Another in our series of game design documents. Jeff Howard, author of Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives (standard disclaimer: this book was published by the company I work for, and I acquired it, but I have no direct financial stake in the book), recently started blogging on the topics associated with his book. He just posted a game design document for a game that he's going to start building, called Arcana Manor, a "3D, first-person action-adventure/platforming game about leaping, swinging, and crawling through a surreal funhouse while battling demons." You can also check out his post where he talks about his initial idea for the game, and I find it interesting to see the modifications and refinements that take place just in the two weeks between the posts. I'm particularly interested in the fact that he's going to use tarot symbolism, with the possibility of wandering through rooms based on the major arcana. (I've had this minor fascination with card games that use a tarot deck where each major arcana has a different ability, and I've been meaning to post here about that.)
From the old to the new
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Thanks very much for posting this, Kevin! It's also kind of eerie to be on the same blog as Zarf (I'm a big fan of So Far, the Dreamhold, and the writing on Zarfhome). If anybody knows any C# programmers or 3d modelers who might be interested in working on the Arcana Manor team, by all means let me know.
Well, thank you in turn.
I am *also* a secret fan of tarot-based games -- going all the way back to _The Fool's Errand_, but also including Zarcana, which I'm sure is one of the ones Kevin was thinking of. Escher and Chris Manson are purely gravy on *that* cake, so good luck with your project.