Game Theory - The Lore of Dandy's World Explained (Yes, Finally!)

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he explains the full lore of Dandy's World

Roblox is at it again. Move Over Doors. There's a new horror game in town that's taking the internet and our subreddit by Storm. And its name is Dandy's World. But don't trust that smile for a minute, friends, because behind it is a sad and broken character who ruined the lives of his friends, his creators and the very studio we're exploring. Hello internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that just can't get enough black goo. Think about it.

Bendy, Doors, Welcome Home, Bobmod, Fnaff, all of them have a black goopy thing that leads to one thing. Oh, we should probably just plug it into my veins at this point. But alas, HR won't let me do it. And given it's been a while since my last Black Goopie hit, when I saw our subreddit blowing up with a game called Dandy's World that also had its own black goo, I was very excited to gobble up whatever sticky dark lore this thing had to offer. On the surface, Dandy's World is a multiplayer survival horror game. Roblox. The game itself takes place in an abandoned educational center and museum called

the Garden View Center. We play as these little creatures known as tunes. Our job is to hop into the elevator with some friends and complete various tasks, while collecting items that can be traded into the lead character Dandy to unlock even more tunes to play us. But as you might expect, we're not the only things creeping around these empty halls. The deeper we go, the more we start to get a sense of what happened to this place once filled with the sounds of children's laughter and joy. What happened to this beloved place to shutter its doors and why it has suddenly come back to life with evil versions of the tunes known as Twisted. So that are trying desperately to stop us dripping with that delightful black goo.

There it is. Um-nam-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-n-n-nom. Oh, that's the good stuff. So, um, step into the elevator loyal theorists because we're going to get to the bottom of what's really going on in Dandy's world. And it's smiling rainbow flower mascot. The history of the Garden View Centre actually starts with this note that you can find if you don't die to the various twisterts chasing you around the various floors. It's an application for a business loan dated 1984. From this, we can see that the Garden View Centre is the brainchild of two young visionaries, Henry Stein and Joey Drew.

Wait, no, I meant Delilah Kean and Arthur Walton. Although the connections between these two and Bendy definitely keep going. Thanks to a note sketched out by Arthur, we can tell that he was the one who originally designed the look of the tombs. As for Delilah, she was a bit more suss. After seeing the sketch of the lead character Dandy, she writes back to Arthur saying, What about the others? You said he had friends. Yes, I'll need them.

Respond ASAP. By the way, out of coffee. Get more. Also ASAP. Uh-oh. If she's anything like me without my morning coffee, things are about to get real bad. Even worse if she's like Santa. But despite the clearly ominous language, Arthur doesn't seem phased, saying,

You've never failed me before, Delilah. Then, in a recent update, the developers added these port-reacted. traits of the garden views two founders. Arthur is dressed to the ninth, I tip my hat to you, sir. And Delilah is covered in black goo. See, Arthur, this is how it starts. And then you decide to leave and your business partner creates an inky dimension inside their apartment, which is meant to house an inky version of you that they can

torture for all eternity. It's a tale as old as time. Although, this black goo is a little different to the living ink from Bendy. It's called I-Corps. And not only can we find this black goo all over the place during the game, but when you get caught by a twisted, your tune explodes into the stuff. It's almost like the Roblox PG safe version of blood. And the name certainly lends itself to that line of thinking.

I-Corps isn't just a made-up word. It comes from what is very quickly becoming my favorite thing to talk about on this channel. Say it with me now. Greek mythology. I wonder why there's so much of this in indie horror these days. Probably a theory for another day. Anyway, the ancient Greeks believed that instead of having blood coursing through their veins, the gods had a mysterious substance known as I-Corps.

They also believed that if a normal human were to come into contact with I-Corps, they would die instantly. So that's it. Icor is just the blood of the tunes. Oh no, my friends. There is a lot more going on here. Because Icor is also this game's form of currency. We collect more and more of this stuff as we descend further into the levels of the Garden View Center. But what do we use this press as Icar to purchase?

More tunes to play as from Dandy's shop. Almost as if Icour isn't just the blood that's coursing through them, but it's actually what is used to make the tunes. And given the notes and photos we found from earlier, while Arthur was the one who originally designed the tunes, it was Delilah who brought them to life using the I-Corps. I guess it really is just the ink machine after all. And similarly, it has an unfortunate side effect.

