Dear Reader lets you curl up and play your favorite books, turning classic literature into fun word puzzles. Created by Local No. 12, Dear Reader uses real passages from classic literature as the raw material for the game. Play with the actual text from books like Pride and Prejudice and Alice in Wonderland while unlocking more for your library. There are currently over 25 unique puzzle types in the game, and over 75 classic books. Dear Reader is available on Apple Arcade.
Play with the classics
Dear Reader uses public domain literature as the basis for its puzzles, so for me, one of the most exciting aspects of the design of the game is selecting the literature that players will be able to collect, and also choosing passages from each book to feature. I worked with 4 members of the team to choose and “chapterize” each book. (Team credits below)
The Team
This game started with just a few of us back in 2014 (me + Peter Berry, John Sharp, Eric Zimmerman), and has now, in 2020, expanded to a team of many:
PETER BERRY / Lead Programming
EDDIE CAMERON / Programming
ANNA GARBIER / Lead QA & Testing
DIEGO GARCIA / Visual & Animation Design
MEHAK KHAN / Lead Literary Curation
ALEXANDER KING / Game & Economy Design
COLLEEN MACKLIN / Experience, Game & Level Design
TONI PIZZA / Literary Curation & Level Design
KARINA POPP / Literary Curation & Level Design
JOHN SHARP / Art Direction
MICHAEL SWEET / Music & Audio Design
ERIC ZIMMERMAN / Lead Game Design & Project Management