They explore numerous locations as they hunt for clues, a hidden chamber beneath a medieval castle, the offices of a Scotland Yard inspector, and the hotel room of a modern-day cryptologist.

The story opens with John Shoresby, a cryptanalyst for SciCrypt Systems, who receives an email message from an unknown sender with no traceable source and no Internet identifier, as if from thin air.

James Francis’ disappearance wasn't the only inexplicable event that occurred all those years ago at Ravenshim Castle, his family's ancestral home.

Its three founders, Ted Evans, Vince Peddle and Paul Gregutt, had backgrounds in advertising and corporate communications, and believed that interactive digital media was the best new method of delivering entertainment to the masses.

[4] The Cypher became the first completely original interactive project the EPG undertook; it was created on a shoestring budget to counteract the pattern of startup developers being at great financial risk.

[4] The team chose to focus on plot and character over puzzles and games, and favored letting players discover the story rather than take part in it.

Early on in development the team decided to serialize the game rather than release it in all at once, an idea inspired by the work of Charles Dickens and Philip Francis Nowlan as it forces the writers to incorporate cliffhangers and aided them keeping the costs down.

The soundtrack for the game, dubbed The Cypher Suite, was produced and performed by Kimara Sajn (with Vince Peddle on guitar in one piece) and recorded in 1996.

[10] EPG Multimedia partnered with Crosswater (the CD-ROM production unit of the UK-based Clearwater group) to make plans to market The Cypher in the UK as well as to translate it into French and German.