Digital Eclipse has announced The Making of Karateka, the first game in its Gold Master Series—independently-produced projects that celebrate key designers, studios, and games that changed the world. It will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam in 2023.
“Our mission [with the Gold Master Series] is to elevate these games, presenting them in their best possible light while putting them in their proper historical context, an approach we’ve dubbed the ‘interactive documentary,'” Digital Eclipse editorial director Chris Kohler said in a blog post.
“If you played last year’s Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, you got a taste of this approach. In the Gold Master Series, we’re going to take deep dives into many more fascinating stories from video game history.”
Here is an overview of the game, via Digital Eclipse:
Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner was a college student when he created one of the biggest-selling games of 1984: Karateka. Now, in a new interactive documentary, Digital Eclipse tells the story of how a teenager with an Apple II created one of the most groundbreaking, influential games of all time.
Discover how Karateka was made through an exhaustive archive of design documents, playable prototypes, and all-new video features. Like walking through a museum, you can explore the interactive timelines at your own pace. The timelines reveal how Karateka became one of the first games to include cinematic scenes, a moving original soundtrack, rotoscoped animation, and a Hollywood-style love story, influencing the decades of games that followed.
At any time, play pixel-perfect versions of the original Karateka games and a variety of never-before-seen early prototypes, with rich quality-of-life features like save anywhere, rewind, chapter select, and director’s commentary. Then, enjoy two new games exclusive to The Making of Karateka. Karateka Remastered is an all-new version of the original game featuring cutting-room-floor content, commentary, achievements, and more. Deathbounce: Rebounded is a fast and frantic twin-stick shooter based on Jordan’s unpublished prototype.
The Making of Karateka is the first entry in Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series, which presents iconic games in an innovative “interactive documentary” format, putting the shared history of games and their creators into one comprehensive package.
Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.