Elsia

Game Over~!

2005-12-24T23:25:00.000-05:00

The showcase has come and gone. The team is extremely grateful for all who attended, especially those players who were determined to sit down and complete the game fully. Seeing the faces of those players go from curiosity to intrigue to delight to frustration to exhiliration was truly a reward for all of us, making the many sleepless nights, the missed homeworks, endless debugging cycles and gruelling pre-presentation crunch times all worth it.

The "completed" version of Elsia can be downloaded here (and by that, we mean the final version of the game we submitted), yet there remains several things we would like to improve upon in the future. In particular, we'd really like to implement a full dialogue system, complete with the lively chatter and friendly banter between Spike and Friday we'd always imagined the two to have. Given more time (and the lack of our other courses, need for sleep, etc), we'd have loved to include more stages, new enemies, new level mechanics etc, but given the conditions we were working under, the team is proud to say we've ended up with the game as it is.

Once again, the team would like to thank the people who showed up for the GDIAC presentation, our instructors Mohan and Professor Schwartz, and, of course, especially you.

Getting Elsia ready for the showcase!

2005-12-03T02:07:00.000-05:00

The development team of Elsia is currently headed into its final push to make it into the showcase on December 6th. Wish us luck!

Game Manual

2005-12-03T00:44:00.000-05:00

Here you'll find the manual of Elsia readily available for download... simply click here!

Credits

2005-12-03T00:27:00.000-05:00

Presenting the people behind Elsia...

Chin Xiang Chong : Writer, Level Design, Project Leader
Jeremy Awon: Programmer: Level Editor, Camera, Game Engine, Collision
Nolan Leung: Programmer: Spike, Friday implementation, Collision
Eric Tobis: Programmer: Enemy and Boss implementation
Nate Burba: Programmer /Artist: Initial Spike implementation, orb effects
Brenda Chen: Artist:Character Design, Animator, Backgrounds

Screenshots

2005-12-02T23:48:00.000-05:00

The following are somescreen shots from our game. We hope you'll enjoy the sneak peek at the world of Elsia!

Open for business!

2005-10-29T00:07:00.000-04:00

The Elsia blog is up and running!

Here you'll find information about The Savior of Elsia (also affectionately called just Elsia), our upcoming game that's being designed in our CIS 300 Game Design course.

The blog will be updated as more of the game gets done, so stay tuned!

Characters

2005-10-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

The Characters of Elsia....

Spike, the first of our two protagonists. While not exactly a master swordsman, he has practiced long and hard as he daydreamed about chivalric knights and ancient wizards, and players will be able to exercise his wide repertoire of sword attacks to devestating effect. Gifted with the natural agility that comes with jumping around imaginary castles, Spike will also be able to bound on top of platforms, bounce of walls, and climb his way through the stages of Elsia.

Players control Spike through the keyboard, moving with a standard WASD configuration, as well as Special Attack, Attack, and Jump buttons.

Friday, the second of our protagonists. Gifted with the ability to manipulate mystical magical orbs, players will harness the power of the four elements of earth, fire, water and air to petrify monsters, slow down enemy projectiles, heal Spike, and more...

Players will pick up orbs spawned from felled enemies as Spike walks over them. Thereafter, Friday will be able to hurl the orbs at enemies, the environment, and Spike himself to produce a wide variety of special effects.

Game Mechanics

2005-10-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

The Game Mechanics of Elsia....

Elsia is a side-scrolling adventure platformer. Intended for 2 players, one player controls Spike, a cheerful, sword-swinging horned boy, on the keyboard, while the second player controls his magical fairy companion, Friday, armed with an arsenal of elemental orbs, hurling them with quick mouse gestures. The pair battle the evil forces of The Adversary, as they journey through the land of Elsia.

