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Use tarot cards to unravel a mystery in narrative puzzle game The Light in the Mist

Major Arcana for major trouble.

Unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of a friend using a deck of tarot cards in the narrative puzzle game, The Light in the Mist.

When a friend of the players’ goes mysteriously missing, they return to an old stomping ground of theirs - the Witch House - to see whether they can discover any clues as to their whereabouts. Using a collection of memories and a set of tarot cards once owned by the lost friend, players will need to put the pieces together and work out what happened. As the players solve puzzles within the game, they’ll be able to gather more items and progress further through the story, with the chance to make choices along the way thanks to a “choose-own-path style gameplay”.

From word problems to logic puzzles and other such conundrums, the players will be challenged in this escape-room game to use their brains. Puzzles don’t necessarily have a single solution to them, as some puzzles will have multiple possible solutions - each one linking to a different passage in the storybook and progressing the narrative in alternative directions. Should players ever find themselves struggling with a puzzle, the game has an online hint system that can point them in the right direction.

Cover image for YouTube video

Players do not need any prior knowledge of tarot cards or reading in order to play the game, with both Major Arcana and Minor Arcana cards included. The Light in Mist contains a deck of tarot cards featuring matching symbols that the player can then use to solve the particular puzzle they’re trying to tackle. Should players want to explore tarot reading further, there is a section of the game’s booklet called “Reading the Tarot” to teach curious people how to do it. The game itself takes around five hours to complete and can be played with a group of up to four people or as a solo game. Some of the story elements are based on real-world situations, with a content warning for the game available on its Kickstarter page.

The puzzles for The Light in the Mist were created by Rita Orlov - the designer behind several other escape room games such as The Emerald Flame and The Tale of Ord - with the story being co-created by Orlov and Jack Fallows, who also made the artwork for the title.

The Light in the Mist layout

Postcurious, a company founded by Orlov, is the publisher responsible for releasing The Light in the Mist, as well as the aforementioned The Emerald Flame.

The Kickstarter campaign for The Light in the Mist is live until October 19th, with a pledge of $32 (£24) getting backers a copy of the game in July 2022.

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The Light in the Mist

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About the Author
Alex Meehan avatar

Alex Meehan

Senior Staff Writer

After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

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