Development
Aether was created by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, McMillen is a member of independent development studio Cryptic Sea and co-creator of the award winning Gish. Glaiel runs his own independent studio, Glaiel Games, and develops Flash games for game and animation website Newgrounds. The game's graphics and story were created by McMillen, while Glaiel wrote the game's music and code. The game was developed in 14 days; McMillen found he could "ride off" Glaiel's inspiration and allowed the project to be completed quickly. "People being creative and taking risks with their work always is inspiring to me, honesty in art is also very inspiring," he stated.
McMillen's childhood experiences and fears were used for the game's themes of loneliness, nervousness, and fear of abandonment or rejection. The boy's journeys through space represent inward-thinking and imagination, planets represent fears and the inhabitants personify McMillen's childhood "inner demons". He was initially unsure as to whether or not he wished to release Aether, since it was based on personal experiences and made him feel vulnerable. Glaiel created the game's planets and gameplay, designing the layout of the planets to convey the emotions involved in the game, but he did not know which planets would ultimately be used to relate to each emotion. He felt that the game's sense of emotion and mood was improved because development was not thoroughly planned from the outset. Both developers expressed a wish to port the game to the WiiWare service on the Wii video game console. Aether was released as part of McMillen's game and comic compilation CD This is a Cry For Help in early November 2008.
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