ETHEREAL
A downloadable ETHEREAL for Windows and macOS
ETHEREAL is a profound experience (winner of the Audience Award on IGF 2019 where it was also nominated for its audio and sound design) where you have to find your way within an intricate and abstract series of levels, using different kinds of mechanics that allows you to modify the environment or the direction of your character movement...
Each corner of its world has been carefully designed to communicate without any text and expose a novel puzzle to solve without time pressure, evoking an introspective state of mind...
KEY FEATURES
- Beautiful minimalist and abstract art style
- Awarded music and sound design
- Non-verbal narrative
- No time pressure, you can wander around as long as you want!
- 4 different worlds to explore, each one with new mechanics, challenges and secrets!
- 24 hand-crafted levels
Developed by Nicolás Recabarren and Tomás Batista, from Nonsense Arts, an indie game studio from Argentina.
Purchase
In order to download this ETHEREAL you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Version 1.7 is up!Apr 04, 2019
- New Update! Version 1.6 is up!Mar 26, 2019
Comments
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Really enjoyed this game when I played it some time ago, but the newest version just hangs after game selection. (I'm playing the Win 64 ed, but also tried the Win 32, and had the same problem, alas.)
Hi! Sorry for the delay, we are not really doing support for the game anymore. But i wonder what could be the problem you are having! Have you tried creating a new game? (deleting old saved data or using a new slot?)
There haven't been much changes between versions so it's odd that the previous one worked and the current don't
This review is intended only for accessibility reasons. I think the game succeeds well on what it seeks to do and is a fine game. HOWEVER, if you struggle with visualization, especially being able to mentally rotate images, thinking several steps ahead where images will be and being able to rotate them in this future states this game gets increasingly more annoying and inaccessible as you progress. This is compounded by the fact that in order to do these rotations you have to physically go through often quite a few steps to reach these rotation points so if you can't really do these things the game gets more and more inaccessible as you continue. I had almost finished the game (and I absolutely hadn't hated all of it), but I just reached a point where I just said "no, it's not worth it anymore". If this is not a problem for you however I think you will enjoy the game.
hey! Sorry that the game wasn't accessible enough. We learned a lot from making this project and our new games are way better in lots of ways because of feedback such as this one. Thanks for taking the time for writing this!
This is not an accessibility issue, you're just saying that the game is too hard for you. Struggling with visualization is not a disability, everyone's brain works differently, and that's why there are so many different games for different types of people.
First off accessibility and disability are not the same thing. Accessibilities help people with disabilities cope - but it does not mean every accessibility issue is its own disability. Now, I have aphantasia - people with aphantasia cannot visualize things (to a greater or smaller extent), whether this qualifies as a disability is a matter of definition, but it's certainly clear that it effects people who have that in their lives. All of that is beside the point as I never claimed it was a disability. And no, the game wasn't too hard for me - before the visualization element become too strong for me to deal with (i.e. the accessibility issue I pointed out) I did not have a problem with the game's difficulty. I almost made it too the end and I could HAVE done so, it just was too much of a mental burden. Also I did NOT write this to critique the game or demand changes to it, if you read my second sentence, I commended the game for succeeding on what it seeks to do - this review was intended only for accessibility issues for people with similar issues that would find the information useful in guiding whether to buy the game or not.
Also you're statement "everyone's brain works differently" - congratulations, you discovered why there are accessibility options & considerations and why someone might point out concerns.
I read your whole review multiple times because I could not believe you thought it was OK to criticize a game for being inaccessible to you because you couldn't do the central premise of the game. You said the game gets more and more inaccessible, because of something you can't do. That's exactly what video games are supposed to do, if you play a puzzle game, if you can't figure out puzzles, eventually you will hit a point where you can't continue. That's not an accessibility issue, this comment was like someone who can't keep a beat complaining to someone who made a rhythm game that the later stages were too hard. You don't need accessibility options you just aren't able to do one thing, and have to choose your life choices accordingly, and not complain when everything doesn't go your way. I'm terrible at shoot em ups, but I don't complain to the dev every time I die too much. People's brains working differently is a reason to make different games, not to change every single game to fit every person, that was my entire point.
It would be really nice if you could offer a Linux release, because it freezes occasionally when I run it using wine. It's really fun so I hope you'll make it a little more accessible.
Hello there! Thanks a lot for trying to play it! Sorry for the issues you ran into. For the moment there won't be any update given that i'm a solo developer and now i'm commited to new projects. Hopefully i will be able to add more versions, fixes and some improvements sometime in the future. Thanks again!
Really nice game! Picked it up in the bundle and loved it. Initially confusing but once you get the hang of it, it's a nice puzzle game.
Great! Thanks for playing!
The sound design alone had me utterly transfixed.
🥰
Really smoothly designed. Hits that perfect brain consuming puzzle while never loosing momentum. Airtight level design. The only times I couldn't figure out the puzzle solution was when I was overthinking it. Also the sound design is amazing, with an ambient soundtrack supplementing the music you create by moving around the level. Perfect game for pulling you out of the real world for a little while, and I highly recommend it. I would love to see the creator's future projects.
