- Elfscape: Ancestors - Demo Out Now! - 23 September 2026
About the DemoIn the demo, players can explore the first 12 levels, unlock 10 comic book pages, and spend coins collected in-game at the merchant to customize their town and purchase new character skins.About the GameThe robotic Guardian has been asleep for a long time, resting in the Temple, and waiting for the Chosen One’s arrival. Now the time has come to wake up, time to fulfill the prophecy and fight by his side. But the Chosen One is nowhere in sight, and nobody speaks a language she can understand. What´s going on? She must find the Chosen One as quickly as possible, as her battery is draining fast and only he has the means to recharge it.Prepare to navigate intricate moving hazards unlike anything you've seen before. Well... maybe you've seen something similar, but we have spent 7 years meticulously crafting a vast collection of moving platforms and deadly lasers. Can you overco…
- Thank you for playing our playtest! ❤️ - 27 August 2026
Thank you for playing our playtest! ❤️❤️❤️Your feedback means a lot to us, and we're working hard to make Elfscape: Ancestors the best game it can be. We’ve been going through your feedback and taking your suggestions to heart.Curious about what we’ve changed based on your feedback? You’ll find out soon! 👀🛠️Stay tuned for more updates!
- Public Playtest Is Now Live! - 6 August 2026
Hello,We would like to announce the launch of the public playtest for the upcoming Slovak indie game Elfscape: Ancestors, which you can join here on Steam:Elfscape: Ancestors is an epic precision platformer featuring expansive levels and RPG elements, supported twice by the Slovak Arts Council.About the PlaytestThe playtest runs until August 23. Its main goal is to collect valuable player feedback—specifically regarding difficulty balance, gameplay flow, and overall player experience. Players have a unique opportunity to shape the final version of the game before its official release.During the playtest, players can explore the first 12 levels, unlock 10 comic book pages, and spend coins collected in-game at the merchant to customize their town and purchase new character skins. About the GameThe robotic Guardian has been asleep for a long time, resting in the Temple, and waiting for the…
- Strong, stubborn, and sleepy - 31 July 2026
Hello!Today, it’s time to meet the other half of our unlikely duo.So, what can we say about Agol?Unlike Jachan, Agol’s heart doesn’t fully belong to Lahmu. It’s not that he rejects devotion — he just tends to be… distracted. Food, sleep, or a passing thought can easily take priority, even in the middle of prayer.Agol is easygoing and loves a good joke, but he’s also impulsive and surprisingly brave. When things go wrong, he doesn’t hesitate – he reacts. He’s strong, quick with weapons, and often the one who acts first and thinks later.At the same time, Agol isn’t careless. He’s curious about the world beyond the city walls and genuinely cares about those around him. He prefers a quiet life, but somehow always ends up in the middle of trouble – and once he does, his stubbornness keeps him going.If you want to see how Agol’s story unfolds (and what happened on that hunting trip with Jacha…
- Quiet, devoted, and in trouble - 23 July 2026
Hello!Today, we’d like to introduce you to one of our two comic protagonists a bit more closely. But don’t worry — we’ll try to do it without giving too much away.So, what can we tell you about Jachan?Well, first of all, he is… quiet. Not just when standing next to Agol — Jachan is simply a shy person by nature. He doesn’t speak much, and when he does, it’s usually carefully considered. But what he lacks in confidence, he makes up for in devotion.Jachan firmly believes that true happiness can only be found in service to the noble Lahmu. Everything he does is guided by this idea. Every step, every decision — all of it, in his mind, has meaning connected to Lahmu’s will.Even fishing. Naturally, Jachan believes others should follow the same path. Especially Agol.He genuinely hopes that, one day, Agol will become more devoted and take things just a little bit more seriously. As you might ex…
- Headhunters - 5 June 2026
Hello!Let’s return to the underground city of Eshara where our comic side-story begins with a small, very relatable moment.Agol wakes up late.The temple bells have already sounded, and the morning prayer is underway. For the Unworthy — the name given to the worshippers of the two-faced god Lahmu — this is part of their everyday life. Agol rushes through the city, half-asleep and trying to catch up with the day.The day continues and the story follows two hunters of the Unworthy, Jachan and Agol. While they share the same role in the city, their personalities are very different. Jachan is focused and devoted, taking his duties and traditions seriously. Agol, on the other hand, is not the most disciplined person. He is more relaxed and driven by curiosity and everyday comforts. This contrast creates both tension and humor as they are sent out together beyond the safety of the city.First fo…
- Balancing the Economy (The Andrej Standard) - 13 April 2026
The game shop is ready to open for business! We’ve spent some time staring at spreadsheets and tweaking numbers, but we’ve finally landed on a pricing structure for skins and items that feels just right. To get the economy balanced, we didn't just throw darts at a board. We put our level designer, Andrej, to work. He’s spent the last few days marathon-running the game on the highest difficulty, hunting down every hidden special coin and collecting every statue head in sight.We wanted the shop to feel rewarding, not like a grind-fest. Here’s how we calculated the "Andrej Standard".Prices are based on what a high-skill player can earn on a Hard run.We added extra breathing room to those prices, so you don't have to be a literal god at the game just to afford a new skin.Prices do not change based on your difficulty setting. Whether you’re playing for the story or the challenge, the costs r…
- Teleporting in practice 101 - 19 February 2026
Did you know that you can teleport between the main city and different levels of the game? How, you may ask?It all starts with collecting the occasional god dog’s statue heads in levels. By assembling the head with the rest of the statue, you gain points in your skill tree. Accumulate enough points, and you get a new bonus power! One of these bonus powers is the ability to teleport between levels. Watch the video below to see how it works in practice: And that’s not all - you also get comics pages with another storyline! All in all, it’s a pretty nice reward for the head collectors.
