Welcome to the “Rachel’s Walk” production blog!

Over a year ago I had the idea for Rachel’s Walk, and needless to say a lot has changed since then. My project was rather simple back then (I was a “one man shop”).  When I took on Lauren Soffer as Creative Director, we we started to realize that this project could be so much more. It could be more than “just another ARG”. It could be something groundbreaking, something wonderful.

As the scope grew, our style of development changed. We began to treat this more like a video game than an “alternate reality game”. To be frank, I sometimes hesitate using the moniker “ARG” to describe this project; I prefer to call it “interactive fiction”, a term coined by the great game developers of old  – Infocom, LucasArts, Sierra – which have influenced us and this project dramatically.

So we became a game design and development “shop” of sorts. We were no longer a huddled mass of “puppetmasters”; we had our roles: we were a programmer, a creative designer, a writer, a sound engineer, a video producer… We began to use management software, high end graphics utilities, and professional sound and video editing software. We downloaded several hundred stock images for use in the project. We got an absurd amount of hosting. We even had a budget.  All of this to help us reach the high production value we want to bring to you.

These production values, of course, delayed the project even longer, but we feel it’s worth it. Every time someone asks “when will this launch already?”, I find myself wanting to say the traditional video game developer’s response of “when it’s done”, but there have been so many failures in the video game world as a result of those three words. We do not want to be the ARG equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever.

But recently we decided that, if we are going to continue this style of development internally, we have to be a little more open to our fans. We decided to not stay completely in the dark, and instead be somewhat vocal about what we’re doing and how, all the time censoring ourselves from revealing anything that could be considered “in game” content.

So now it’s time for the world to start seeing what Rachel’s Walk will become.

Over the coming weeks this blog will allow us to talk about what we’re doing, strictly as developers and designers. We will talk about general game mechanics and some creative design, but we will NOT talk about game content, game plot or anything else that could be considered “in game”. That information you’ll just have to dig out of the rabbit hole yourselves.

There are three of us that will be posting on this forum: myself (Project Lead and Lead Developer), Lauren “Ineffabelle” Soffer (Developer and Creative Director) and our latest addition to the team, Owen “Twiler” Parish (Writer and Assistant Developer).

We also have a presence on Twitter and on Facebook, so we welcome all to you to follow us there. If you haven’t yet, we welcome you to sign up on the main website.

On behalf of all of us at Darklight Interactive, we hope you enjoy the ride.

In March 2009, Darklight Interactive (“DLI”, for short) officially announced their upcoming game Rachel’s Walk. The team behind Looking Glass Labs now aims even higher to bring an unprecedented cross genre alternative reality game. Rachel’s Walk will combine elements of traditional ARGs as well as “old school” role playing, adventure games and interactive fiction to engage players in an unparalleled immersive world. The players will have the ability to control and interact with almost everything around them – people, places, and objects – through a specialized interface. The players will have the opportunity to explore the vast lands, interact with the diverse population, and discover a domain that exists only in dreams.

Though much of the story is still shrouded in secrecy, DLI revealed that the players will follow a young girl named Rachel into an unfamiliar fantasy world, and embark on an epic journey that blurs the line between fantasy and reality, a journey filled with mystery and fantasy, heartache and joy.

Darklight Interactive was founded in early 2008 and has been developing Rachel’s Walk for over a year under the guidance of David Flor (Project Lead and President of DLI) and Lauren Soffer (Vice President and Creative Director of DLI). “This project has been an exciting opportunity to push the boundaries of traditional ARGs in a way that we hope will make the story more immersive and engaging than ever before,” said Soffer. “As a storyteller first and foremost, I feel privelged to work on a project like this that puts the story as the center piece and lets all the puzzles evolve from the story.”

“Rachel’s Walk is set to be our crowning achievement, blending traditional alternate reality gaming and real world elements with a fully interactive ‘dream world’ that allows the players to have control over everything that happens,” said David Flor, President of Darklight Interactive. “It is truly a technological marvel, and for that reason we have put as much time and effort in to it as possible in order to make it perfect. When it is revealed to the world, we know that die hard alternate reality game players and traditional adventure gamers alike will not be disappointed.”

Rachel’s Walk is set to launch sometime in late 2009. Players can sign up at http://www.rachelswalk.com/.

Press please contact Darklight Interactive at info@dlimedia.com

(c) 2009, Darklight Interactive – All Rights Reserved
“Omne ignotum pro magnifico”