INTRODUCING... The Gold Master Series

INTRODUCING... The Gold Master Series

The Making of Karateka kicks off Digital Eclipse's new line of interactive documentaries, exploring gaming's greatest creators and creations.

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Jul 11, 2023
Chris Kohler
mins
Game

Hi everyone! Chris Kohler here, Editorial Director at Digital Eclipse. Today, on the ID@Xbox Showcase, we announced a new series of self-published games from Digital Eclipse called the Gold Master Series, as well as the first game in that series – The Making of Karateka.

The Gold Master Series is something we've been planning for a long time here at Digital Eclipse – independently-produced projects that celebrate key designers, studios, and games that changed the world. Our mission 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."

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.

The first entry in the Gold Master Series is titled The Making of Karateka. It's all about the fascinating story behind Karateka, the debut game from designer Jordan Mechner. While Jordan is best known for creating the Prince of Persia series, Karateka was also a major hit when it was released on the Apple II in 1984.

Created when Jordan was a teenaged college student, Karateka made major innovations in cinematics, soundtrack, and animation. It was a revolutionary leap in how games told stories, inspiring a generation of game designers. Through rare archival documents, playable prototypes, video interviews, and much more, The Making of Karateka will delve into the story of this landmark release to a depth that no video game has ever gone before.

Explore the layers of Karateka's historic rotoscoped animations in an exclusive interactive theater.


If you want to learn more about the Gold Master Series and The Making of Karateka, check out my blog post today on Xbox Wire. We'll be sharing more in the weeks and months to come.


The Making of Karateka will be available later this year for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC. Sign up for the Digital Eclipse newsletter if you want to be the first to hear about new details about this game and future entries in the Gold Master Series.