Elegy for a Dead World is a game about writing.
Well, it isn’t yet. Right now it’s a Kickstarter, a game currently in production wherein you play a character who’s job is to travel three worlds and to write the only accounts of these worlds that will ever exist.
According to the folks behind the Kickstarter (Dejobaan Games) Elegy for a Dead World is split into three main components: Explore, Write and Share. Through explore, you visit three worlds named and inspired after British Romantic poets — Byron, Shelley, & Keats. You will see aspects of the world, artifacts from the people who used to live there.
During the write phase, you take these found artifacts and the prompts (visualized above in the yellow text) and create stories about the people who used to live there. In Elegy for a Dead World, each world is intended to have a variety of prompts, intended to inspire you to write a variety of stories about the people who used to live on these worlds — from a poem about war to the tale of someone’s last stand. These stories are free flowing and forgiving, and the developers consider it more of a puzzle-like experience when you write yourself out of a corner in your story.
Finally there is the share feature. With share, you can explore other peoples’ variations on your same journey, share the written tale that you’ve made and more.
It’s an interesting concept and it promises to actually work even if you don’t consider yourself much of a writer. I would be interested to see what it looks like in practice and to see if a non-writer would even seek this kind of game. With that in mind, it appears that the game is mostly complete, with Kickstarter funding going towards more artwork and music rather than actually building the game.
If you’re interested in Elegy for a Dead World, be sure to check out their Kickstarter.
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