Elsaverse

The Elsaverse is an adult fictional universe created by Tora Productions, a team formed by Tlaero, an American writer, and Mortze, a Portuguese graphical artist. It is named after Elsa, the main love interest in the first title set in this universe, Dreaming with Elsa, released in July 2015. The Elsaverse is still in development; as of January 2022, 6 interactive visual novels and 12 non-interactive short stories have been published. All the Elsaverse content is available for free on Tora Production's Patreon page.

Titles
As of January, 2022, the Elsaverse consists of the following titles: Although each visual novel and story can be played and enjoyed as a standalone title, it's highly recommendable to play and read the full Elsaverse in the order listed above to get the whole picture and all its little details. All games and stories originally published in HTML format (from Dreaming with Elsa to Won: Darkness Within) were officially ported to Ren'Py in 2021 and released in a bundle called Elsaverse Omnibus Vol.1, publicly released on August 5, 2021.

Characters
List of characters

Themes and narratives
Most of the stories told in the Elsaverse take place in Sangrive, a fictional city most likely located in the United States (although the actual country is never mentioned), and in a world similar to the real present; the plots, however, incorporate fantasy elements like superpowers and parallel worlds. The main characters appear in different games and stories, sharing the limelight and weaving a web that allows the reader/player to observe the same events from different points of view, which enhances the understanding of those events and makes the whole universe, as well as the characters themselves, gain depth.

From a narrative point of view, characters' development and emotional nuances are considered some of the saga's main strengths that make the Elsaverse to stand out from other indie video games for adults. Usually, the main characters deal with some internal problem while facing an external threat, and to overcome these difficulties and grow they must rely on their partners and friends; that way, human relationships end up taking centre stage. This human perspective is reinforced by the fact that explicit sexual content is subordinated to the narrative logic in a context of consensual and respectful affective relationships between full grown adults. No scatological fetishes are depicted.

Visual novels
In each interactive visual novel set in the Elsaverse, the player takes the role of a different male character who, except in Darkness Falls, tries to initiate, resume or strengthen a love relationship with a non-playable female character. It can be argued that these female NPC's are the actual main characters in each game, while the player's PC adopts a supporting role, sometimes acting as plot catalyst. Except for small interludes, the action is narrated in first person from the player's point of view; however, due to the heavy focus on the development of the plot and characters' personalities, the player's agency is limited. Each title offers slightly different gameplay features, but mostly based on conversational options that tend to reward mature and understanding behaviors, and penalize selfish choices or actions that go against the limits set by women.

Short stories
Elsaverse's short stories offer greater narrative diversity and complexity and contribute greatly to the expansion of the fictional universe. Usually written in third person, they focus on one or more characters, shifting from one to another and showing events from their respective point of view, expanding some events and other details seen in the interactive visual novels, and explaining what was actually going on in those situations.

Visuals
Visuals are on par with the narrative. The whole Elsaverse is rendered on 3D using tools like Daz3D, Blender, IRay and Photoshop, and although the older titles are obviously a bit dated if we judge them with current day standards, the human-looking realism in character's physical features, their uniqueness and facial expressiveness are the most outstanding aspects of the art, together with the care for the lighting and the almost cinematographic composition of the images. In addition, the image compression ratio is remarkable, as it allows complete games to occupy a very small storage space compared to other similar games, without any appreciable quality loss on screen.

The first titles, created with 'Adventure Creator', a software designed by Tlaero herself, were originally released in HTML format. However, all games and stories published in that format (from Dreaming with Elsa to Won: Darkness Within) were officially ported to Ren'Py in 2021 and released in a bundle named Elsaverse Omnibus Vol.1, publicly released on August 5, 2021. Starting with Elsa's Nightmares (2019-2020), visual novels and short stories are already made with Ren'Py engine. None of the titles published so far have a soundtrack or sound effects of any kind.