“Remember Citadel”, scrawled in blood on the walls in System Shock. “Cut Off Their Limbs”, scrawled in blood on the walls in Dead Space. “You Cannot Kill the Rat Plague”, scrawled in blood on the walls in Dishonored. Tags like those are now almost a cliché of video game environment design: the local, post-apocalyptic graffiti artist with a little bit of blood and a lot to say.

Playing these games, you never meet the authors of these messages, and so, perhaps, you wonder: who wrote “Stop feeding us lies!” in the sewers of The Last of Us, and why? To answer those questions, we don’t have anything to go on except the handwriting — but that might be enough.

Elaine Quigley is a member of the British Institute of Graphologists and an expert handwriting analyst. I asked her what we could glean from the handwriting of whoever wrote “Remember Citadel” — and from the handwriting of some better known video game characters from video games: Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, Life is Strange’s Max Caulfield, and Thief’s Garrett, amongst others. Her findings were so interesting, I asked the developers and actors involved in those games to weigh in as well.

What’s Nathan Drake saying, really saying, when he writes “I wonder if Elena would let me get a pet lemur” in his journal? And what does that say about the real-life game developer who hand-wrote those words? Now we know. At last, we know.

The teens, Firewatch

Firewatch’s forest lookout Henry received this negative feedback his second day on the job — a stone cold bummer of a formal complaint. Of a variety of real-life handwriting on display throughout Firewatch, this invective might be the most memorable.

The authors are Lily and Chelsea, two teenage girls who like to go skinny-dipping, drink too much beer, and steal tractors. Beyond that, we don’t know a whole lot about them — or do we!

“This is hard and aggressive writing with the block capitals reinforcing the annoyance and determination to stay in control and punish the intruder,” Elaine Quigley offered, when I sent her this note. “Using the middle zone space shows the immediacy of the anger. The angularity of the letter shapes shows that confrontation is the first option and the simplified personal pronoun indicates that she gets down to business directly and speaks her mind. This writer likes to be the one to call the shots and she’ll make it quite clear.”

The handwriting in the note belongs to Campo Santo composer and designer Chris Remo. “I don’t know what middle zone space is,” he says of Quigley’s analysis, “but I think it’s clear I used to its fullest and most evocative extent, in service of Environmental Storytelling.”

Erin Yvette, who played Chelsea, mostly agreed with Quigley’s take. “‘Likes to be the one to call the shots’ and ‘determination to stay in control’, all feel very true to character — I can’t say I created a lot of backstory for Chelsea in preparation for this role, but I never forgot that her original name was ‘Teen #1.’ #1, baby.”

Garrett, Thief: The Dark Project

“Is Garrett’s handwriting even visible in any of the games?” wondered actor Stephen Russell, who voiced Garrett, the anti-hero of Looking Glass and Ion Storm’s Thief trilogy. Luckily — for this exercise anyway — Garrett briefly refers to having drawn this budget-ass map.

“For this to be done in a medieval period is impressive,” said Quigley. “Not many people could write, so he must have had some education and therefore some skill in writing. [But it] certainly doesn’t look like medieval writing.

“The block capitals are varied in size and ink. This guy is not a planner in the real meaning of the word, but is more a man who operates by instinct rather than organized planning. As long as he has a rough map, he’ll do the rest by instinct.”

“[It] strikes me as a pretty good summation of one aspect of Garrett’s character — his ability to think on his feet,” Russell agreed. “What I find intriguing is the underlining of the word Mansion. Is this meant to be ironic? Social commentary? A reminder to self not to go one of Constantine’s other buildings? Imagine Garrett’s embarrassment if he had ended up in Constantine’s garden shed by mistake!” A good question, but, sadly, graphology can only tell us so much.

Anonymous, System Shock 2

“These letters are not easy to interpret, as they have been produced under restrictive circumstances.”

