Kickstarter, a website in which people submit their inventions to try and gain donations to make their item, has many ideas and projects pass through their website. Former Bob Jones students Falco Girgis and Tyler Rodgers have reached their $150,000 goal to make the game of their, and many other gamers, dreams.

In order to devote their entire energies to the project, these alumni quit their day jobs at Adtran and Hudson Alpha and lived off their credit cards while their Kickstarter took off.  “All the PR stuff promoting the site was a full time job,” stated Girgis, in a guest speaker visit.

Elysian Shadows is described on their Kickstarter page as “an indie 2D RPG being developed for Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, Ouya, and even the Sega Dreamcast,” and it is exactly that. Inspired by the RPG’s of the 16-bit era such as Final Fantasy 3, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger, Elysian Shadows promises to “redefine the oldschool 16-bit RPG by fusing pixel art with 3D environments, dynamic lighting, shadows, physics and positional audio.”

By doing just that, they have raised a total of $185,322 in a timespan of one month; however, the game has been in development for much longer than that. The game started as a side project during Falco’s and Tyler’s senior year here at Bob Jones. They also started a YouTube series titled Adventure’s in Game Development showing the behind-the-scenes process on Elysian Shadows, starting from its infant stage.

Many people may be wondering what the appeal of Elysian Shadows is for many gamers. A large portion of the interest is in the story. The story is about “a world caught in constant conflict between magic and technology,” Another major draw in for gamers is that it is another indie game for the Sega Dreamcast. The Sega Dreamcast has gotten many independent games, but Elysian Shadows is the first RPG to grace the Dreamcast since Phantasy Star Online 2.2, which was released in 2002!

While Elysian Shadows is not yet released, the planned release date is to be in the winter of 2015. You can still purchase a copy for any of the platforms the game are planned to be released on here: http://elysianshadows.com/paypal/