the end.
Upon reaching the top of the pyramid and typing in the final code,
the game congratulates you on ascending
and asks if you would like to ascend further.
If you select the game, will then ask for your personal information
and tells you that you'll be contacted shortly.
What happened next?
Well, strangely enough, it seems that no one was ever actually contacted.
So what's going on here?
You might have noticed the common theme of ascending within the secret room.
From accessing it initially to rising up to the pyramid.
And even at the end, when the game asks you if you'd like to ascend further.
This appears to be a clear reference to Ascensionism, which is a decentralized
cult with its main beliefs centered around reincarnation.
The oldest online reference to this can't goes back to 2006,
although specifics regarding it are hard to find.
So was this game an actual recruitment tool for a cult
or was it just a strange Easter egg that took players years to find
the only way to find out for sure It's to dig a little deeper
When no one was actually contacted after putting in their information.
Internet investigators looked through the game's code and realized
that the game didn't even have a way of retrieving their information.
So they began looking into the game's developer who went by the name Phenix.
But when questioned
about the hidden area in the game, they gave a confusing answer,
saying that it wasn't their game at all, seemingly another dead end.
However, with a bit more digging, investigators managed
to find an old unnfiction forum for an ARG or alternate
reality game called Ascensionism.
And strangely enough,
this energy was being worked on around the same time as the new Quest game,
with a YouTube video on it being uploaded in September of 2013.
Eventually, researchers found a creator's name by donating to the PayPal link.
in Ascensionism video.
The name was Nick Lyons.
A Google search for the name didn't bring up much other
than a Bandcamp profile, which showed that Nick Lyons was the only person
signed to a seemingly fake record label called Ascensionism Records.
Ascensionism Records also had a Bandcamp profile
which revealed a different name Valyrie Sheffner.
Harris Another possible lead.
In 2021, The game theorist actually managed to interview
this Valyrie Scheffler Harris in an attempt to get some answers.
In the interview, Valyrie explained that Nick Lyons was just an alias
she created and that she made up Ascensionism as an ARG
to release music inspired by cults through.
So mystery solved and case closed.
Right? Well, not really.
As Harris also explained that she had absolutely
no ties with the game of Kanye Quest 3030,
and wasn't sure how her artwork and idea had ended up there.
To make things even more confusing, there were multiple references
to the ascensionism cult
before Harris had started using the name for music releases.
This essentially brings us back to square one.
Keep in mind that the Game Theorist video came out in 2021,
eight years after Kanye West's initial release, yet
we were still no closer to solving the mystery of the hidden room.
And that's how things would remain for another year.
In October of 2022, a Web series called Finding Yeezus came out.
It was a series focused on uncovering the true identity
behind the game's creator and the mystery behind Ascensionism.
While its search started off slow, they eventually made some progress
when they came across a credits list for Kanye Quest 3030,
made up by Phenix themselves through their old Tumblr page.
Most of the list wasn't important,
but one name in particular attracted interest for pre-testing,
the game, Harmless tank, the web sleuths behind Finding Yeezus,
then discovered a YouTube channel linked to HarmlessTank.
They left comments on every video until they received a reply,
which eventually led to an interview.
During the interview.
Tank explained how he had met Phenix, the creator of Kanye
West, 3030, by playing games with them online.
One day, Phenix had asked them to try out Kanye Quest,
which is why Tank's Name appeared on the credits
after the game's release, though the two didn't remain in close contact.
Not giving up unless Tank was able to track down
at Phenix's old steam account through his old steam friends list.
He was even able to get in contact with Phenix, whose real name
we now know is Clara Hope, and she agreed to do a tell
All for the finding is a show to put the whole mystery to rest.
In the interview, Hope explained that she made Kanye Quest as a final project
for school and came up with the game’s strange concept.
As for the secret level, she explained that originally
it was going to be its own unique game, but ended up being
put in kind of quest through an update as kind of an Easter egg.
Which makes sense considering the entire game
seems to change when you enter the secret room.
As for the purpose and reason behind the area,
Hope revealed that there really wasn't one.
She explained that a family member of hers belonged to a cult,
which inspired her to make a piece of art based on one.
She chose the name because she found that a lot of New Age cult were all using
the name Ascensionism, and she just wanted to add it to the confusion.
Over the years of this mystery existence,
many individuals have come forth claim to be the creator.
So of course, this raised some eyebrows when it came to clear as admission, too.
But by all accounts, there appears to be enough evidence
to prove that Clara is the actual creator by the game.
For starters, her timeline of the game's creation at a school project lines
up perfectly with the game's release and the subsequent updates and additions.
Harmlesstank, the one who connected the investigators
to Hope that listed on Kanye West's credits by Phenix.
If that wasn't enough, when Hope was interviewed by Finding Yeezus,
she showed off another piece of her art the eye of essentialism
created at the same time as Kanye West's release.
It matches up noticeably with the artwork from the game.
So I think it's safe to conclude that hope really is the creator, which means that
almost ten years after the game's release, we finally have an answer.
The hidden level and the game really is just an Easter egg.
It might be an anticlimactic ending to the puzzle, but it's an answer nonetheless.
Oftentimes, it seems we tend to focus on
the more outlandish theories an effort to explain something mysterious
when in reality, more often than not, it's the more mundane and simple answer.
It's the truth.
This is the principle of Occam's Razor,
and this seems to be one of those times.
I think it's important to remember, though, that while the answer might not be
what many were hoping for, the journey of finding out the true reasoning
behind cunning Quest through throws, Secret Room was truly an interesting road.
Thank you
guys so much for making it to the end of the video.
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