Nathan Drake, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Josh Scherr (writer, Uncharted 4): A little background: Nate’s journal for Uncharted 4 was the result of extensive collaboration between me and [artist and user interface designer] Alex [Neonakis]. And like Nate’s journals in the prior three games, it came together at the last possible minute, largely due to needing all of the puzzle clues, locations, etc. to be finalized first. There were certain pages I wrote where Alex needed to stick close to the text — specific clues or bits of history — but for the most part, I just gave Alex some general direction and she came up with her own material.

Alexandria Neonakis: Nate’s handwriting in Uncharted 4 is an altered version of my own natural way of writing. Though at that point in the project, I had come up with a bunch of different ways to write hand-written pickup notes, so my own handwriting got a little lost in that mix.

Scherr: Let’s see what the analyst says about Nathan Drake…

“This man has an interest in what is happening around and beyond him and wants to get involved and facilitate desired results. Although his lines are somewhat undulating, they also slope slightly upwards, towards positive thinking, so he can be a stimulating companion. He usually accepts people as they are and takes them at face value, until given reason not to.”

Neonakis: Nate has potentially too much interest in what is happening around and beyond him and gets way too involved in things. Particularly ancient civilization and treasure-related things.

Scherr: And he’s definitely a stimulating companion, as long as you don’t mind things collapsing under your feet or people shooting at you.

Neonakis: I think the accepting people as they are really ties into the story. Sam tended to have the more suspicious personality. Take their differing views of Sully for instance. Nate seems to just trust people from the time he’s fairly young, probably to his own detriment.

Above, Nathan Drake; below, Alexandria Neonakis. (Image courtesy Naughty Dog.)

Scherr: Given that it’s your handwriting, how much of this applies to you?

Neonakis: Well at least some of this is true. I wish I could say I’m a glass half full person, but I wouldn’t say I’m a pessimist. I think I’m more somewhere in the middle. I do think I have an interest in what is happening around me and the desire to get involved. The fact that I did Drake’s journal at all resulted from me sort of letting it be known that I wanted to do more art stuff and then following through to achieve that.

“Imagination is fertile and he has a natural affinity for sensual and aesthetic experience. He seems to know instinctively which route to take to get the best results and, if things don’t go quite right, he doesn’t give in but tries another option.”

Neonakis: Haha. Oh Nate. Always doodling in his journal and having… an affinity to sensual experiences. He is pretty good at finding handholds on sheer cliff faces where no one else would dare try.

Scherr: The latter part is definitely Nate to a T — although with him, it’s not “if,” but “when” things don’t go quite right. Though I suppose you could apply that to nearly any character in a video game.

Neonakis: I think this section is the most related to me. The aesthetic part is pretty straight forward. If I could give a new job description to UI design it would be “if things don’t go quite right, don’t give in, try another option,” so… this one seems to be dead on.

“He needs always to have a project or target to keep him busy and gets people to join him more by example than persuasion.”

Neonakis: “He always needs to have a project” is a bit of an understatement.

Scherr: Oh yeah. Nate certainly tries to put his projects — i.e. his treasure hunts — behind him, but then Sam shows up and pulls him right back into it — not that Nate required a lot of convincing.

Neonakis: Personally, I definitely always need stuff keeping me busy. Along with my day job, I do freelance children’s illustration and I basically work non-stop. Being productive and having goals keeps me happy. I need to feel like I’m constantly moving towards something. The best way to get something done on a team with my job is to show people what I want to do. Words don’t really work when trying to discuss user interaction or illustration. So also yes to that part.

“He doesn’t like to leave things unfinished, as he’s always focused on the end product, in order to be assured that he has achieved his target. Then he can let the connection go and transfer his focus to the next challenge.”

Scherr: Like the Sir Francis Drake quote that appears at the start of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune says: “There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.” So yeah, that’s our Nate.

