Stop Time. Wield Witchcraft. Save the World.

Project: Ether is a 30-minute vertical slice student project featuring approachable stealth mechanics, diverse story, and unique visuals. 

You play as Zhay, agent codename Spirit, who came back from their previous mission with a mysterious soul imbued in their prosthesis only known as The Kid. Explore the mysterious UAD research labs and beyond with the power to enter the Ether dimension with the help of your COVEN witches, Haumea and Bari. Will Spirit find out the mysteries of COVEN and UAD? Can they save the world against the nefarious General Bryant and his unstoppable Guard Bots? 

Approachable Stealth

- Light and darkness are binary. 

- Tap into the Ether dimension to stop time, see through walls, and see more information. 

- Use Hex projectiles to distract enemies or shutdown cameras- manipulate the environment to your will. 

- Accessibility: Features full keyboard and mouse controls rebinding & high-contrast mode. 

Diverse Story

- Featuring an all-trans, all-POC cast of characters- fully voice-acted by our all-POC and queer voice cast! 

- Heavy narrative focus about found family. 

- Solve narrative puzzles in Detective Segments. 

Unique Visuals 

- Features anime-inspired, cel-shaded visuals; a departure from other realistic, gritty stealth games. 

- Visual Novel segments in the beginning and end

Default Controls:

- WASD to move 

- Mouse to look around 

- E to interact/take down enemies 

- Q to activate/deactivate Ether 

- Mouse right click to toggle aiming

- Mouse left click to fire Hex (while aiming) 

Credits

Created with love and care by Team Ether, a 40+ team of students and recent alumni from UC Irvine, Laguna College of Art and Design, and other schools across the US. 

Eric Park- Game Director, Game Designer (Gameplay, Systems), Creative Director

Yen Chi Nguyen- Executive Producer 

Production: 

Ryan Bascos- Technical Producer

Emei Wade- Creative Producer 

Programming: 

Sam Hansen- AI Programming, Source Control Setup

Gabriel Gould- Lead Programmer, Gameplay Programming, VFX, Tech Art

Esin (Echo) Kim- AI Programming

Cyrilla Walters- Dialogue Engine Programming

Ferenc Gozony- Animation Programming 

Design: 

Leo Paragili- Level Design

Simon Cho- Level Design 

UI/UX: 

Michelle Aeina- Lead UI/UX, User Research/Testing, UI Design 

Matthew Jung- UI Programming 

Ashley Ly- UI Concept, UI Art

Christian Guarin- UI Art

Gage Johnson- UX Design 

Narrative: 

Andre Wells- Lead Writer

Kyle Imoto- Narrative Design

Brandon Lo- Dialogue Writer 

Voice Acting: 

Estey Boling- VA Casting

Brandon Nguyen- VA Casting, VA Direction

Vyn Vox- Zhay 

Trenton Butt- Cassie

Jonna-Lynn Alonso- The Kid

Maeganne Bertone- Selena

David John-Bores- General Bryant

Regenal Armour- Guard Bot 

Audio: 

Nelson Mencos- Lead Audio, Composition, SFX

Darius Friedhof- SFX, Audio Implementation

Alejandro Johnson- SFX 

Character Art: 

Yoon Roh- Lead Artist, Character Concept, Illustration, VFX

Sabella Hunter- Lead Artist, Art Direction

Will Russell- Character Concept

Jason Le- Character Concept, 3D Modeling 

Danielle Sumpter- Character Concept, Illustration, Environment Assets 

Kayden Kim- Art Direction, Character Concept, Illustration 

Anton Tse- Character Concept, Illustration 

Brittany Reinhard- 3D Modeling 

Rebecca Luna- 3D Modeling

Animation and Rigging: 

Bill Chen- Lead Animator, Character Concept, Environment Modeling 

Jacob Novak- Animation, Environment Modeling 

Alicia Zhuang- Rigging 

Environment Art: 

Meghna Anil- Art Direction, 3D Modeling

Alex Serra- Art Direction, 3D Modeling 

Michael Briones- Art Direction, Concept Art 

Noam Egan- Concept Art

Genny Bedell- Concept Art

Jan Perez- 3D Modeling   

Darius Jover- 3D Modeling