The Legend of Edgar

About the game

Edgar wakes up to an empty house. His father went out the night before, said he would be back in a few hours, and never came home. The search leads Edgar out of the village and into a swamp cave, and from there down into a long run of caves, mines, ruins and strange machines, each with its own creatures and, at the end of most areas, a boss to get past.

It plays like a classic platform adventure with a world you slowly open up. You start with little more than the ability to run and jump, and every area gives you something new: a weapon, a shield, a tool, a key. Items you pick up earlier often turn out to be the answer to a door or a gap you could not cross hours ago, so the map keeps asking you to come back. There are puzzles built from levers, lifts, pressure plates and things you can push or pull, a health system with hearts and potions, and a medals screen for the optional challenges.

The Legend of Edgar was written by Richard Sweeney of Parallel Realities, with additional programming by Stephen Sweeney, and first released in 2009. It has been kept up to date ever since; this page runs version 1.38. The code and the artwork are free software under the GPL, and the music and many of the sounds come from other artists who shared them under Creative Commons licences, credited below.

Playing it here

The game is compiled from its source code to run in your browser, and the first start downloads about 39 MB (the music was recompressed to keep it that size; the game itself is unchanged). Your saved games and settings are stored in this browser: clearing this site's data deletes them. This version is English only, and the fullscreen option inside the game does nothing: use the fullscreen button of the page instead.

Click the game once so it receives the keyboard. The first scene is a short story scene, and its dialog lines advance with C.

Controls

Getting started

Talk to everyone. Characters tell you where to go next, and some of them only help once you bring them something. C also reads signs and pulls levers.

Pull as well as push. To move a block that stands in your way, walk against it and hold C: Edgar takes hold and drags it back with him.

Save often. Save points record your progress, and the menu's Restart Checkpoint brings you back to the last one if a fight goes badly.

Tips

Use the shield. Blocking with Left Alt turns many attacks into nothing, so against a boss it is often better to wait for the opening than to keep swinging.

Read the inventory. Z shows what Edgar carries; selecting a potion instead of using it lets you ready it for the moment you need it.

Come back later. A gap or a locked door you cannot pass now is usually waiting for something from further on.

Credits

Programming and graphics by Richard Sweeney, additional programming by Stephen Sweeney. Music, each track used under the licence its author chose: Mystical Caverns by MichaelTheCrow (CC BY 3.0); Battle in the Winter, A Winter Tale by Johan Brodd (CC BY 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0); Lazy Day by FoxSynergy (CC BY 3.0); Danza del Bosque by xXUnderTowerXx (CC BY-SA 3.0); A Tricky Puzzle Loop by Pant0don (CC BY-SA 3.0); Ruinous Laments by Eliot Corley (CC BY-SA 3.0); Hope by Szymon Matuszewski (CC BY 3.0); Battle Theme by Zehydra (CC BY 3.0); Undead Rising by Matthew Pablo (CC BY-SA 3.0); Mushrooms by avgvst (CC BY 3.0); Rat Sewer by HaelDB (CC BY 3.0); Beauty of Chaos by grindhold (CC BY-SA 3.0); Red Curtain by HorrorPen (CC BY 3.0); Fight Them Until We Can't by Zander Noriega (CC BY 3.0); and, all by Alexandr Zhelanov (CC BY 3.0), Steeps of Destiny, Theme Menu, So, let see, what you can, Without, Decision, Heroic Minority, Mystical Theme, Medicine and Heroes Theme. The tracks were recompressed for this site, which counts as an adaptation: the CC BY-SA ones stay under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sound effects from Freesound and OpenGameArt, credited to: AntumDeluge, artisticdude, Augmentality (Brandon Morris), aust_paul, BartK., Benboncan, Blender Foundation, CapsLok, cfork, CGEffex, CJ4096, cmusounddesign, CosmicD, CosmicEmbers, dave.des, davidou, Department64, DJ Chronos, dklon, dobroide, ecfike, edbles, Erdie, Flasher21, freefire66, FreqMan, GagaMan, gcmax, gelo_papas, Gniffelbaf, Halleck, hazure, HerbertBoland, Hoscalegeek, hypocore, IEDlabs, ignotus, Independent.nu, j1987, Jamius, jiserte, jobro, joedeshon, JoelAudio, jonccox, juskiddink, JWMalahy, Kenney, klankbeeld, koops, kyles, LG, lmbubec, MAJ061785, memexikon, metamorphmuses, Michael Brigida and students, Michel Baradari, NenadSimic, NoiseCollector, Oddworld, Ogrebane, plagasul, Planet-Leader, plingativator, prozaciswack, qubodup, romulofs, sandyrb, sarge4267, schademans, ScottFerguson1, Sea Fury, Sergenious, shaynecantly, Slave2theLight, smcameron, smidoid, Snoman, spenceomatic, Tails1942, THE_bizniss, ThompsonMan, timgormly, v0idation, westernsynthetics and Wolfsinger (CC BY 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 or CC0, entry by entry in the licence file). Font: DejaVu Sans.