Neonakis: He definitely always sees it through. Even though he doesn’t ever seem to get the reward. He gets way too focused on the end product. His relationship with Elena almost ended over it twice. But this one feels the least applicable to me. I don’t necessarily like leaving things unfinished but I have so many half-done projects that get kicked to the side when something else comes up. I always have them churning around in my head, and some of them I end up just tossing completely while others I will revisit months or years later. I am a person who stews on things for a bit, dedicates a ton of time to them, then lets them just sit for a while. I’m generally not in a rush to finish anything. I need deadlines to get stuff done otherwise I just sort of meander between things that interest me.

“The backlist of activities will not be forgotten, because he enjoys positive memories, but future possibilities draw him to them in anticipation of what may lie ahead.”

Neonakis: This is like a descriptive summary of the Home sequence where he’s messing around with his old journals and trinkets in the attic.

Scherr: We really wanted to tap into our audience’s nostalgia for the older games as well. It helped establish what he’d set aside to try for his “normal” life.

Neonakis: I’m a very nostalgic person. I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff I loved from childhood. Everything from my art to the food I like is heavily influenced by experiences I had living back home in Nova Scotia. But I try not to let it be all consuming. Hence moving away from that comfort to pursue this job with Naughty Dog.

Scherr: Based on that analysis, I’d say Alex’s handwriting came pretty damn close to being a perfect match for Nate.

Neonakis: I think overall it’s closer to who Nate is; it hits me a few times, but not as much as it does him. Some of it is creepy on point for Nate. It’s all so crazy!

Scherr: We totally planned it that way.

Atrus, Myst

The handwriting of Atrus — the Myst series’ kindly but morose puzzlemaster — struck a chord with artist Claire Hummel at an early age. (Hummel, prior to joining Campo Santo as art director, worked on Cyan’s spiritual successor to Myst, Obduction.)

“I spent the better part of my childhood trying to make my handwriting look like Atrus’,” she says. “It seemed so elegant when I was a kid even though it wasn’t cursive! I tend to write in caps, but I still use super swoopy ‘f’s if I’m ever writing like a normal person.”

Above: the handwritten journal Claire Hummel kept while playing Cyan’s Uru: Ages Before Myst. (Courtesy Claire Hummel.)

Apparently, Hummel was onto something: Atrus’s handwriting, says Quigley, “reflects the writer’s need to be seen as a person of good taste and manners. It is artistic and elegant and indicates that he has respected both himself and the recipient by taking the trouble and time to do it beautifully.”

So what does this reveal about Atrus himself? “He values being respected and focused on truth, accuracy and productivity, but we can see from the perfection of the presentation that he could be critical if people didn’t live up to his standards.” An understatement, when describing a man who burned his sons alive because they trapped him in a magic book. But it must be said that he burned them elegantly, and artistically — and with respect.

Max, Life is Strange

Photography student Max Caulfield is great about keeping a diary, even while solving murders and slipping through alternate realities. She’s not so great, however, about keeping it in her own handwriting. Life is Strange developer Dontnod opted to use a font for that. Fortunately, we have this array of post-it notes, which Max scribbles late at night after a particularly dramatic day: reconnecting with erstwhile best friend Chloe, saving her life, and discovering that she can rewind time.

“A strong personality, who likes to be individual and free to do things her way,” suggests Quigley. “The large middle zone reflects the concentration on the everyday experiences and the broad pen trace shows an earthy approach, such as practical matters, sensory responses and an interest in doing rather than dreaming. Not much idealistic vision but a focus on the pleasures and satisfaction of comfortable and successful living experiences. This is someone who likes to go and try things out, to be part of something rather than an observer. She needs to be busy, rather than an onlooker.”

This one, to me, isn’t quite on target: the Max we meet at the beginning of Life is Strange is meek and introverted. I asked Life is Strange star Hannah Telle about it, and she made an interesting case for the analysis’ value.

“[That] description is similar to the more evolved Max who has grown into herself in the later episodes and is now able to stand up and speak up for what she believes is right,” Telle says. “I find it wonderful that Max’s handwriting indicates her potential to become a more confident and empowered version of herself. She develops from a daydreaming outsider into a tenacious force that was actually within her all along.

