Hi everyone, my name is Jonathan Hawkins and I'm the Founder of White Elk and Creative Director of Eclipse: Edge of Light. Already presented as a PSR VR demo at PlayStation Experience 2015, the team at White Elk grew to deliver the game fully as a magical three-hour magical adventure through a strange and unknown world.
Eclipse is the first human test game set on a virtual planet with a dark past. Coming to a crash, you wake up and find yourself in a dreamy place, full of the remains of a failed civilization. It is a world full of discovery and wonder but full of misery and mystery.
The game has many game mechanics that create fun sci-fi explorations – rolling through huge holes, discovering holographic memories, scanning ancient ruins and throwing magical art to solve a puzzle.
First released on Daydream in 2017, it went on to receive numerous names and win three VR games of the year awards. We are now very excited to finally bring the game back to PlayStation as the title of PS4 and PSR has updated graphics.
Prior to founding White Elk, I worked at Son Santa Monica and started as a local student and left as Leader Level Leader. Over the years, I helped create the God of War I, II & III and the amazing team I loved working with. It has always been my dream to bring the team together, so that we can continue to build new players' games.
With the original Eclipse demo, I started to achieve that dream. Hitting my best friend and colleague Cecil Kim for this awkward idea about the game, he fell in love. Cecil was the Visual Development Director on God of War, and I enjoyed working with him as a visual artist. I knew they could help me see the vision of the world, with its vast scale and beautiful landscapes. He directed the demo and then went on to build a complete game with his talented team at Security Studios.
In God of War 1, I helped the performance of the game's sound and music. There I learned that half the game experience is noisy. So, I reached out to another friend and colleague Mario Lavin who was the Lead Designer of the God of War: Ascension. With his help, we brought the world to life, with detailed sound compositions and the introduction of 3D sound effects that make a huge impact on any game, but especially VR. His sound design helped create an eye-catching atmosphere throughout the game.
Even before that there was a tone that I felt was filmed in the PSX demo. A feeling of eerie unknown, a sense of despair but of beauty. This feeling was initially inspired by the beautiful track “How We Walk in Forlandia”By the late composer, Johann Johansson. I have collaborated with composer Andrew Prahlow on music as we are both big fans of Johansson's music and especially the Fordia album. When the play was released in 2017, we both had the opportunity to see Johnson play a concert on the day of the original release. It's funny how things work. Andrew also recorded the music for our second game that Covert went on to record the lead music for the Outer Wilds Award, released last year on PS4.
The final piece of team-building technology is technology. So, I found another God of War alumni, Matt Arrington. He helped shape the original God of War code from scratch and brought his amazing talents to a single Eclipse program, by adding new features and expanding the game's design pillars. We have been working for months to get the feel of the Artifact cast and many of its equipment is perfect. Without his help, I would continue to code the game today.
The Eclipse build process was long, challenging and fraught with many obstacles. However, we persevered together. It would not have been possible without our fantastic team, partners, and others who have worked so hard to bring life. We are so happy that after all this time, Eclipse is back on PlayStation and many players will have the opportunity to experience the magic of this world that has helped us all to build.
