What on earth did I just watch?
Are you bored of video games full of
mindless violence, repetitive
grind of trivial tasks and
overly guided, pay-to-win "achievements" without
real challenge and
accumulation of earned skill?
Are you interested in
ancient and medieval alphanumeric systems,
mathematics and
divination?
Do you like
challenging abstract puzzles that force you to
think differently and exercise your mind, gradually
rewarding with zen-like flow of (potentially)
endless immersive gameplay?
By answering yes to
any of the above,
Archaid likely is
a thing for you.
So what is it?
Archaid [Aar-Kaid] is a collection of esoteric
cognitive arcade games that utilize
alphanumerics and
hexagonal grid for puzzles of
memorization,
pattern recognition,
heuristics,
hypercube navigation, complexity and strategy inspired by various
ancient and modern concepts of
gematria and
divine mathematics.
The games have player-selectable sets for historical
old English,
Hebrew,
ancient Greek,
Nubian Coptic,
Arabic,
medieval Nordic runic,
Georgian,
Armenian,
old Cyrillic,
Glagolitic, and fictional
Klingon and
Zentradi alphabetic and numeral systems. Eastern game types have various presentations of the
64 I Ching hexagrams.
Most Archaid games are difficult, they require full concentration and have medium to high learning curve.
Full online guide to all the game types is found on the game homepage.
Features listed:
- Six unique puzzle games based on various ancient alphanumeric systems.
- Ten selectable alphanumeric systems from archaic, ancient and medieval history.
- Two extra fictional alphanumeric systems from science fiction.
- Smooth Ultra HD graphics at 60 FPS.
- Intuitive controls for moving and operating in hexagonal planes.
- Generative living ambient drone soundscape.
- Two game types with a musical instrument mode.
- Three difficulty levels.
- Relaxed "Free Mode" for practice.
- Online high scores and leaderboards.
- Customizable player interface.
- Partly secret and expanding content.
The trailer does not contain music from the game.