The Aetherlight

The Aetherlight: Chronicles of the Resistance is an online adventure game created by Scarlet City Studios as an evolution of the work of the Postal Sunday School Movement, a charitable New Zealand organisation who commissioned the project. Launched in 2016 after several years of development, it presents the story of the Bible in an episodic allegory aimed at preteens but designed for families to engage with.

Gameplay

The Aetherlight is a multiplayer point-and-click adventure with puzzles, crafting and role-playing elements. The player CREATES an avatar to complete quests, craft objects and battle robotic automatons, following the story of the Resistance in the fictional steampunk world of Aethasia.

Gameplay features turn-based battles occurring in a separate environment. Battle, crafting and costuming also distinguish the game from other traditional role-playing games.

Each episode of the game follows a biblical story, beginning with the story of Abraham. Players are not required to know the story, and instead are encouraged to discover it as they play through the allegorical parallel. A character known as The Postman delivers in game messages that hint at the biblical source material, with clues AbOUT the gameplay and allegory.

Quests, battles and activities in The Aetherlight are used to represent key parts of the biblical stories, allowing players to participate in the events.

Plot

Episode 1: The Birth of the Resistance

The player arrives in Aethasia in a steampunk teleporter called the Aetherstep, to be greeted by Lukas, an apparently mad scientist. He is working on plans from the mysterious Scarlet Man to restart the Great Engine, a huge steampunk-style fan embedded in the cliff.

Lukas explains that Aethasia was formed by the Great Engineer, but the people rebelled, choosing instead to follow Lucky, the Usurper. He offered them Fog, a power source that would give them absolute independence. With this choice the Great Engines shut down and the Fog, a thick green MiST flooded the land and began to corrupt everything, driving the people apart. Lukas recognises that the player May Be part of the Scarlet Man's plans to reverse the damage, and sets about helping them. He asks them to help him with his equipment, and as they are learning to craft and interact with the world, an airship passes overhead, crashing just beyond the beach. Lukas sends the player to see if he can help, and aids them battling an Automaton that blocks the way.

Arriving at the crash site the player meets two NPC’s called Alexander and Selina. They have been invited by the Scarlet Man to the town of No Man’s Landing to begin ‘the Resistance,’ an organisation committed to restoring Aethasia to the Great Engineer’s dream. The Player is asked to join them and embarks on a series of quests to help establish the Resistance in the town.

With the Resistance established and a core team recruited, the Player rediscovers Aether, the power source of the Great Engineer. Using this lost technology they restart the Great Engine in No Man’s Landing and begin pushing back the fog. With this underway, the Player is asked to participate in a mission to cripple the fog-mines on The Isle, but once there they must also rescue Lloyd, Alexander’s nephew who was working in the mine. On their return, Selina asks them to follow Alexander up the Old Mount, where he has agreed to hand the urchin boy Irving, his new apprentice, over to the Usurper.

Arriving just in time, the Player is nearly overwhelmed by the Usurper's automatons when the Scarlet Man arrives and defeats them. The Usurper's airship is captured for the Resistance and Alexander given the lead to continue the work of restoring Aethasia.

Episode 2: The Resistance Takes Flight

The player goes to Julian and Edmund's underground racing pits and to the Flying L, where an exiled Julian meets Larry, a trickster who gives Julian a taste of his own deceitful medicine. Working with the fractious sisters Rose and Lily, Julian returns to racing to make his escape. Under the Scarlet Man's guidance he finally reconciles with his brother and finds new purpose with the Resistance.

Episode 3: The Resistance Melts Down

The player finds Jefferson a brilliant scientist committed to reversing the disastrous melting that is affecting all Aethasia. Imprisoned in Baron Fairrow's Grease Pits, Jefferson proves his abilities and earns his release with help from the Player, who has been prepared by the Scarlet Man. Out in the Snowmoors, the Player assists Jefferson in reconnecting with the Resistance and repowering the next Great Engine to restore the environment.

Development

The Aetherlight: Chronicles of the Resistance was developed out of the Postal Sunday School Movement (PSSM Bible Discovery Trust), an organisation established by Robert Laidlaw and James Rowan in 1938 in New Zealand.

PSSM was founded on the idea of the mail order catalogue, something that Laidlaw had successfully used to gather customers in the rural areas of New Zealand for his company Farmers Trading Company. Laidlaw used this mail order catalogue system to send 'Sunday school' lessons to children in these areas, creating the Postal Sunday School Movement. This continued via post until 2011 when it was transferred to an email based system. At its peak, there were 9,000 subscribers in New Zealand and another 3,000 overseas. Countries served include Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Samoa.

PSSM started a game studio called 2ndcity Studios in 2012 with a commitment to continue PSSM's vision in the 21st century through the means of a game. The Aetherlight story was conceived by some of 2ndcity Studios' first employees, Tim Cleary, Brook Warner, Carl Becker and Al Ronberg – who began researching how to make a bible-based video game that would capture the imaginations of young people.

In 2015 the studio was renamed as Scarlet City Studios and relocated to larger premises. The team added artists, developers and designers as the project grew and in May 2015 the first episode "The Birth of The Resistance" was released as a closed Beta for player testing. In November 2015 the American Bible Society announced its formal partnership with Scarlet City, citing The Aetherlight as "a top-notch gaming environment that will provide not only an entertaining experience but also content that reveals the redemptive story found within the pages of Scripture."

In January 2016 The Aetherlight was released as "Founder's Access" in an early-access model, and Episode 1: The Birth of The Resistance became fully available in May 2016. In August Scarlet City released Episode 2: The Resistance Takes Flight, coinciding with the release of The Aetherlight Companion Bible from Tyndale House Publishing, a full New Living translation of the Bible that connects with the story and world of the game.

In November 2016, Episode 3: The Resistance Melts Down was released, and since then several expansions have been added to the game extending gameplay and the game world.