“The analysis also mentions her individuality and dominance in social settings which reminded me more of Chloe than Max… perhaps Max is so eager to impress and please Chloe because she possesses assertive qualities Max admires and hopes to cultivate within herself.”

Sam, Gone Home

“She is introverted, sensitive to criticism, wanting to avoid the complication of having to explain her issues to someone else. She won’t take the risk of someone getting too close to her having to explain things that she doesn’t understand herself,” says Quigley of Sam Greenbriar, the ’90s girl at the heart of Gone Home’s anthropological family case study.

“When she has a target to meet or a job to do, she has the pressure directed effectively, as there are structure and deadlines to provide a route and requirement. Without these structures, she can go over things time and time again, because she is conscientious and wants to give a service that will not let people or herself down.”

I asked Steve Gaynor and Karla Zimonja, co-founders of Gone Home developer Fullbright, for their take. “I believe the front door note pretty much says she doesn’t want to get anyone involved, so it’s possible that that’s not much of a leap of graphology,” says Zimonja. “Sam’s definitely not un-introverted and sensitive, but I wouldn’t say that she dislikes explaining herself. I could believe that she has a hard time getting motivated without structure, but also I feel that way myself, so I could be projecting.”

Gaynor agreed a lot of the analysis is already in the text. “[I] was going to [say that] the end part of her analysis, starting with ‘When she has a target to meet or a job to do…’ does sound kind of like how I approach things in my real life, so maybe my personality does come through in the handwriting itself — and then Karla reminded me that she’s the one who wrote Sam’s handwriting and I wrote Lonnie’s handwriting, and so my whole ‘this does kind of sound like me!’ reaction actually was totally imaginary.”

“Given that I did Sam’s handwriting, it describes me okay!” Zimonja says. “I mean also it’s fairly well documented that people can see aspects of themselves in basically anything, so.”

Mary, Silent Hill 2

It’s that letter, which haunts Silent Hill 2 protagonist James like the omnipresent fog of his nightmare town. “I’m alone there now… in our ‘special place’… waiting for you.”

“The letters are shaky and the lady seems to be in some distress,” says Quigley. “However, she has managed to space out her words and lines well, though the middle zone (communication indicator) is inconsistent in size. She needs a big hug!” Which is inarguable. Though it’s hard to think of a character in Silent Hill who doesn’t need a big hug. Jesus, don’t we all?

Anonymous, BioShock

You see a fair number of drugged-out messages like this in BioShock’s colossal failure of a utopia, left — apparently in blood — by the splicer population. Formerly happy, healthy Objectivists who just wanted to be left alone in an underwater metropolis, these once-rational actors are now frenzied genetic mutants, whacking each other with pipes and vomiting bees. Sick.

This particular message “definitely doesn’t sound like the average splicer, who is saying something like ‘I found her that way!’ or ‘I used to be pretty — now look at me,” says BioShock designer Jordan Thomas. “They were intended to serve as a foil for the high falutin’ language you’d hear from the [other characters.] The average splicer is lost in a private narcissism instead of an expansive, far-reaching mode of living like each of the mini-bosses are. But there’s a fair amount of parroting of those leaders in the written stuff, and this is an example of that.

“The most loyal splicers were still trying— briefly — to preserve or connect with the world of ideas. But you have only to look at the brutish, carnal reality of the scene under those slogans to be reacquainted with reality. If BioShock is ‘about’ anything, it’s probably that.”

Of our anonymous splicer’s style, Quigley offers: “Rough and ready, certainly not intended to be elegant, but just to leave a message. This is not a lazy person though. The script is consistent and the ‘i’ dots are neatly above the stems, showing the need to get things right.”

It’s reassuring to know that even in BioShock’s nightmarish vision of societal collapse, where one minute we’re reading The Fountainhead and the next, we’re slaughtering each other over who gets to snort sea slug DNA and gobble old cream cakes out of the trash — that penmanship will be among the last vestiges of our humanity to go.