The core
Authored · curated by us
Tessara and the keeper’s story: the world we hand-craft and keep coherent. This is the great game, and it stays curated.
Open source
A world built in the open,
and meant to be added to
Elua is open source. The core game is authored and kept by us — but the world doesn’t stop at its edges. User-created assets, subworlds, annex arcs and quests, even new mechanics, can all be folded into our open world.
This is early. The repository, the tools, and the process are all still taking shape — what follows is the shape we’re building toward.
Why open
An authored heart, an open world around it
The main game — Tessara, the keeper’s story, the world you set right — is hand-crafted, and we keep it that way. It’s the part we author with care, so it holds together.
But a single team can only build so much world. Everything that grows around that authored heart can be made by the people who play: places to explore, stories to tell, even new ways to play.
One world, two halves
The part we author, and the part we build together
The open world
Open · built together
Everything growing around the core — assets, subworlds, side-arcs, quests, even new mechanics — made by people like you and woven into the same living world for anyone to reach.
How contributions work
Build something, and we’ll weave it in
The idea is simple: what you make can become part of the world everyone plays in.
- 1
You build something
An asset, a subworld, a side-arc, a quest, a puzzle — even a new mechanic. Anything that belongs in the world.
- 2
You share it with us
Open it up and send it our way. It’s open source, so working in the open is the natural way to do it.
- 3
The good ones get woven in
What fits the world and holds together becomes part of Elua — out where everyone can find it and explore it.
We’re keeping this light for now — we’re not there yet. The concrete tools and review process will firm up as the core game does, and we’d rather figure them out in the open, with you.
Under the hood
For the engine-curious
C++17 A from-scratch engine — no off-the-shelf 3D engine could hold a fourth coordinate in its bones.
Rotor4D Rotation handled with geometric algebra — planes, not axes, so all six rotation planes compose cleanly in 4D.
OpenGL pipeline A real-time 4D → 3D → 2D projection renderer with depth cues, occlusion, and a tunable look.
VR-ready An optional OpenXR path — four dimensions read even better with stereo depth and your own head as the camera.
Headless tools A CLI for reasoning about 4D scenes and generating geometry, so the math can be tested without a window.
Open by default Built to be read, run, and extended — the same systems we build the world with are the ones we mean to open up.
Join us in the adventure
Elua is an open source project, maintained and fixed by a few motivated menders. It’s early, and that’s the best time to arrive. Watch the source, follow along, and say hello — feel free to contact us, or join us in the adventure.