Have fancied yourself as a creative storyteller? Have you ever wanted to create your own RPG but just didn’t know how? Well, MetaArcade is here to help. The company is getting ready hold an open beta this month to help creators craft their own stories. Learn more below!
The MetaArcade Narrative Fiction Platform to Launch February Closed Beta
MetaArcade was founded by David Reid (Microsoft, NCsoft, Trion Worlds, and CCP Games) and Inspired by classic pen and paper RPGs. David’s vision was to build a tool that would reengineer tabletop gameplay mechanics to enjoyed on mobile as serialized interactive fiction. After publishing two apps for Android and iOS, we began preparing our internal tool, “The Creator”, for public testing. With the announcement of MetaArcade’s closed beta (https://corp.metaarcade.com/blogroll/2019/1/15/calling-all-creators), what began as a very small test group will now expand to thousands and include easy-to-use creation tools for branching narrative fiction. Creators will craft stories, perhaps borrowing imagery and audio from pop-culture sources, or something entirely new, all within the Sandbox.
In addition to the Sandbox, the MetaArcade Platform will launch in closed beta with three genre-specific Universes (to start, there are more coming!):
Tunnels & Trolls
The classic mid 70’s pen and paper RPG Tunnels & Trolls, Officially licensed from Flying Buffalo Inc. While T&T was the second tabletop fantasy RPG ever to be published, it was MetaArcade’s first choice for the debut of our mobile app in 2017. Created by Origins Hall of Fame RPG designer Ken St. Andre, T&T provided gamers with a rules system evoking the feel of reading a Marvel comic: fast-paced action, interesting character dilemmas, and a proper sense of humor. Dozens of T&T solo adventures have been published over its 40+ year history, exemplifying some of the finest Sword & Sorcery to be found in any RPG. In fact, Buffalo Castle, the first T&T solo adventure created by Rick Loomis, predates the first Choose Your Own Adventure book, establishing T&T as one of the true pioneers of interactive storytelling.
Cthulhu Chronicles
Our second project, Cthulhu Chronicles, is also making the leap to the new MetaArcade platform. Created in partnership with our friends at Chaosium, Cthulhu Chronicles is the official Call of Cthulhu interactive fiction game. We’ve aspired to bring H.P. Lovecraft’s universe of cosmic horror, the Cthulhu Mythos, to life through adventures comprising both remastered Chaosium CoC modules and new works of our own. Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraft’s writings are set in 1920s America. So for our original Cthulhu Chronicles release on iOS and Android, we used a combination of Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu art and an array of public domain photos reflecting life in that era.
Old Roads
Old Roads is an original IP created by MetaArcade’s head of content, Sam Riordan. Sam was intrigued with the idea of bringing the great mythologies of the world into our interactive storytelling format, allowing players to interact with the folklore of various cultures within a fictionalized version of history, weaving in and out of stories featuring fantastical creatures and ordinary humans alike. In the end, players will make choices and decisions which impact the people around them; the moral of the story—if there is one—is completely up to the player. Our first Old Roads campaign is based on Slavic mythology, and the first adventure arc in our “Tales of Baba Yaga” campaign will be set in a fictional version of old Russia.
The core purpose of the MetaArcade platform is to empower anyone to turn their stories into interactive works, with branching narrative accompanied by art and audio. Branching stories, such as you find in the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books and Netflix’s recent release of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, are pretty compelling on their own—especially when accompanied by art and audio. But for most RPG fans, that’s not really enough to scratch the RPG itch as a player—or as an adventure creator. If you’d like to sign up for our closed beta, you can visit https://corp.metaarcade.com/signup
