"A third-person action-puzzle game rooted in a 1,000-year-old Persian epic that has never been given a game worthy of it."
Third-Person Action-Puzzle
PC (primary), PS5, Xbox Series X
Pre-Production — seeking vertical slice funding
$280,000 – $320,000
Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (c. 1000 AD)
Original — public domain source epic
HAFT KHAN is a third-person action-puzzle game based on the Seven Trials of Rostam — the greatest hero in Persian mythology — drawn from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the 50,000-verse national epic of Iran, written around the year 1000 AD. It is to Persian civilization what Homer's Odyssey is to Greece. It has never been adapted into a premium game. HAFT KHAN intends to change that.
"Your horse is smarter than most people. He is also your entire HUD."
You play as Rostam — enormous, near-immortal, carrying a mace the size of a tree. Your horse Rakhsh has saved your life more times than you can count. In HAFT KHAN, Rakhsh is not just a mount — he is your compass, your threat detector, your stamina gauge, and your conscience. His breathing, his ears, his refusal to move forward: these are your UI. There is no minimap. There is no waypoint marker. There is just a very wise horse and seven mythic worlds trying to destroy you both.
Tutorial district. Open grasslands. The world teaches you everything through Rakhsh before it becomes dangerous.
Dense waterlogged jungle. Visibility collapses. Sound becomes survival.
A serpent city frozen mid-collapse. Puzzle-heavy. Architecture as enemy.
No light source permitted. Rakhsh is blind. You navigate by sound and memory.
A savannah ruled by a divine beast. Combat becomes ritual. Brute force will fail you.
Deception, sorcery, and the game's final reckoning. Every mechanic converges.
No tutorial prompts. The world teaches through consequence.
Every UI element is inside the world. Rakhsh is the interface.
Combat and puzzle beats trade off. Neither overstays its welcome.
Spatial awareness is a skill to develop, not a crutch to rely on.
The games market is saturated with Norse mythology, Greek mythology, and Western medieval fantasy. Players are hungry for worlds they have not already memorized. HAFT KHAN offers something genuinely new to a global audience — and something deeply resonant to the 300+ million people across Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and the broader Persian-speaking world for whom the Shahnameh is cultural bedrock.
| Title | What We Borrow | What We Do Differently |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow of the Colossus | Sparse world, diegetic design, mythic weight | Multi-world structure, mounted combat with full agency |
| God of War (2018) | Third-person action, narrative epic, cultural depth | Persian IP, puzzle emphasis, no omnipresent narrator |
| Assassin's Creed (Origins/Odyssey) | Historical/mythological world-building, combat | Concentrated 7-world structure, no open world bloat |
| Prince of Persia: Sands of Time | Persian aesthetic, acrobatic puzzle-action | Authentic epic source, not Western interpretation of Persia |
No premium action game has ever been built authentically on the Shahnameh. Not one. The IP is 1,000 years old, universally recognized across the Middle East and Central Asia, completely public domain, and completely untouched by the games industry. That is the gap. HAFT KHAN fills it.
HAFT KHAN is currently led by a single founder with a proven track record of shipping software products across multiple platforms.
The studio model is lean by design for the vertical slice phase: a small, focused team executing a well-documented design with clear milestones. The founder's direct technical background means engineering decisions are made at the design level, not outsourced to an intermediary.
HAFT KHAN is in pre-production. The design foundation is complete and documented in detail.
HAFT KHAN's greatest marketing asset is its source material. The Shahnameh is not a niche reference — it is the founding text of Persian identity, taught in schools across Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, and revered in diaspora communities worldwide. The game's existence is itself a story worth covering.
Core movement, Rakhsh behavior system, one combat encounter, one puzzle encounter. Engine selected, team contracted. Deliverable: playable build for internal review.
Full art pass, final character models (Rostam + Rakhsh), complete audio design, full 30–40 min playable district. Deliverable: publisher-ready demo build.
Using completed vertical slice to secure full production budget ($2.5M–$3.5M estimated) for all 7 Khans over 24–30 months.
Note: Range reflects scope flexibility. Founder time is not billed. Upper range includes 6-month runway and full marketing setup costs.
We are seeking a publishing partner for the vertical slice phase of HAFT KHAN. This is the proof-of-concept investment — the build that will unlock the full production round.
"The Shahnameh has waited a thousand years for a game worthy of it. We don't intend to make it wait much longer."