Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts | PC Review

April 30, 2026 Andrew Angyal

Initium

Who said when you grow up you cannot be the proud owner and proprietor of a medieval scriptorium? In Scriptorium: Masters of Manuscripts that is exactly what you are going to be doing. In the long-awaited successor of Inkulinati from the Warsaw, Poland based Yaza Games, you will be doing just that. Taking the beloved art and drawing from Inkulinati, Yaza Games has delivered a single player simulator packed with over 2,000 hand-drawn assets where players can test their mettle in putting together their very best manuscripts in a quirky and dry-humored single player campaign or sandbox mode.

Fabula

The single player campaign is a great place for first timers to learn how to construct their manuscripts. Here you will learn how to comically mix pigments in preparation for dolling out manuscripts for Kings, Queens, and their often-scrupulous attendants. Elements are broken into categories of which most customers will have a requirement to include so many from specific categories. From there it is incumbent on the player to decorate how they see fit. Completing orders will award currencies that can be used to buy further elements, Scriptorium décor, and purchase pigment supplies. Learning these elements, you will grow from applying your craft on scrap pieces of vellum to large manuscripts for the nobles.

Mechanica

Scriptorium really came through and delivered on so many levels. The first being the delivery of the cozy art creation that many fans wanted. You can grab a cup of coffee and sit down at the end of the day and just enjoy the process, which is hardwired into the mechanics. There is no winning or losing. As mentioned previously in story mode, there will be base requirements to include a certain number of elements in certain categories such as food and nature, but you get to decide what to do with that. The “orders” are not graded on what you make or even a pass or fail, but just on the checkboxes. In that, if you rush to include the correct number of elements, then the point has been missed entirely.

This is all to say, this isn’t a game you rush to get to the end of. It is purely creative, and you get out of it what you put in. The gameplay is a walk down a pathway to discovery. Pigments outside of the base colors are found through mixing ingredients and seeing what you discover. Drawings are often done from pieces of elements arranged how you think they should go, and you’re not being graded, that is, by anyone but yourself.

Discedentibus Verba

I found this to be a truly fun experience all around. A lover of the medieval manuscript aesthetic, I found myself enjoying this game as a nice way to unwind at the end of the day. The in-game music was tailored to fit the theme, and it paired nicely with the witty humor and visual presentation of Scriptorium. It is worth pointing out that Scriptorium is very accessible. From a gameplay perspective anyone who enjoys creating their own art will surely enjoy the time spent here. There is also the accessibility afforded by the incredibly low resource needs posed by running Scriptorium. On an RTX 4060 and i7 14700k CPU, my resource utilizations ran under 5% in both the CPU and GPU column. So folks who might not be typical PC gamers would very likely be able to run Scriptorium on even regular non-gaming PCs.

To hear me talk more about Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts, be sure to listen to the May 5th episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast

This review is based on a PC copy of Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts provided by Studio 71 for coverage purposes. As of this writing, it is exclusive to that platform.