The main philosophy behind Elsia is to create a truly engaging, cooperative 2 player game. Spike and Friday are 2 separate individual entities, but they have to work together to triumph over the enemies in their path. Spike is able to run, jump, and slice his sword at his enemies, while Friday can dispatch enemies from afar with her expendable elemental orbs. New orbs have to be picked up and activated by Spike first before Friday can use them, however. Friday herself is impervious to harm, but Spike isn’t, and without the help of the various defensive abilities that Friday can confer unto Spike, he will soon find himself overwhelmed by the forces of the Adversary, leading the game to an end.

Enemies will be created to specifically enhance this cooperative aspect – a end-of-level boss will have to be hit by a specific order of orbs, before his weak point will be exposed and Spike can slash away at it. An orcish knight, heavily armored, will be able to shrug off Spike’s sword attacks easily, but will fall easily to Friday’s fire attacks. An arcane, robed wizard will be able to deflect Friday's orbs, but will have a hard time doing the same with Spike’s slashes. Even levels will be designed to encourage this – Spike may have to hit a switch that opens the path to a narrow tunnel, at the end of which may lie a key that only Friday may pick up, etc.

Monsters

2005-10-27T23:19:00.000-04:00

The Monsters of Elsia...

The land of Elsia is home to some exotic creatures, not all of which are friendly to Spike and Friday. Below are a sampling of the monsters that Spike and Friday will encounter on their journey through Elsia...

Spiteful Iguanas
Although part of the local fauna of Elsia, they are naturally hostile and are prone to spit their corrosive bile at anyone unfortunate enough to encounter them

Cursed Crow
They fly tirelessly, often out of reach of Spike's sword, and will launch their razor sharp feathers at Spike from afar.

Orcs
Green-skinned humanoids. Though they lack wit, they compensate by pure brute strength and ferocious intensity in combat

Maw

This blind beast is king of the forests of Elsia. His bite is considerably worse than his bark. Thickly armored, vicious and relentless, he will not allow our adventurers to pass lightly.

Setting

2005-10-26T20:12:00.000-04:00

The Story of Elsia...

Meet Spike. An eight year old boy with a penchant for sword swinging and getting into trouble. Spike's mother died two years ago, and Lance, his father, has been mysteriously missing since before he could remember. His horn marking him as an outcast of sorts amongst the other kids in the village, Spike has grown up on a steady diet of stories of swashbuckling heroes, of dragons to be slain and princesses to be saved.

One day, while cleaning the house, he stumbles upon his father's old journal. Inside lay a startling tale of adventure and daring - his father, Lance, had once travelled to the faraway forests of Elsia on his many journeys throughout the world. There, he found that the fairies who inhabited the forests were under siege by an unknown Adversary. The Adversary had summoned monsters and, with her dark magic arts, had set ablaze entire tracts of the forest, and was on the verge of eliminating the fairies utterly.

With the help of Lila, a brave fairy girl who refused to turn tail and run, Lance defeated the minions of the Adversary one by one, and eventually bested the Adversary herself in battle. The forest was returned to its former lush state, and the fairies of Elsia celebrated Lance's deeds for weeks on end.

Unfortunately, the journal ended there with the tale of Elsia, with no clue as to what Lance did after besting the Adversary. Spike, having finally found something of his father, is overcome by a deep longing to go see the forests of Elsia for himself. He travels according to the directions laid out in his father's journal, in the hopes that somewhere in Elsia lies the clues of what happened to his father....

Enter fairy Friday. Being the first person Spike encounters after arriving in Elsia, she feels some responsibility for helping him out however she can, especially after hearing his claim of being Lance's son. Acting at times as friend, sister, and surrogate mother, Friday accompanies Spike as he searches on and on for a clue to his father's whereabouts. As the days turn to weeks and the weeks stretch on to months and years, however, Spike slowly realises that even if nothing of his father could be found, with Friday around, every day was an adventure. An adventure filled with the angry iguanas and the occassional angry orc to run away from.

This is where the game Elsia comes in. The players join Spike and Friday on a day of their life, as they travel across the forest of Elsia, jumping from tree top to tree top and besting the monsters that stand in their way.