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Knockoff

user avatar image for Read/Write Memory
1,169 Followers
4 projects fulfilled since 2020

Knockoff is a solo journaling game where players cut and paste fabric patterns to create a dress. It's about a desperate fast fashion designer named Marcos, who discovers a cursed dress design from an estate sale.

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Latest from the Creator
Read/Write Memory
28 days ago
February 2026 Update
Hi everyone, We've received an updated printer proof copy of the game and she is perfect! I've already approved of it and the printer. They said we're in the queue and they ...
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Read/Write Memory
3 months ago
December 2025 Update
Hi everyone, good new and bad news! Good news is we received our first off the press sample of the book and it looks great… …Except there were a few mistakes we c...
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Read/Write Memory
4 months ago
October 2025 Update
The printer proofs have arrived! We are going through them now and we’ll be getting in the queue for printing as soon as they’re ready.  Thanks for being so patient wit...
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Read/Write Memory
8 months ago
July 2025 Update
Hello everyone!  We just wanted to give you all an update on where things are right now. So far... • The manuscript: IS DONE! • The editing: IS DONE! • The interior chapter ...
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Read/Write Memory
10 months ago
The campaign has officially ended! THANK YOU ALL!!
We did it! Knockoff is funded at 116%! Thank you so much for getting us funded and for all of your support. It truly means the world to me. Next Steps We will keep you all u...
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Read/Write Memory
10 months ago
WE FUNDED!! Thank you!!
Thanks to you, we've made it to 100%! Now...for our stretch goals. As you've probably already seen, we have a few stretch goals planned, including a new croquis that folks ...
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It’s 2024. Fashion Week is only a couple of months away in New York City, and your boss is expecting you to come up with a design that will make an impact on the company’s bottom line. You moved to the city thinking you’d be the next Willi Smith or Teflar Clemens, but you ended up at this company, where you scour the internet for other people’s designs to put onto T-shirts to make enough money to pay for rent. Hopefully this opportunity from your boss will finally put your name on the map.



Knockoff is a story of a desperate and burnt out fast fashion designer named Marcos, who discovers a cursed dress design from an estate sale. It is a solo tabletop journaling game where the player (you) will be cutting out fabric textures and gluing them over a croquis (a drawing of a fashion model). The fabrics that you choose determine the outcome of the story.

Knockoff is the second book in the Mephistopheles Trilogy, after Forgery.

Interested in checking out the prequel, Forgery? You can find more information on it here.


Cover by Alex Eckman-Lawn, logo and graphic design for the cover by Herb Ferman.




The player will be inhabiting Marcos’s point of view as you read about his story. It uses two main mechanics:
  • The player will be asked to journal their character’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions at specific prompts.
  • There is also a choose-your-own-path style of immersive storytelling using the dress that the player is creating, allowing them to choose the outcome for Marcos. 

This story will ask the player to cut out a fabric pattern to glue onto the croquis, so keep a pair of scissors and glue or tape handy. Players do not need to have a background in fashion to create their dress. They just need to follow the directions to create their masterpiece.



The tone of this game is dark comedy with horror elements. Some touchstones for the comedic tones could be Search Party (television series, 2016), Ingrid Goes West (movie, 2017) or Not Okay (movie, 2022), while the horror elements could be reminiscent of Channel Zero (television series, 2016) or Archive 81 (television series, 2022). 

Other influences include:
  • Eyes of Laura Mars (movie, 1978)
  • Stage Fright (movie, 1978)
  • Amadeus (movie, 1984)
  • Helter Skelter (movie, 2012)
  • Neon Demon (movie, 2016)
  • Phantom Thread (movie, 2017)
  • In Fabric (movie, 2018)

Specific fashion influences include:
  • Dapper Dan
  • Willi Smith
  • Scott Barrie
  • Ann Lowe
  • Stephen Burrows
  • Arthur McGee
  • Lex Blank
  • Asher Levine
  • Aun Helden 
  • The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley
  • Anok Yai walking for Thierry Mugler SS24 Collection
  • Mugler’s Alien Hypersense starring Anok Yai
  • Alexander Mcqueen’s Dante Fall-Winter collection from 1996
  • Alexander Mcqueen’s Joan Fall-Winter collection from 1998
  • Alexander Mcqueen’s Voss Spring-Summer collection from 2001



Not all of these themes will be covered in this crowdfunding campaign (though hints of them might pop up, especially in the video), the game does have the following:
  • Manipulative romantic relationships
  • Being involved in a crime
  • Paranormal horror
  • Alcohol and drug use
  • Smoking
  • Emotionally abusive parents
  • Self-mutilation
  • Suicide
  • Murder
  • Gore (there is gory imagery and photography)
  • Self mutilation
  • Body horror
  • Sex
  • Obsessive thoughts towards your character and other forms of parasocial relationships

This game is not for children and is for an audience that is 18 or older.

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