Codex Knights

The Game:

Codex Knights is an open world adventure game designed specifically for mobile phones. The game will feature story worlds based on African stories (written by young African writers). The aim is to combine the wonder of reading with the immersion and interactivity of video games to re-ignite a passion for reading and discovery.

Features:

• Explore South African Colony 1-5 on Planet 564 (known colloquially as Senopia).
• Explore the virtual worlds of fantastical stories in the Codex Realm.
• Interact with characters and events in each story world.
• Investigate mysteries and complete quests to bring order to each story world in the Codex Realm.
• Find hidden secrets to discover more about the worlds you're exploring.
• Multiple ways to play:
  • Top-down | Tap to move
  • Third Person | On-screen

Planned Features:

• Defeat the glitches in the Codex Realm to protect the citizens of the colony. Each glitch will require you to answer a question about the book in order to fix it. If you get it right, you will be rewarded. If not, the glitch will become unstable and will start to attack.
• Each story world is a living, breathing world with lots to explore and discover.
• Collect special items that will give you deeper insight into each story.

Story Worlds: Jock of the Bushveld

Jock of the Bushveld is a true story by South African author Sir James Percy FitzPatrick. Read about FitzPatrick's travels with his dog, Jock, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross, during the 1880s in the Bushveld region of the Transvaal (then the South African Republic). This book covers an interesting time in South Africa

Future Story Worlds

We plan to discover and add stories written by young African authors. We want stories that display the vibrant culture and diversity of Africa and shed a positive light on the continent. If you're a citizen of an African country and have an idea for a science-fiction or fantasy story, submit your idea here.

Story Packs

Some of the story packs will be included in the full version of the game and will be part of the main game. However, there will be some story packs that will be provided as DLC. Each story pack will include the following:

• The complete e-book (available in-game and as a downloadable file).
• The story world in-game, with characters to meet, quests to complete, glitches to fix and lots of collectables to find.

We have not decided on a price for each pack yet, but the price will likely be between $5 and $10 (about R50 to R100 in South Africa).

Story: SA Colony 1-5: Research and Development September 24th, 2108
Today marks the 8th year anniversary of our arrival on Senopia. Well, it's officially known as Planet 564, but we all refer to it as Senopia, as named by the scientists who first discovered it. Most of us still miss Earth, but as we all know, there was nothing left for us there. It was an empty husk when we left. I try to remember it like it was in the documentaries of old, but I mostly just remember the toxic air and barren land.
Today is a day of celebration, but it's one of the busiest days of the year for us. The Codex Realm gets extra traffic on this day as people love to throw crazy parties that are not physically possible in the real world. My job is to make sure that everyone is safe and there are no misdemeanours, in both the real and digital worlds.
Ever since my demotion, my job has been a lot more challenging. There are some weird things happening in the Realm, but no one wants to hear about it. I keep on being told that it’s being worked on, but nothing ever changes. My job has always been to see to the safety of the South African inhabitants and I'm not about to let glitches and a demotion get in the way of that.
I should check with Thato. He understands the Codex Realm better than anyone so he may know what’s going on. Also, he owes me.
Recorded by JM at 08:25:14

You're a Codex Knight, an officer charged with protecting both the real world and the Codex Realm. The Codex Realm, created by the tech billionaire Thato Dlamini, is a miracle of science and artificial intelligence. It uses highly advanced algorithms to generate virtual worlds based on the vast library of human literature accumulated over many years. The inhabitants of the colony are given access to this Codex Realm via a VR headset and advanced neural connection hardware. Inhabitants use the Codex Realm to learn, discover and play. However, like all digital spaces, rules and regulations need to be enforced. Your duty is to enforce the law and to protect the inhabitants from the dangers of both the real and digital worlds.

Characters:

• Jiara Maverick:
  • A Codex Knight working on SA Colony 1-5. She used to be the chief of security on Colony 1-5 but was demoted. No one knows why but some assume it to be part of a bigger conspiracy. It was probably due to
• Thato Dlamini: 
  • A South African tech billionaire who invented the Lifeboats, the Codex and the Codex Realm. He is the founder and CEO of THAT Corp.

Development:

Please note, the game is currently in early development (what we're calling pre-alpha). There will be bugs and inconsistencies. All the art, assets and music may be subject to change. However, the game is playable and some of the core features are there. There's still a lot more to come. Future planned features will be delivered during the alpha and beta phases. You can get access to these phases by contributing to our crowdfunding campaign.