Escape the Dark Castle

Escape the Dark Castle is a simple, cooperative, retro atmospheric adventure game. Players take on the role of prisoners, wrongly imprisoned in the depths of the Dark Castle. Whether it's the Abbot, the Tailor, or one of six playable characters, each prisoner is represented by a character card and a custom character die indicating that prisoner's unique endowment of power, cunning, and wisdom - the three characteristics of the game. Embarked on a desperate quest to escape, players must work together using custom dice and item cards to overcome the castle's many horrors, traps and challenges, each represented by a large illustrated chapter card. At the start of each game, 15 of these chapter cards are randomly drawn from a large deck to create a unique castle each time.

The game involves a player revealing a new chapter card each turn, as if turning the page of a book. When a card is turned, the next room or passage that the prisoners have fallen into is revealed. There is no turn order. Instead, the players decide as a group who will turn the next chapter card, and there are often gruesome consequences for whoever does! Once revealed, the chapter card explains the situation the group faces and what they must do to get out of it. In the style of 'choose your own path' adventures, most chapters offer the group a choice on how to proceed. Bribe the drunken guards or attack them? Charge the beast or lure it? Steal from the kitchen shops or keep moving? Each chapter is a mini-game and a variety of mechanics are required to complete it, from RPG-style skill tests for an individual character, to rolling dice as a team, to using item cards collected along the way to enhance the group's tactical abilities.

When players choose to engage (or avoid) combat, all players simultaneously roll their single character dice to attack the enemy. They must collectively muster the right combination of power, cunning and wisdom to defeat the enemy in question, or risk taking damage. Blocking, resting and using weapons, relics and potions will keep the prisoners alive. The aim of the game is for the group to complete each chapter of the castle and then defeat the final boss. To win, they must keep every member of the team alive - if a player is killed, the game ends immediately.

Escape the Dark Castle funded on the Kickstarter platform

Escape the Dark Castle was funded on the Crowdfunding Kickstarter (See the campaign) platform on the Jun 30, 2017, the campaign lasted 30 days. 2,119 people helped funded the game, whose the amount requested was £11,000.00. Thanks to these 2,119 people the game could be funded up to £87,814.00, ~798.31%.

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