Elegy for a Dead World: a writing videogame.

Developer: Dejooban Games

Platforms: Windows, Max OS, Linux

Release date: December 10, 2014

Buy it here: Steam

This time I’ll tell you about a videogame that I found few weeks ago, Elegy for a Dead World. The title and few pictures I saw of the game didn’t help me to get a clear idea of what it is about, until I did my little research readings reviews in Steam.

            The game’s premise is to visit different worlds, there are only three worlds and they are inspired in the works of British poets Shelley, Byron y Keats. The game’s story is that “three portals have opened to uncharted worlds. Earth has sent a team of explorers to investigate them, but after an accident, you are the sole survivor. Your mission remains the same: survey these worlds and write the only accounts of them that outsiders will ever know.”

Menu after selecting a world.

            Other than that there’s not much story because the player is who creates it. The gameplay is really simple, the player chooses one of the three portals and enters to it, and then the option to choose a prompt will appear. There are different ones for each world, or you can choose freewriting mode.

Keats' world prompt options. 

            After selecting the prompt or free writing mode, the game starts. Youe character is some kind of astronaut and you move him around using the keyboard arrows to move forward, backwards and even fly. Each time you see the icon of a feather you must press TAB to start writing. If you chose a prompt, just fill the blank space according to what you see and what comes to your mind. If you want to, you can delete entire sections of the prompt and start freewriting… and that’s all the gameplay.

            There are places you can enter to explore, but it’s the same gameplay of advancing and writing, beyond that you can’t interact with other objects or do anything else.

            When you finish exploring the world of your choice and you are done with your story, you can read what you wrote and edit it to publish it, so other players can read it; you can also read stories created by others.

Options that appear when you finish exploring the world.

            The game has inspiring landscapes that helps to create the story and fill the prompt. Also, as I already said, it has several different prompts to choose from, you can spent a lot of time using them all and creating all type of stories.

            The creators of Elegy for a Dead World believe that everyone can write, and I agree with that. It doesn’t matter if the story you create is simple, you are writing something, creating a story of our own.

            I recommend this game to people who like to read, and obviously, write. It has no action and you can’t interact too much with the worlds. If you can read this article, then you can play it! Cause the game is only available in English. Go ahead and try it, create your own science fiction story.  

Watch the game's trailer :)