You see, as you play and encounter more of the twisted tunes, you unlock research that gives you more law about each character. Several of the research entries mention that it's the I-Corps, and more specifically being overcome by I-Corps, that turns these happy-go-lucky tunes into the twisted monsters they are now. That also explains why all of the Twisted's can be seen with I-Corps pouring out of every orifice. They are literally so full of the stuff, it's leaking out of them. So then, if this stuff is so volatile, why make tunes to begin with?

As I mentioned, Arthur and Delilah get their loan in 1984, and from there, they set up the Garden View Center as a Children's Educational Center and Museum. What it was a museum of back in 1984 is unclear exactly. But based on two Polaroid photos dated 1988, what is clear is that these characters were originally designed as a selling point for the center. Unlike other attractions, the Garden View Centre didn't have just people in mascot costumes or cuddly animatronics. They had living, breathing versions of the tunes that kids could come and meet. We all know how well that goes.

Although, it appears as time went on, these characters became popular beyond just the centre. Despite this place looking abandoned for years, there are a bunch of posters still lining the walls that give us some interesting detail. In every corner of the Garden View Centre, there are CRTs playing a TV show full of lovable tunes who might look at. a little familiar. There are also posters of the different episodes of this show, along with the dates they originally aired, hung up on the many walls of the building. This show is Dandy's World. And the earliest date we see for the show is for the episode Snowy Adventure, which aired on Christmas 1990. Two years after the earliest date we know these tunes to have existed. The Garden View characters became so popular that they eventually created a show. The show wasn't just about

the many adventures of Garden View, though. If you take a look around the place, you can actually find storyboards for the show. If you don't know, storyboards are essentially what TV, movies, and even gaming studios will use to plan out a sequence of events and the shots that they will need to capture or draw for any given project, meaning that this show was actively being worked on here at the Garden View Center. This wasn't just a place where kids could come to learn and play, it was also a TV studio. And as I realized that, I couldn't help be reminded of a certain other TV studio slash theme park from the real world that was popular around the same time. A studio that in itself was also famous for its use of a slimy substance.

Nickelodeon Studios. If you're not old enough to know what I'm talking about, I don't blame you. I'm barely old enough to remember. But when you work for TV studios like Fox and Disney, you get very familiar with the history of competing studios. Nickelodeon Studios was part of the wider universal studios in Orlando, Florida. Much like the Garden View Center, it was both a place for kids and a working studio. Classic Nick shows like Double Death, Legends of the Hidden Temple, And the early seasons of all that were all filmed at Nickelodeon Studios.

But the fun part was, people that were coming for the theme park side to keep their kids entertained, could also sign up to come and see their favorite shows get made. If you were lucky enough, you had the chance of being in the audience to watch these shows being made live. The grade was produced before a live audience in Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. And of course, we can't forget about the slime. Nickelodeon and their patented green slime go together like, like peanut butter and jam. Sorry, jelly.

No, if Icore is supposed to be Garden View's version of slime, that would make Double Dare a whole lot more morbid. This idea of live studio filming is exactly what we're seeing happening in the Garden View Center. While the clips for the TV show are definitely cartoons, the characters themselves are tunes, and they talk as if these events were real events that really happened. For example, one of the episodes of the Dandy's World TV show

was called Winning Big, and it features a tune named Scraps on a game show, well, Winning Big. with the show being hosted by another tune, Vee. But despite this presumably happening on a fictional TV show, the actual V and Scraps have memories of this event. In one of the dialogues that can happen among the characters between levels, V and Scraps say this. Hey, V, you're not mad at me for winning all of your game show prizes, right?

V, I'm gonna take that as a yes. In another set of dialogue, V claimed Scraps' victory on the game show was down to pure luck. It doesn't really make much sense that V would be so sole, about what happened on a TV show about her, instead, it's more likely that she is mad because it really happened. These tunes are more than just live action characters for the kids to meet. They were the performers that starred in the show. And those kids who were touring the center would have the chance to watch the show being recorded live. And I use the word would have very specifically. The show was a massive success. We know that by 1990, Dandy's World was on the air

and ran for over a decade. But as with all indie horror histories, the world, the world was a lot of winning street couldn't last forever. The final episode of the show was planned for July 21st, 2002. But from what we can tell, it never actually made it to air because according to the city newspaper on June 24th, 2002, the Garden View Center closed its doors. The last aired episode we know about was from 2001, which again, lines up with what we saw from the Nickelodeon Studios. The studio began to lay off staff that same year, 2001.

