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. 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. The game's graphic style was created by Evans. 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. EPG developed the eight-episode interactive novel in Macromedia Director.
