Elsewhere

Elsewhere is a co-op action roguelike in which players try to wake up from an endless dream. Players embody a Dreamer—an ego strong enough to stay conscious while asleep—and fight for control of their inner world against The Shadow. Each run generates a different dreamscape, blending hack-and-slash combat with moments of introspection.

The cosmic and physical order of Elsewhere is a manifestation of contemporary dream theory, drawing on Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Ann Faraday. Their accounts of why we dream, and of the symbols we hold in common, became the game’s internal logic rather than set dressing on top of it. The conceit that the player is an ego lucid enough to hold itself together while dreaming is what justifies the game’s mechanics from inside the fiction.

As Creative Director I set the premise across narrative, world, and systems, and served as principal writer—defining the Archetypes and their realms, the core plot, and the voice of the game. The work spans roughly eighteen months of development, from first principles through playable multiplayer. Elsewhere never shipped, but many artifacts of the design process still exist, and the studio keeps them on its own site.