Ethereal @ IGN's Indie Open House image - ProjectEthereal

Ethereal is a medieval action game that started as graduate school project at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center. As fans of the medieval era and the game Counter Strike, we wondered if we could combine the two. In pre-production, we joined up with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and trained in live medieval combat reenactments with their members. Once deemed battle-worthy, we attended Pennsic, an annual "war" event where 12,000 attendees participate in large-scale melee battles, tournaments, performances, and other medieval events. For Pennsic, we constructed a shield camera to help us capture the "feel" of the combat. We've tried to translate that feeling into our game. Most of us left our former lives to attend school and pursue dreams of game development. We started this as students, and so we want to make our game free to college students. We hope you're entertained by the culmination of a very long journey.