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They sent a poet: Elegy for a Dead World due in early 2015

Elegy for a Dead World, a game that transforms players into British Romantic poets traversing a sci-fi landscape, is due out in early 2015 for PC, Mac and Linux via Steam, developers Dejobaan Games and Popcannibal announced on their Kickstarter page. Beta keys are due out for eligible backers in October (yep, the October that starts tomorrow).

Elegy for a Dead World imagines the cracked, desolate planets of classic Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and John Keats, and then asks players to explore the worlds' ruins and write about the symbols and archaeology they find. Players can then share the stories they've written with other people on Steam, or upload screenshots of their own tales to make personalized books via print-on-demand sites.

"We created Elegy so that everyone can write," Dejobaan writes. "As you explore, the game helps you create the narrative .... Each world offers multiple sets of prompts, each intended to inspire you to write a different story about it. Elegy might ask you to write a short story about an individual's final days, a song about resignation or a poem about war. In the more advanced levels, you'll sometimes get new information halfway through your story which casts a new light on things and forces you to take your story in a different direction. We like to think of those as puzzles – writing yourself out of a corner, so to speak."

[Images: Warner Bros, Dejobaan/Popcannibal]