Ex Libris CY_BORG A directory of content, tools, and resources

Polybius Arcadia

Concept: “Inspiration for this project was taken from the urban legend of Polybius, an arcade game that might have or might have not appeared in 1981 Portland, OR as top secret, governmental, conspiring, crowdsourced, psychological, mind control experiment. The game was highly addictive, with unpleasant side effects. All game cabinets disappeared without a trace. Polybius was the greatest game that never existed!”
Content: Two supplements: (1) rules for a poker-like arcade game and (2) a job to extract data from an arcade machine.
Writing: Crisp descriptions and directions that sketch the mission parameters & events (along with rumors about Polybius) and the rules for playing the Polybius game.
Art/Design: The Polybius rules are provided in a CRT terminal-like font/aesthetic with a graphic of an arcade game cabinet. The heist details are provided in a clean black-on-white three-column layout with a second page containing a map of the arcade location.
Usability: Each supplement’s layout is easily recognizable and navigable, with visually distinguishable types and sections of content. The arcade heist text content is embedded, allowing for searching/selecting, but the Polybius text content is not.