- Dev pain, no gain - 20 January 2026
Hello!We didn’t plan to start the year with an engine update… but Unity had a security breach, and we had to move our project to a newer Unity version to stay on the safe side. Unfortunately, it came with a “bonus feature”: it broke our physics.Our character was doing a weird thing on platforms: when the platform is moving, the character sometimes sticks to it like it’s covered in glue or starts jittering.It’s one of those bugs that looks funny for about 3 seconds… and then you realize it can ruin platforming experience really fast.You can see the problem in this short video here:After a long period of unsuccessful programming tweaks, we finally found a solution to the problem. We switched to our previous version of Unity, but applied a patch without security breach.
- Smooth as spaghetti - 22 October 2025
Hello! Our latest update in finishing the game is changing the, as we call them, “spaghetti animations”. The narrative of our game is accompanied by these abstract animations. They represent the magical-mechanical processes occurring within the circuits of our main character, the Guardian, as she struggles to regain the Light. At first, these animations were rendered in game in real time. Unfortunately, this proved to be tougher on the computation and the animations have occasionally encountered errors. That is why we have decided to create a video animation to make sure everything will be running without problems.
- Can I see the menu? - 13 September 2025
Hi! You have already seen examples from all the beautiful levels we have prepared for you, you have listened to some of our soundtrack, you have had a glimpse into the bonus comics you can read. It may seem we have it all done - so what is holding us from releasing right now? We need some more time to put it all together. Right now, we are finishing the game menu so it all works without problems, but after that (and some testing) we should be ready to release soon!And how does the menu look right now?
- Smooth as spaghetti - 19 August 2025
Hello! Our latest update in finishing the game is changing the, as we call them, “spaghetti animations”. The narrative of our game is accompanied by these abstract animations. They represent the magical-mechanical processes occurring within the circuits of our main character, the Guardian, as she struggles to regain the Light. At first, these animations were rendered in game in real time. Unfortunately, this proved to be tougher on the computation and the animations have occasionally encountered errors. That is why we have decided to create a video animation to make sure everything will be running without problems.
- Voices and Vibes - 29 June 2025
Hi everyone! In Elfscape: Ancestors, the gameplay is accompanied by narration from the main character, the Guardian. Her monologues are part of the story - she comments on your progress with helpful tips and shares her thoughts about the in-game events.The Guardian is voiced by the talented Eli Nightingale (https://x.com/EliNightVA) , whose performance helps bring the character to life. She can be proud, she can be bossy, but she’s also enthusiastic and passionate - you’ll love her!🔊Sound on! 🔊 What do you think? We’re excited to hear your impressions :)
- Levels with a nice view - 9 May 2025
For today, we have captured some of the especially nice decorations in our levels. We are showing it without the graphical user interface, so you can see the whole picture and all the details, and feel the level ambience. Which one do you find the most interesting?
- Spin that statue! - 7 January 2025
Hi! First of all, we want to wish you a happy 2025 and thank you for following our story through the developer diaries. You are the best! :) To start the new year on a light funny note, look at this bug - it’s an unfortunate rotating of the dog god statue: This is what it was originally supposed to work like… :D And good news, this is the last time we wish you a new year through our developer’s diary! This year, Elfscape: Ancestors will be finally finished and published.
- Tune-Tastic Tracks - 14 December 2024
Our soundtrack for Elfscape: Ancestors represents different music styles, from gentle emotional piano to energetic electronic beats. We’ll show you two tracks from the soundtrack album, just to get a taste. The game music is adaptive and responds to the gameplay. It is created in FL Studio, and implemented into the game with the use of middleware Fmod. Sound on! :) This emotional track is featured at the beginning of the game, in the menu. The battle track can be heard during the boss encounters at the end of the game.
- Keys or buttons - 7 December 2024
Today we’ll take a look at the current work in progress of our programmer - controls mapping. The preferred and recommended way to play Elfscape: Ancestors is using your gamepad controller, as it will provide you with the best and most balanced experience. However for those of you that don’t have or don’t like gamepads, don’t worry! Of course we are adding the option to use your keyboard, and to remap the game controls as you see fit. Let´s look at some screenshots of hard programmer work. However we still need to make a friendlier and more intuitive UI for control remapping. For that, we will be using a free-to-use game control icons such as these:
- Level embellishments - 4 November 2024
Welcome back to our dev diary series on level design. Today, we’re discussing the creation of immersive environments. As shown in the images below, lighting is just the beginning. We’re also adding various decorations to make each level unique. From plants and windows to runes and artifacts, these embellishments contribute to the overall scene. Additional lights are also being added to enhance the ambiance. These elements not only improve the appearance of the levels but also enrich the gaming experience. Purple environment - basic Purple environment - upgraded Green environment - basic Green environment - upgraded Turquoise environment - basic Turquoise environment - upgraded
- Light 'em up! - 14 September 2024
The current focus in finishing our game is level lighting 💡We have many glowing objects, some are moving, some are static. Rendering in-game lights can be demanding on the computer, so we are compromising between the volume of lights and computer performance. We aim to optimize the lighting in order to spare resources, with the use of the Lights 2D package from Unity. Without lights: With lights: Without lights: With lights: Without lights: With lights:
- Buy a harp today - 15 August 2024
Hi! We have been working on the interface of our merchant´s shop. You can purchase such upgrades as a harpist to play soothing music in the background, a school for the children, a kiln for pottery, ceramics and many more. some of the upgrades can be seen in the pictures below.
