The Blair Witch Project Games

Gathering of Developers is doing something a little different: It's bringing together three of its top development studios to work on a single three-part series based loosely on both the 1999 runaway indie film hit, The Blair Witch Project, and Terminal Reality's 1999 action-adventure game, Nocturne. Each game in the series will use the Nocturne engine.

Each developer will work on a different "volume" of the series. Terminal Reality will develop volume one, Rustin Parr, which is a story about the deranged hermit from the film who murdered seven youths at the behest of what he claims was a female ghost. The protagonist of the actual game will be Doc Holiday, a character from Nocturne's undercover paranormal investigation agency, the Spookhouse.

The second game in the series, The Legend of Coffin Rock, will be developed by Human Head and will tell the 19th-century tale of a young woman who disappears into the depths of a mysterious forest. The protagonist of the game will be the Spookhouse's Lazarus, who must investigate the disappearance.

The third game in the series, The Elly Kedward Tale, will be developed by Ritual Entertainment. Volume three takes place in 18th-century New England in the midst of the infamous witch trials of Salem. The game's protagonist will be Jonathan Pyre, a witch hunter who witnesses the trial and conviction of one Elly Kedward for witchcraft. Kedward has been banished to the nearby woods, and Pyre is sent in to investigate.

The Gathering has yet to issue a release date for the trilogy.