Take the punchy, fast-paced fight of a brawler, the tight platforming and exploration of a search-action sport, and a cute dragon companion (who’s additionally the millennia-old god you worship), and mix all the things collectively with a sprint of anime aptitude. That’s the recipe for Elta: Defy All Gods, our upcoming sport right here at Afterburner Studios, launching February 2nd, 2027.
Dive in with us as we clarify how our action-platformer brings again the perfect from the classics whereas making it a recent expertise, what impressed us, and why you must leap into the free demo on PlayStation 5 today.
A brand new tackle action-platformers
Motion-platformers have had a resurgence of curiosity in the previous couple of years, offering an attention-grabbing mixture of fight, exploration, and story, however few have tried mixing explosive hand-to-hand fights with labyrinthian, non-linear exploration. Elta: Defy All Gods gives simply that: impactful melee motion, mixing martial arts and magic, damaged up by flowing aerial platforming and discovery throughout three winding sci-fi worlds. The problem lies in mastering each fight and navigation; juggling enemies in dynamic encounters throughout sprawling worlds that gained’t at all times maintain your hand.
The easiest way to clarify our distinctive tackle the style is to coin a new time period. We wish to name Elta: Defy All Gods a “brawlervania”. Brawler lovers will take pleasure in three martial artwork stances, every with their very own ability timber, alongside magic techniques to unleash built-up vitality in huge assaults. Platforming gamers, then again, will get a rising set of motion skills with basic strikes, such because the double leap, sprint, wall run, and grapple. That’s not all although; Elta, your dragon, can be key, by supplying you with new distinctive skills to hit tougher and attain beforehand inaccessible areas.
The inspirations behind Elta: Defy All Gods
Veteran gamers will certainly catch nods to sequence we grew up with, like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night time, God of Conflict, Darksiders, and Jak and Daxter. We take a lot of satisfaction in honoring these classics, however we needed to do extra than simply rehash them. To carve out our personal id inside that acquainted formulation, we traded conventional weapon-based hacking and slashing for fluid, hand-to-hand martial arts. By weaving your dragon companion’s skills proper into your fights and platforming acrobatics, we hope to convey one thing recent to the desk. To search out that particular vitality, we additionally sought artistic inspiration exterior of the gaming realm totally.
Transferring to TV screens, shōnen anime, and particularly Dragon Ball Z, have been a huge inspiration for us, echoing the facility fantasy you possibly can expertise enjoying the warrior monk Victus. With such a heavy concentrate on melee fight, we additionally turned to Hong Kong martial arts films, starting from the Ip Man saga to Shaw Brothers’ classics. These influences have been wrapped in a painterly artwork route that makes every vista appear like dwelling idea artwork. The sense of energy you get whereas enjoying echoes the sense of scale you are feeling when taking in every panorama.
Reaching excessive ambitions as an indie crew
Regardless of the big-budget video games listed above, we’re not a massive studio by any means. With three co-founders and a dozen core members, delivering on this sport’s promise has been a actual problem for us at Afterburner Studios. It’s one which required us to lean closely on our background in indie growth. We’ve taken classes from our earlier sport into Elta, discovering intelligent methods to realize greater issues with our small-sized crew. Whereas we’ve stayed true to our imaginative and prescient of a modernized tackle basic mechanics, Elta has gone by way of fixed iteration over the course of the final 5 years to permit us to ship the perfect variations of this sport to gamers – each in world, gameplay and tone.
This was additionally made doable by way of a partnership with Focus Leisure, the parents behind Warhammer 40,000: House Marine 2 and Resonance: A Plague Story Legacy. By lending us their design, manufacturing, and QA expertise, they allowed us to develop our imaginative and prescient and sort out a dream venture – one that will solely be doable with their help. As a substitute of getting slowed down by our ambitions, this fruitful partnership allowed us to double down on what we do finest: crafting satisfying sport really feel.
Sport really feel as our fundamental precedence
At each stage of growth, we’ve gotten the identical suggestions: that is a sport that have to be felt, controller in hand, somewhat than simply watched. All our mechanics, in each fight and platforming, have been tuned to be as satisfying as doable. By utilizing the haptics of the DualSense controller, touchdown punches and hitting platforms has a actual tactile weight, leading to a extra immersive expertise for PlayStation gamers. Finally, we wish to create an action-packed journey that places enjoyable first and continues to defy your expectations for what a small indie crew can pull off.
And also you don’t want to attend to strive it out for your self: our free demo is on the market today on PS5, permitting you to expertise the very starting of Elta: Defy All Gods. Retrieve the misplaced dragon-god you worship, brawl corrupted enemies in intense melee fight, and discover Lerna, a glacial world crammed with hidden secrets and techniques, historical ruins, and industrial remnants. The total sport releases on February 2, 2027, and when you pre-order, you will get the Vanguard Armor, a particular beauty pores and skin for Victus.
Discover Elta, face off towards the gods and begin the journey to convey salvation to your individuals with the free demo, available today on PlayStation 5.