You may be wondering why our site has changed so much from what it used to look like. We are proud to announce that we are working on a full downloadable hidden object game coming to PCs and Macs later this year. Please subscribe to stay updated on the latest Jane Austen game.

Halloween is quickly approaching, and your favourite characters in Rogues & Romance are celebrating! Join in on the festivities by decorating your manor with exclusive and limited Halloween items. This will get you prepared to enter one of our TWO contests!

Spookiest Halloween-Themed Manor Room: Make your room spooky, scary, and chilling! Would your manor room terrify your guests? Good!

Jane’s Favorite Halloween Manor Room: Decorate your manor in a manner most befitting Jane’s sensibilities. Delight and charm your guests with a Halloween theme!

Find out how to enter here.

You get to help decide who the winners are on our Facebook page starting Monday, October 29. Please join us make this a most festive Halloween event!

Jane Austen loved to communicate. She communicated with her readers through the printed page, with her family and friends through letters, and with us today through mediums that she could never have dreamt of in her lifetime – television, film and websites. One example of the latter is Jane Austen’s Rogues and Romance, a free Facebook game that brings her characters to life in the virtual world.

The objective is straightforward: to help Jane Austen track down Elizabeth and Darcy (who have mysteriously disappeared from Pride & Prejudice immediately after their wedding), discover what sort of mischief they have been up to and convince them to return to the popular novel.

The inspiration for the game came from Ariella Lehrer, CEO of Legacy Games based in Los Angeles, and a self-confessed “hardcore Janeite”. She has spent 30 years creating video games and saw in this the opportunity to combine her passion with her work. Plus, she discovered that women over the age of 40 are the largest demographic of gameplayers on Facebook – the very demographic who are avid readers of Jane Austen’s books.

“Women playing these games want to relax, yet at the same time they don’t want to feel guilty for ‘wasting time’, says Ariella. “Exposing oneself to the Austen novels and characters feels, if not ‘educational’, then at least a better use of time than playing Farmville [a popular Facebook game]. Since I am undoubtedly the target customer, I hope this means that other Austen fans will also enjoy the game.”

Don Marshall, the creative director of Legacy Games who produced this game, believes that maintaining the attitude, sensibility and personality of Austen’s characters had been crucial when developing the product. “Because Jane Austen’s characters are so well known, it was vital that we represented and utilised them in a way that is respectful and authentic,” he says.

Nevertheless, the team have taken some liberties with hair and dress styles for their characters, a move that Ariella believes can be defended. “We based our decisions on what was popular in other ‘period’ Facebook games, as well as feedback that we received from fans on our Facebook page,” she says.

In fact, according to Don, they went through an ‘evolution’ of styles. “Style 1 was seen as perhaps too unattractive,” he says. “So we attempted to soften the characters slightly and ring a more realistic look to them.” Their next attempt – style 2 – was “too storybook”, he adds. “So we attempted to redesign the characters in a style more in line with Facebook-style characters altered with a softer, more elegant touch to better match the Jane Austen property.” Hence style 3, which can be seen in the game.

Along with the visuals there was the language to be considered. In this Ariella believes that the team has stuck faithfully to Jane Austen’s vocabulary “whether it be in the charming repartee between Darcy and Elizabeth as they explain how to score more points, or in the many voice-overs of actual quotes”.

The method of play is quite straightforward. Players visit scenes and encounter characters from all six of Jane Austen’s novels. In each scene players are given a list of items that they need to find in order to complete the scene, continue the chase and – ultimately – find their place in Regency society. Already fans have been logging on to the game, with many returning several times, according to the developers.

Airella’s love of Jane Austen stretches back a long way. “Before having my children, my concept of bliss was to read a good book while eating sugar cookies dipped in milk,” she says. “I first read Pride & Prejudice and Jane Eyre in high school, then moved on to Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Anna Karenina. Then I had four children, and reading went out of the window for about 25 years. Since they’ve grown and moved out of the house I am back to my reading roots. I have more than 300 books on my Kindle.”

Her favourite character is Elizabeth Bennet. “How could you not?” she asks. “She is a delicious character, and a great model for today’s young women. She has a very modern sensibility – witty, smart, confident, a little sharp/edgy. She overcomes her own mistakes and prejudices to find love.”

Don, on the other hand, prefers Elinor Dashwood from Sense & Sensibility. “I know she’s not the sexy one,” he says. “She’s not the fiery one. She’s just the one who keeps going, no matter what, and supports everyone else as best she can. I sympathise with that. I think we all feel like her sometimes, like we’re surrounded by a horde of Mariannes who are depending on us to keep our head on straight for their sakes.”

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, anyone with access to the internet can now be surrounded by hordes of Jane Austen characters, and if you’ve never tried Facebook games before, there is probably no better place to start than Jane Austen’s Rogues and Romances. To try your hand, log on to www.legacygames.com/facebook.

In order to commemorate the inclusion of our new heritage items in the manor, we are running a contest on our Facebook fan page! Click here for the details on how to enter.

You’ve Got Mail — Joe and Kathleen discuss Pride and Prejudice

While we are sad about her passing, it is amazing to think about how so many different kinds of people, for almost two centuries now, have the common thread of Jane Austen’s stories to bind us together. Here’s to another 200 years.

Cover of Pride and Prejudice

Our latest quote from Jane Austen’s Rogues & Romance is from Pride and Prejudice.

This is the epitome of what makes Darcy, well, Darcy. Can you think of any other quotes that pin Darcy’s character better? Let’s hear them!

Pride & Prejudice – Gracechurch by LegacyGames

Bath Theatre 3 by LegacyGames