Elsewhere Electric

Elsewhere Electric
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Games by Stitch
Publisher	Games by Stitch (self-published)
Platform	Meta Horizon OS, SteamVR
Device	Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Valve Index
Operating System	Meta Horizon OS, Windows; companion app on Android and iOS
Type	Game
Genre	Puzzle, Adventure
Game Mode	Co-op, Multiplayer
Release Date	July 23, 2025
Price	US$24.99 (VR game); companion app free
App Store	Meta Horizon Store, Steam
Website	https://elsewhereelectric.com/

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Elsewhere Electric is an asymmetric two-player co-op puzzle game developed and self-published by Games by Stitch, a studio in Toronto, Canada. One player wears a virtual reality headset and explores a mysterious facility as the "Installer", while the second player uses a free smartphone app as the "Operator", who stays in a van and relays information. The VR game was released on Meta Quest headsets and on Steam for PC VR on 23 July 2025, priced at US$24.99; the companion app is available on Android and iOS.

The game is built around communication: the two players see different information and must describe symbols and rooms to each other to open doors and power machines. The game has no built-in voice chat, so players either share a room or talk through an outside service. UploadVR gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it a "compelling but challenging mystery" while criticizing its minimal onboarding, missing voice chat and visual quality on Meta Quest 3.

Reviewed 7 October 2026. Developer, release dates, prices, platforms, Steam requirements and languages, iOS app date, gameplay details and all review quotes checked against the studio site, press kit, Steam, App Store, Meta store, UploadVR, Android Central, MIXED, Room Escape Artist and Metacritic. About review dates.

Gameplay

According to the studio, the two players are a team sent by the executives of the Elsewhere Electric company to get the company's facility back online. The Operator stays back in the van and relays information to the Installer, who makes their way through the facility in VR. The press kit describes the setup as a "mission/heist classic team up" in which "one player goes in, one player stays in the van", with each player having different viewpoints and tools. The iOS app description states that only the Operator can see the whole facility grid at once and can manipulate the facility from a command hub.

The VR player carries a resource called juice, which powers the facility's machines. Energy is collected and transferred through the finger of the player's glove, which is placed into power sockets. In Android Central's description, each session starts in a desert outside the facility, where the mobile player opens the van door so the VR player can fill the glove, and then "hacks" the elevator that takes the VR player underground. Running out of juice forces the mobile player to bring the VR player back to the surface to refill at the van; UploadVR reported that floor progress is kept, but machines that were powered lose their energy.

Many puzzles involve symbols. The VR player sees a symbol at a station and describes it, and the mobile player picks the matching symbol from several pages in the app. UploadVR reported that the symbols that appear are randomized in each playthrough and that room layouts change between playthroughs. Once the mobile player enters the correct symbols, they can open doors, move security cameras or turn on lights. Using the surveillance camera drains the floor's juice. Data drives found on some floors unlock new abilities for the mobile player, such as keeping doors open. The studio's feature list includes new abilities to reconfigure the maze and a ciphered language to decode, and its description also mentions invisible creatures in the facility.

Small invisible creatures can latch onto the VR player's arm to steal juice and can also target machines that hold it. The VR player can shake them off, and the mobile player can detect whether hostile entities are in a room but cannot pinpoint them. VR movement is by teleportation only, with an optional "blink" transition; there is no stick-based artificial locomotion. UploadVR's preview estimated about 10 hours of play per run.

Development

Games by Stitch is the indie studio division of Stitch Media, a Toronto interactive production company; the press kit says Games by Stitch has been operating since 2007. Its earlier VR games include the escape room game Flow Weaver and the cosmic horror game Broken Spectre. The studio described Elsewhere Electric as a "spooky roguelike Metroidvania". The press kit lists the game as self-published, with the tagline "A puzzle game powered by two".

The game was made with support from the Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates and the Government of Canada, and the studio's page also credits youth employment funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). UploadVR first covered the game on 24 January 2025, and the first official trailer was shown during the Future Games Show on 20 March 2025. MIXED compared the concept to the 2018 VR game Covert, in which one player in VR and one on a smartphone or tablet worked together. The release date was announced with a new trailer in the UploadVR Summer Showcase, which UploadVR reported on 11 July 2025.

Release

The companion app is published on the App Store by Stitch Media; Apple lists its release date as 6 February 2025, months before the VR game. The app is free and can only join games set up by the owner of the VR game; it is not a standalone game. Because only the VR player needs to buy the game, a reviewer for Room Escape Artist noted that the partner does not need to own the game or use Steam.

Platform	Release date	Price	Notes
Meta Quest (Meta Horizon Store)	23 July 2025	US$24.99	VR player
Steam (Windows, SteamVR)	23 July 2025	US$24.99	VR player; VR only
iOS	6 February 2025	Free	Operator companion app
Android (Google Play)	Not stated	Free	Operator companion app

The Steam version lists Windows 10 or later (64-bit), an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 processor, an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics card, a broadband connection and 2 GB of storage as minimum requirements, with SteamVR support for Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 and Valve Index. The store page notes that the game is only supported on Meta Quest headsets and the Valve Index. Steam lists English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese as supported languages. The Meta Horizon Store lists the game's genres as Adventure and Puzzle.

Reception

In an April 2025 hands-on, UploadVR's Henry Stockdale wrote that he enjoyed the demo and found "an intriguing mystery at the core". UploadVR published an unscored review-in-progress on launch day, 23 July 2025, and updated it with a final score on 19 October 2025.

Publication	Score	Date
UploadVR	3.5/5	19 October 2025
Room Escape Artist (Hivemind review)	Unscored	28 March 2026

UploadVR's final review praised the escape-room puzzles, the consistent logic behind them and the "effective, tense atmospheric design", and called the feature of swallowing juice by placing the glove's finger near the mouth "both unsettling and hilarious". It criticized the lack of in-game tutorials and built-in voice chat, said the game "soon feels repetitive", and reported strong aliasing on Quest 3 that made the image "noticeably blurry or jagged" three months after launch. Android Central's Nicholas Sutrich compared the game's atmosphere to Portal 2 and noted that it has no combat.

Room Escape Artist's three-person Hivemind review was subtitled "For a specific kind of puzzler, but not us". Theresa Piazza wrote that the gameplay kept her from recommending it widely, criticized the lack of onboarding and the invisible creatures that steal energy, and suggested a second difficulty mode without time pressure. Tammy McLeod lost her partner after about an hour of trying to reach a puzzle that felt fun. Ryan Brady liked the game's "70's retro-future aesthetic" but found failure "very punishing" because refilling energy requires a trip back to the van. The reviewers received a complimentary copy from the studio. As of October 2026, Metacritic shows no Metascore for the game because it has fewer than four critic reviews.