That's great! We are really happy you enjoyed it! :)
That was a great experience! I loved the visual design, the sound design, and especially the puzzles! I found the difficulty level and the learning curve to be just right for me, and solving the puzzles makes you feel very clever. And it's astonishing how much character these guys were able to put into a small fuzzy ball! I wish I had found more of the secrets... Highly recommended!!
That's awesome! thank you so much for playing it and for sharing these kind words! We are really glad that you liked it :)
I really like the game: the sounds and the mechanics are really nicely done. But the fisheye distortion makes me very uncomfortable. I had to stop playing, really not feeling good in my stomach. I started looking away during the animations, but now during the 6th level I had to stop playing, the 90 degree rotations gave me the final blow ;_; Any chance that you might add an option to disable that distortion?
Hi! Thanks a lot for playing! We are really glad that you like it. The game is pretty old now, and we are not giving support anymore as we are working on other stuff. We are analizing making a big new update sometime soon to tackle a bunch of issues, but as we are with other commitments right now is kinda tricky to set a date. If it happen, we will let everyone know via twitter (at nonsensearts and ethereal_game).
Again: thanks a lot for your support!!
No worries, thank you for the response!
Thanks a lot for your interest! I'm so sorry that you ran into problems.
One of the users recommended to change some lines in the executable. As i'm not a Mac user myself I don't know exactly if that's a good idea..
There is this other approach that seems easier:
1 In the Finder, locate the app (in the Applications folder, most likely)
2 Press the Control-key and click the app icon
3 Choose Open from the contextual menu
(copy and pased from https://superuser.com/questions/898124/the-application-someapp-app-can-t-be-open...)
If you still can not play it, please, ask for a refund! Thanks again!
It's a great game! :D I love it. The sounds, thecolors, and the asthetics are awesome.
Thank you for playing!! :)
This is the type of puzzle game I was really hoping to find in this bundle. It starts slow, introducing you to its world of sights and sounds (fantastic audio design btw), but then continuously ramps up its mechanics and difficulty that constantly leaves me in awe and curiosity which new mechanic this abstract puzzle journey game introduce next. No text needed, just pure experimentation. The basic premise is simple: Navigate to the exit in all 24 levels. The fun starts with the most simple mechanic of the game: You can move sideways, but to go up/down, you need platforms that you can move through. Then the game adds more elements that quickly make reaching that goal much more complex and rewarding. Lovely game with a zen like presentation that allows you to chill out and sink into a cloud of puzzles. 5/5
More Racial Justice bundle impressions and ranking:
https://itch.io/c/915453/quick-impressions-bundle-for-racial-justice
Thanks a lot for playing it!! We are really glad that you like it :)
I just tried to run the mac version on Catalina, but needed to do the "chmod +x" trick (see https://superuser.com/questions/898124/the-application-someapp-app-can-t-be-open...).
Could you (or anyone) run a non-programmer through this?
It's quite easy. Download the app and unpack it - you should have a Ethereal.app file in your Downloads Folder now.
Then open a Terminal (you can find it in "Applications") and type:
cd Downloads
chmod +x ETHEREAL.app/Contents/MacOS/ETHEREAL
After that, you can click the "ETHEREAL.app" in the Finder and it should start normally.
Clear and concise tech instructions are so rare. Game's up and running and I can't thank you enough.
I seem to have an odd bug where my "selection" always drifts upwards so I'm having a hard time even getting through the main menu :(
Oh! I'm so sorry to hear that! As you may know, this game is already very old so is very unlikely that we will give it support for these kind of things in the future (specially considerating that is not a very common error). Is it possible that it is an issue with the joystick? (if you are playing with one, of course). If that the case, try playing without it? Thanks a lot in any case for giving it a try! (if you bought the game full price and you can't find a way to play it properly, please, ask for a refund!)
@shillysit try the x86 version instead of x64. worked for me.
Same here Tried the 86/64 bit version as @BubuCool suggested but no luck. Oh well
Favorite game out of the Equalty Bundle. Unique and great sound
So far my favorite find of the Equality bundle :) Really unique, simple but engaging puzzle mechanics. The art and sound design are beautiful.
Hi, I downloaded this on the racial justice bundle but can't get it to run after extracting the files (on windows) as "UnityPlayer.dl was not found". I have reinstalled the program as suggested but this hasn't worked. What can I do to solve this? I appreciate that it has been a while since this was released but I'd appreciate help from anyone <3
Hello! You have to extract all the files from the zip on the same folder. If you are doing so, it may be an antivirus deleting the UnityPlayer.dll and that's why you are getting an error. If you download the game from the site you will get the zip and you will be able to see the UnityPlayer.dll inside. Let me know if some of this helps you finding a solution, if not, please write me again and I can keep looking!
Really unique puzzle game would highly recommend!
Gorgeous
<3
I cant't open the Mac verison it sais that it's corrupted.
I couldn't find any issue, but just in case I changed the build and uploaded a .zip (instead of .rar - I think is more common for Mac users). It's currently working for me, but please, let me know if you find another issue! Sorry for the trouble.
Now it works. I don't know what was wrong.
That's great! Thanks a lot for letting me know! :D
If you are having any issue with the "unknown source" of the app, you can ignore that by doing this:
The art style is spectacular!
Thanks a lot for saying that! <3
XD
The Trailer is WWWWOOOOOWWWW
Thanks! :D