When looking for a means to make Shakespeare’s Hamlet a little more enticing, the team behind upcoming adventure game Elsinore looked to, oddly enough, Majora’s Mask.
What the team took from Majora’s Mask is its time structure. The way that the game loops on the same 72 hours until Link prevents the moon crashing to the world is reflected in the endless time loop of Elsinore.
As you’ll know if you’ve read or watched Hamlet, at the end – and, yes, this is obviously a major spoiler – pretty much everyone dies. In the game, you play as Ophelia, who gets visions of the great tragedy at the play’s end, and so you help her try to find ways to stop it from happening.
You’re given four days to stop everyone from dying in Elsinore. And if you don’t manage it, then the game will throw you back to the start – it’s more of a point-and-click adventure sandbox than anything. You eavesdrop, solve puzzles, talk people out of performing actions, and even take people out yourself.
Currently, Elsinore is up on Kickstarter where its team is seeking $12,000 in funding to finish the game some time in 2016.