And the game shows being produced there had production halted, while Nickelodeon animation continued in other locations. Which is another reason why I feel like Dandy's World was being produced as a live action production. If there was just another animated cartoon, we'd likely see remnants of the show still going on. But as it stands, the show stopped at the same time the studio did. However, compared to Nick's studio's closure being due to the heavy shift in animation and the increase in shows needing to be filmed in Los Angeles, garden views closure was a little more

mysterious. According to that same newspaper, it was shut down due to a quote, malfunction incident. which, as we all know, is indie horror corporate speak for, our creation turned on us and tried to kill everyone. It's even more suspicious when the creator Arthur was asked to comment and chose to remain silent, especially when behind the scenes he makes it abundantly clear that he knew exactly what was going on. He writes in a letter to his longtime business partner, Delilah, we need to talk. I know you've kept reassuring me that what had happened wasn't due to anything you had done.

You had to have known this could happen to him. If you did, why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me? Something like this doesn't just happen. That hymn that Arthur is referring to, the one that something happened to, the one that malfunctioned, I believe, is none other than the start of the show,

our titular flower, Dandy. Let me explain. Ever since Garden View Center closed down, several of the other tunes have talked about how uneasy they feel around him. And we don't have to take their word for it. We can see it for ourselves in game. In between levels, Daddy pops up in the elevator

to sell you power-ups to make your run easier. But if you instead, choose to not buy from him, Dandy starts to get more and more frustrated. If you continue to ignore him, things become less fine and Dandy, and he'll have a full-blown meltdown. He will turn into his twisted form, and you'd better watch out because he'll soon spawn on an upcoming level to hunt you down. Dandy is a loose cannon, ready to snap at any moment if he doesn't get his way. Based on my years of indie horror experience, my hunch is that this is what happened on the day of the malfunction. Dandy was the first creation. Arthur's

guy. But unlike the others, we're being shown that he can transform into a twisted rather than just being a twisted, which lines up with the idea that this mascot malfunctioned, transforming into a twisted and created an incident that got the entire place shut down. And that hunch proved to be correct when I found his research data. It says, quote, the star of the show, the one who runs the I-Corps operation, it's all his fault. Everything we're experiencing, the abandoned studio taken over by monsters, the studio shutting down leading to this point, it's all. Dandy's fault. However, the reason for Dandy's snap isn't quite as simple as you might think. With Dandy being the primary mascot in a mascot horror game, it would be easy to just assume he's purely evil. Maybe the fame got to him, maybe he cracked under the pressure, but eventually

was overcome by the power of the I-Corp and became pure evil. But that isn't the case. There's a little bit of audio storytelling that you might have missed while playing through the game yourself. When Twisted Dandy chases you in game, a song plays that you've no doubt heard before but probably never knew the name of. This song is called Claire DeLoon and it's based off an 1869 poem by Paul Valen. A poem about someone who looks happy on the outside, but deep down is sad. Quote, playing the lute and dancing and all, but sad beneath their fantasy disguises. This song is telling us what Dandy and also his friends are.

They are these picture perfect happy smiling tunes performing for the joy of others. But deep down, they're sad. And they're sad because of what we are. saw during the Christmas update last year. According to another set of letters, after Christmas had passed, some of the Christmas themed tunes were doing the whole Blair Witch thing and hiding in the corner. Delilah's response was basically, Christmas is over, just throw them into storage till next year. Even though the tunes are alive, they were being abused by their handlers and treated like props. Only good for the thing they were made for and nothing else. Behind their

smiles were sad and lonely creatures. Danty's dialogue when he thinks you're ignoring him at the shop matches this. friend, what is happening? He's confused, he's scared, he is terrified that he too has lived past his usefulness, that if he is no longer the star, that he and his friends face the same fate as those Christmas tunes. And my guess is, that's exactly what happened on that fateful day in 2001. Dandy saw how his friends were being treated. He got scared. He didn't want to be ignored, to be forgotten, to no longer be the star. And as a result, he became overcome by the I-Corps. and ultimately caused all the tunes to be locked away forever, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That's why, as his research report says, he has restarted the I-Corps project. It's not because he's trying to build an army of evil tunes to take over the world or to enact his revenge on those who wronged him. He's trying to atone for his sins. He and his friends lost everything, and it's all his fault. Now, he's trying to bring the show back to life. He specifically keeps asking you to find and collect and give him the VHS tapes of the show, and he's using the I-Corps to create more tunes.

Maybe, just maybe. If all the tunes come back, so too will the fans, the kids, the show. And Dandy can once again be the star he was literally born to be. But he is not the original creator. He's not Delilah. He doesn't know how to use the I-Corps properly. He's using too much. And so all of his tune friends are ending up as twisted monsters.

But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.