The Pathosync Awakening Project
The Pathosync Awakening Project accepts entries from 5 November to 5 December 2026, judged 6 to 14 December, winners announced 16 December. Two prompts, hashtags #PsychoSleuth and #PsychoSleuthFanWorks, and a Google form to submit.
The Pathosync Awakening Project is an official fan-creation event that opened on 5 November 2026, the day after launch, and runs for a month. It has two prompts, two hashtags, a submission form, and prizes that include Steam gift cards and Deluxe Edition keys.
It is also, quietly, a worldbuilding exercise: the first prompt asks you to invent a cognitive disorder for your own character and then decide what power it becomes. That is the game's own design process, handed to the audience.
The two prompts
Prompt one — "What if my OC joined the Logic Church's Selection?" Take an original character and answer two questions: what cognitive disorder would they have, and once that disorder awakened into a Pathosync ability, what kind of power would it become?
Suggested formats are character illustrations, character reference sheets, short comics and memes. The studio's framing is explicitly warm — they say they know how much care goes into an original character and that they treasure people bringing those characters into this world.
Prompt two — "My Psycho-Sleuth IF Universe". Fan work featuring any character from the game: new outfits, different poses and scenarios, or new stories between them. Formats include fan art, animated illustrations, memes, cosplay and MAD videos or edits.
The second prompt lists eligible characters, which is where most of the publicly confirmed cast names come from: Lyle, Lena, Eirys, Fayse, Raze, Silas, Cotari, Hyper, Elian, Kizuna, Alice, The Proxy, Believers, with "and more" attached.
You can enter one prompt or both. They are judged separately, with separate prizes.
The schedule
| Stage | Dates |
|---|---|
| Submission period | 5 November – 5 December 2026 |
| Judging | 6 – 14 December 2026 |
| Winners announced | 16 December 2026 |
A month to submit is generous for an event tied to a launch, and the judging window is short — about a week, which suggests a small panel rather than a public vote.
The prizes
| Award | Prize | How many |
|---|---|---|
| Creator's Choice Award | $30 Steam gift card | 5 in each category |
| Participation Award | Psycho-Sleuth Deluxe Edition key (game, artbook, soundtrack) | Several in each category |
| Featured | Shared on official social media channels | Outstanding entries |
Two categories, judged independently, each with five Creator's Choice awards. That is ten gift cards and an unspecified number of Deluxe keys — a modest budget, but the featured-on-official-channels slot is the one most artists will actually want.
How to enter
Step one: post your work on X, Bluesky, Reddit, Discord, Facebook or the Steam Community, with both hashtags:
#PsychoSleuth and #PsychoSleuthFanWorks
If a platform does not support one of them, the studio says you can skip that requirement.
Step two: fill in the submission form. The announcement links a Google Form. Posting without submitting the form does not enter you — that is the step people miss.
The rules that actually matter
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Original work only | Plagiarism or using someone else's work is disqualifying |
| Official may feature your entry | Submitting grants the studio permission to share it with credit |
| Community guidelines apply | Standard platform rules, no harassment content |
| No stigmatising real conditions | Content that discriminates against people with real mental health conditions is explicitly banned |
| Studio has final say | Standard event clause |
The fourth rule is the one worth reading twice. The event asks you to invent a fictional disorder, and the studio draws a line between using the game's fictional Pathosync premise and making a joke out of real diagnoses. Given the game's subject matter, that line is the whole point of the event's framing.
Why this event exists
Launch-week fan events usually exist to generate social posts. This one is doing something slightly more interesting: it is outsourcing character design to the audience using the game's own rules.
The first prompt is a design exercise with a correct shape — disorder, then power, in that order. Anyone who fills it in has understood the game's core system, which is a more useful piece of engagement than "draw your favourite character".
It also gives the developers a pile of concepts to look at. Whether any of it becomes canon is not something the announcement says.
If you are entering
The deadline is 5 December. Judges see a month of entries at once, so the entries that stand out will be the ones that answer the prompt precisely — a disorder that produces a specific, visible distortion, and a power that follows logically from it.
If you want the mechanical detail behind that, the Pathosync file breaks down what each named disorder does to a scene, and the cast file lists the characters you are allowed to use.
Event details, prompts, dates, prizes and rules are from the official Steam announcement of 5 November 2026. Checked 6 November 2026.
What the two prompts are really asking for
The first prompt is a design test disguised as a drawing prompt. A disorder that produces a visible distortion — something a viewer could point at in a picture — is a much stronger answer than a disorder that is only described in a caption. The game's own four examples all pass that test: a missing left side, a face with no features, a lie that cannot be told, a limb that moves on its own.
The second prompt is the easier entry and the more crowded one. Fan art of an existing character has no wrong answer and a lot of competition; an original character built on the game's rules is harder to draw well and much easier to remember. If you can do both, the first prompt is where the odds are.
