The Elision Effect

The last person finds themselves in an empty office. Not knowing what made everyone abandon these liminal spaces, they look for an exit.

The Elision Effect is a short surreal puzzle game.

You might be the last person in this building. Empty offices and locked doors. You try to keep moving.

The place seems off, like it shouldn’t exist. It smells of old coffee stains, the fluorescent lights buzz, and corporate jazz plays on crappy speakers.

You long for fresh air.
An exit must be near.

Featured in the Indiepocalypse #44, a curated monthly anthology of indie games.

Trailer

The Elision Effect cover art with the logo in the center.

credits

The Elision Effect has been developed by Theia Bähr.

Full credits

The Elision Effect is based on a game jam entry for Map Labs #9 - Back on Track, called (in)stabilitea. Most of the game was created by Theia with the exception of the following:

SOUND
various guitar ambience - AkAvery
hidden song - Holly L.
various CC0 sfx from freesound.org
Quiet museum courtyard by shaunoboyle
Krotos footstep sfx library

TEXTURES
Victory in a cup poster - AkAvery
Map Labs Logo - C. Weyland
from unsplash:
Mug 1 - sincerelymedia
Mug 2 - estudiobloom
Clouds 1 - jrmswny
Clouds 2 - alexmachado
Clouds 3 - purejulia
Clouds 4 - davidjournal
Plant 2 - agzed
Mirror Grunge - rafalkaron
various from textures.com
Soda can based on design by:
BEPIS - Allison Ghost
Medium Haze - Ishtide
Dr. Mapper - Dana Cief

ENGINE
The Elision Effect uses Unreal(R) Engine. Unreal(R) is a trademark or registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Unreal(R) Engine, Copyright 1998 - 2024, Epic Games, Inc. All rights reserved.

OTHER
Nano template - pfist
Dithering - jazzmickle
Outline - heavily based on evansbohls tutorial

THANKS TO
Kim Riswick - iibo.games
Avery for the guitar music and poster
Lily and mare for helping me with documentation
Luna Vivian Zaremba and Ari Roxaloxa from Impromptu Games Discord for helping me with some implementations
Alice, ZetaHorzion, and Wii2 for Linux playtesting

Thanks to Julia and Gregor.

Made for the Indiepocalypse Zine #44. Thanks to Andrew.

In loving memory of Holly L.
You will be missed, always,
and remembered dearly.

Reviews
"The atmosphere is handled excellently"
— Sammy, Sector.sk
"you should not sleep on this"
— Moshe Linke, game developer
"short little game probably best described as a 'trip'"
— Idolon, game developer
"a unique atmosphere, it is calming but also scary"
— Minedragon176, backloggd

Screenshots

A potted plant in a liminal office, an oldschool computer on a desk, a bright magenta light and window in the back in front of some more office tables and a couch. A large blue conference room with a projector casting a presentation onto the wall. A gloomy cold office with a walls and a blue vending machine. You can see four combined L-shaped office tables with red chairs in front and two windows behind. A computer screen glows in blue. A moody bathroom with a reflection that looks off, like in a dream. One open stall shows an urinal. A mangenta office in surreal blue lighting with a small potted plant sitting on the secretary's office chair. A drawer and some stacked chairs in the background. A small room with a skylight ceiling window that looks like a fake sky. A ladder leads up into the surreal sky. Dreamcore style.
🚪 Steam Page press kit Included in the Indiepocalypse reset view