Mechanics

⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅

Player Movements:

• Running
• Jumping
• Falling
• Death
• Interacting with objects
• Interacting with collectables
• Interacting with light

Difficulty:

I have decided to split the game into 5 sections, with 3 levels taking place within each section. This means the game will have a total of 15 levels, which gives me room to add more if I have time, or remove some if necessary. If I was to remove some parts of the game, it would be easy for me to remove the bedroom and office levels. This means when I begin development I should make the Cupboard, Hallway and Kitchen levels first, and then move onto the Bedroom and Office if I have time.

The different environments will create different challenges, provide new objects to interact with, and reveal context to the games story. The player starts in the cupboard because it is the darkest place, closed off from light, and ends in the hallway as they venture towards the door in an attempt to leave the house. I decided not to have levels in the bathroom or living room as I didn’t think those areas offered anything valuable or new with gameplay or storytelling.

Difficulty fluctuates throughout the game, allowing for consistent challenge while keeping the player invested. Players should feel a sense of accomplishment when they are able to progress to the next area.

Rules:

• The player can only survive in the light, if they enter shadow, they die.
• The player can move objects as a platform to climb, or to solve puzzles.
• All items and the player character follow the laws of physics.
• All embers must be collected to progress to the next level.
• Collecting embers brightens the world around you.
• If the player doesn’t die but can’t reach the end of the level (they are stuck) then they can reset the level.

Win State	Fail State
The shadow character stays within the light	The shadow character enters shadow and dies
All embers are collected	Not all embers are collected
Player reaches the end of the level	Player gets stuck and must reset level

Gameplay Loop:

Core Loop:

Gameplay loop	What occurs in-game
Traverse	Complete parkour and puzzle challenges by interacting with objects and light sources.
Collect	Collect all the embers in the level.
Progress	Reach the next level.

Meta Loop:

Gameplay Loop	What occurs in-game
Traverse	Make your way through puzzles of varying difficulty to reach the next room.
Reveal	Lighten the world by collecting embers, revealing more information about the main character.
Escape	Finally escape into the light of the outside world, and become your old self again.

The gameplay loops serve to engage the player in entertaining puzzles of various difficulties, while providing the reward of progression to new areas, and a lighter environment which reveals more detail and backstory.

Level Design:

The game is split into 5 sections, each a different room within the house. There are 3 levels within each section which increase in difficulty. The different environments create different
challenges, provide new objects to interact with, and reveal context for the story. The game starts in the cupboard because it is the darkest place in the house, and ends in the hallway as the player attempts to get outside. Levels can progress vertically and horizontally, but can never travel from right to left in order to make the player feel as though they are progressing.

Light colour variation and level detail is used to differentiate between rooms. Light will only ever have two colours per room, will always include yellow and will only be used where it makes sense, e.g. blue light used for technology.

There are two puzzle types in-game:

• Move objects to create new paths.
• Interact with lights to create new paths.

Moving objects:

• The player cannot move an object while the character is stood on top of it.
• Objects cannot overlap
• Objects act as a barrier and a platform to the player.
• Objects follow the laws of gravity. They can be pulled left and right, and turned on their sides, but cannot be lifted upwards.

Interact with lights:

There are 3 types of light:

• Stable light:
  • Light that is permanent within a level
• Changing light:
  • Light that independently moves or changes during a level
• Malleable light:
  • Light that can be created by the player to progress through a level. These lights may also take the form of stable or changing lights. For example, by turning on a microwave, a path of light is created. However, this light is also changing, as it only stays on for a limited amount of time.

At the end of each level, the player lights a match with all the embers they have collected. If the match lights, they have collected all the embers and can progress.

⋅─⊱✧✧✧⊰─⋅