Ari Buktu and the Anytime Elevator Interview – Gameplay, Inspirations, Development Update & More

Ari Buktu and the Anytime Elevator is an upcoming unique 2.5D puzzle platform title that will probably immediately evoke some Back to the Future vibes. In this game narrative, we follow a kid and a professor who embark on a grand adventure. Using a makeshift time-traveling elevator, the duo sets out to recover a magical tiara. 

This looks to be quite a charming game, and we had to learn a little more about what we could expect. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to talk with the founder of Adventure Works, the studio working on this game. During our conversation with Jeffrey Ashbrook, we learned not only about this debut video game project but also his unique journey to game development after working at Disney Imagineering. 

Gameranx: So, right out of the gate, the recent reveal trailer for Ari Buktu and the Anytime Elevator completely gives me Back to the Future vibes in the best of ways. Can you tell me a bit more about the storyline?

Jeffrey: Absolutely! The game follows Ari Buktu, a high school senior who’s struggling in physics. He needs extra credit to pass, but his professor, Lionel Raventhorpe, is this financially struggling, aloof man who couldn’t care less about Ari’s grades. What Ari doesn’t know is that the professor has just finished building a time-traveling elevator and, in a wild plan to impress the school’s history teacher, Dolores Dabbledots, who he’s head over heels in love with, plans to use it to steal steal a mystical artifact from the past to try to impress her.

When Ari shows up, suddenly, he’s whisked away on this crazy journey through time and space to an assortment of exotic locations like ancient Egypt, pirate-filled seas, and the treacherous Italian Dolomites. Along the way, the pair have to face off against some tough adversaries, including a power-hungry tomb raider named Giovanni Battista Belzoni, who’s actually based on a real historical character!

Ari and the professor’s journey is all about this race through time where the past and future are constantly colliding. We really wanted to create a sense of adventure and discovery but at its core, it’s a classic coming-of-age story wrapped in a time-travel adventure.

Gameranx: We can see some inspirations from various film franchises for the storyline. What about some of the inspirations you tapped into for the gameplay?

Jeffrey: Ari is the game I’ve always wanted to make. I wanted the whole experience to feel like a nod to the old classic adventure films where you’re just hanging out with the characters and going alongside them on these feel-good experiences. Having said that, from a gameplay perspective, we were also hugely inspired by Playdead’s INSIDE and how artfully that game manages to convey its story without the need for much combat or collectathon mechanics. After finishing it, I wondered if there was a market for players who wanted an experience similar to that, gameplay-wise, but that also felt just like you were playing a blockbuster film: a feel-good cinematic adventure that spanned across time. Uncharted 2 is also a huge inspiration for me. I love the adventurous spirit of games like that and I wanted to bring something of my own to the market that had one foot in the past and one foot in the future. A simple game that still delivered that sense of discovery and visceral emotion. 

Unlike Uncharted though, one of the big things I wanted to incorporate in our game was our characters as underdog problem solvers that couldn’t overpower their quest with bravado or muscle. Instead, they had to use their skill and intellect to succeed.

Gameranx: So your personal journey getting to game development is pretty unique. While studying game design in school, you took on a position afterward in Disney Imagineering. Was there always an interest in eventually returning to game design?

Jeffrey: Yes, like I was saying before, this is a game I just felt compelled to make. Designing theme park attractions really shaped my perspective on many of the design decisions in this game. Ambience, building places, and engineering the general vibe of something is a critical part of theme park design and we worked extra hard to incorporate those aspects as design philosophies in our game. We also have a really beautiful score that plays throughout the adventure and we couple it with the back-and-forth between Ari and the Professor to really build an experience that exudes “vibe”, something our playtesters really latched onto in an early prototype we showed them.

Gameranx: Now that you’re back into game design, would this be your first project to hit the marketplace?

Jeffrey: Yes, although we’ve developed and built very large projects in the theme park world, this will be our first game.

Gameranx: When did development begin with Ari Buktu and the Anytime Elevator?

Jeffrey: We’d been prototyping a game we were calling “Far Away” and showing our work on Instagram, and it just kind of blew up. Within a few months, major companies were reaching out to us but the scope of the game was much too large and more importantly to me, the tone wasn’t quite right. Since that game didn’t quite match what I had in mind (a kind of feel-good indie adventure) I decided to move on and went back to square one.

I’d started working with Richard Lemarchand, formerly of Naughty Dog and currently at my alma mater, the University of Southern California, to try and figure out how I could turn a simple platformer into a blockbuster-like experience. We spent a long time just brainstorming and trying to figure out how to make it happen. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I was still struggling to find the right mixture for the game and had now spent so much time and life trying to figure it out that I needed a break, so I took a vacation to Egypt in 2022 and while I was there, the entire game came to me while I was standing in one of the ancient temples. I saw the name “Belzoni” hand-carved, like an ancient graffiti signature, into the wall and William Saturno, an archaeologist I was traveling with, began to tell me the story of the tomb raider, Giovanni Batista Belzoni. I started to imagine Ari and Professor Raventhorpe going up against him on a bit of a fool’s errand, and, in turn, a coming-of-age story about friendship started to formulate.

That trip led to the first prototype of Ari Buktu and the Anytime Elevator (formerly called Anytime Inc.) which we shared with our followers on Instagram and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

Gameranx: As far as I’m aware, we don’t have a release date yet, but could you update us on where you’re at with the development process?

Jeffrey: Yes, we don’t have a definitive launch date to share just yet but it won’t be too far off. As far as development goes, all of the levels in the game are complete and we’re now in the polishing and bug fixing-phase and are planning potential ports for other platforms if Steam goes well. 

Gameranx: What about platforms? This game is coming to PC, but is there any chance we’ll also see a release for consoles?

Jeffrey: Yes, hopefully! We get lots of requests for it to be on Switch and we’d love to do that but can’t confirm anything just yet. Most players either ask for it on the Switch or on PS5 and our ultimate goal would be to release it on as many platforms as possible a few months after releasing it on Steam.

Gameranx: Where can players follow Adventure Works to learn more about Ari Buktu and the Anytime Elevator?

Jeffrey: If you play games on Steam, you can wishlist the game there and receive updates as we progress, or you can follow us on Instagram and on X.

While the release for the upcoming Ari Buktu and the Anytime Elevator has yet to be announced, the wait should hopefully be well worth it. Fortunately, it does look like the team is not too far off from unveiling when we’ll be able to get our hands on the title. However, when the game does launch, it’s currently only slated to be available on the PC platform. We’ll have to wait and see if console platforms are unveiled shortly after its initial debut into the marketplace!