The time has come. The night of all nights has arrived, where I will dive into darkness. Evil awakens and a nightmare comes true: Dracula rules our city of New York and the lord of darkness is also the head of the local corporation for cyber-genetics, cyber-space, cyber-surgery, cyber-technology, cyber-weapons and cyber-surveillance. Appropriately, it has been a very long time since the city has seen any light; we are in an apparently endless night.
Darkness holds one of the primal fears of mankind. But why are we afraid of it? We are afraid, because something might be lurking in the utter blackness and when it is trying to harm us we will not see it coming. Since it easier for us to deal with the tangible than with the abstract, we tend to antropomorphise our feelings. And this leads to the birth of the bogeyman, our manifested anxieties. Especially children with their more vivid imagination combined with all their insecurities – born out of inexperience – are prone to conjuring them up. And since your fear can be turned against you, parents use it to make their children behave – as cruel as this might be. Yes fear is a powerful tool: Whomever you are afraid of has control over you. And this is one of the main themes of Bogeyman.
New England in the early 20th century. The legendary Cult of Starry Wisdom, fabled for their secretive behaviour and their great wealth, has been struck by an inexplicable tragedy. Their temple has fallen in disrepair, their members have either died, disappeared or scattered. The perfect opportunity for a treasure hunter like you to enter their once impenetrable sanctum to loot and pillage.
Infra Arcana presents itself as a classic Roguelike game: the player immediately dives into a dungeon of randomly generated levels, killing all kinds of monsters, breaking chests open to re-equip and taking breaks in shadowy corners to patch up his battered body. It is really a hack'n'slash game without any shred of plot development between the initial introduction and the ending text; no characters will be willing to interact peacefully.