Designed primarily as a cultural object rather than a game, it was Arxel Tribe's second project derived from German Romantic literature, following Ring.

The team's goal was to make a unique, transgressive adventure for adults, with the episodic structure of a television series such as The Twilight Zone or The Kingdom.

He explains that he and "the boss" are arguing over what should happen to seven souls, and tells you that your job is to arbitrate their cases - to look over the evidence and decide if they are guilty or innocent.

[2][3] The game was a collaboration between Anne Carrière Multimedia, Cryo Interactive and Arxel,[4] and production work was split between Paris and Ljubljana, Slovenia.

[7][4] Faust was devised as one entry in Cryo Interactive's series of literature- and myth-based titles, begun by the company after its success with Atlantis: The Lost Tales.

[2] Working from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust,[5] Arxel Tribe continued its trend of adapting the literary output of German Romanticism, in line with its Richard Wagner-inspired Ring in 1998.

[12] The project's episodic structure was based on the model of a television series;[3][13] each segment was initially meant to end with a credits sequence.

[10] The results were intended for an adult audience:[4] Carrière told Libération that Faust was written to be "a transgressive game, offbeat and ironic".

[4] Arxel Tribe worked with the CINview engine, written by the company during its creation of Ring and Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon,[10] to generate Faust's rotatable 360° panoramas.

[16] Featuring what The Independent called "a cool jazz emphasis",[9] the Faust soundtrack contains recordings by Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormé and Stan Getz, among others.

[21] Nival handled the Russian version, brought to shelves in April 2000,[22] while the Czech edition was released in early 2001 by Bohemia Interactive.

[35] Market research firm PC Data estimated Faust's North American retail sales during 2000 as 4,500 copies, of which 4,429 derived from December.

[37] Despite the title's poor sales, de Fondaumière was nevertheless pleased with Faust's critical reception, and he said that the game drew a cult fan following.

A rewarding experience, but expect plenty of confusion along the way", praising its "unique, complex premise; atmospheric, multi-layered mystery; high production values; excellent music; nice puzzle variety".

He grouped Arxel Tribe's Faust with other work that used Goethe's play as "window-dressing for mindless entertainments or marketing products such as lipstick, shampoo, cigars, even beer.

"[42] Author Edwin Gentzler called Arxel's project part of a trend in games and comics that focused on the play's "theme of the competition between God and the Devil for Faust's soul."