next »

[SyDaemon]

You wake up in an old, crumbling complex to the aftermath of a major experiment gone wrong and realise that light itself has become lethal to the touch. Manipulate the environment to forge your own path of shadows to avoid contact with light in order to rediscover the secrets of the experiment, your past, and perhaps even yourself.

We are currently planning an early 2014 release. If you like what you see here, please follow us on our social networks to get updates!

Platform: Windows/Mac

Click picture to view trailer.

Playable Demo Coming Soon!

Website	Facebook	Twitter	Google+

Staring forlornly into the darkness, you contemplate your fate and attempt to recall your past.

That humble lab crate will become your best shield against the light with the solid shadows it can cast. It's also one of the objects you've found yourself strong enough to push around.

Glass walls, previous excellent for offering a safe way to view experiments from an adjacent room, now offer no protection from the light.

Someone else survived this whole mess!

He offers a reminder of the experimental ability to perform a "Shadow Echo" - freezing a shadow in place regardless of the position of the object that cast it. That's no doubt going to be extremely useful.

Shadow Echo in action. The patch of shadow is as safe as any other shadow cast by the environment.

[Impmaster]

Looks cool! Also, where is IGF China held? Shanghai?

[SyDaemon]

Thanks! Yeah, it was in Shanghai. 

[Udderdude]

Looks like a cool mechanic.

[DarkPixel]

Looks awesome. Good job. Any info about the tech behind the game?

[SyDaemon]

The game was made using the Unity Engine. We've wanted to make the way shadows are cast as realistic as possible and decided that going 3D would be easier than trying to fake something using 2D. It certainly got us started with playing around with the light themed mechanics much faster, but we paid the price in terms of the minimum specs the game would require. The number of lights and the use of dynamic shadows in the game certainly meant that old laptops wouldn't be able to run it. 

[0x0961h]

Shadow Echo... Oh my, it sounds so-o-o cool.

Visuals are great. Can't wait for demo to try it out.

[pottering]

Looks really cool.
Kinda like Limbo mixed with Stealth Bastard.

[SyDaemon]

Here's a closer look at the Shadow Echo.

Upon holding the button to activate it, time slows to better let you time when you want the echo to be cast. The object upon which the Shadow Echo will act on will also be indicated as seen.

This allows you to create "islands" of shadows in large areas bathed in light to act as a bridge or as safe spots.

Looks really cool.
Kinda like Limbo mixed with Stealth Bastard.

Thanks! Yeah, both those games were inspiring for us.

[0x0961h]

Here's a closer look at the Shadow Echo.

So-o-o delicious.

[SyDaemon]

Been doing nothing but trying to crank out new levels for the past weeks. The going has been slow because of how much work is needed in each and every level. Here's a gif to give you guys a sense of how each level progresses.

Click for larger res.


Each level starts out as a boxy and crude but playable representation of the environment to make sure the lighting and puzzles work and makes sense. This means the level has to be rigged with our own triggering system, camera switching zones, auto-save zones and what not. Our artist then goes nuts on hand crafting the entire environment while keeping the puzzle elements intact. It's a process of love that takes us anywhere between 1 to 2 weeks. 

We've so far got about 70% of our intended number of levels. More to come!

[SyDaemon]

It seems like forever since I've last posted any updates.

We've been adding in levels at the speed of ponderous creativity (not very fast) and making enhancements all over the game, including level tweaks, UI, animations, audio and visual feedback.

Here's an old peek (I've shared this on our social pages before) at our dynamic background. It updates itself according to which level your last session stopped at. We hope this helps to reinforce the sense of a journey every time the player loads up the game from a past session.


The animation for casting a Shadow Echo has also been updated. Previously, the Scientist invoked it with an outstretched arm, like casting a spell. Now, he activates a wrist-worn device. The overlay tutorial for it has also been given a new look. You can compare this gif with the one 3 posts up.


Here are some more shots of the game! Click for a larger version.

[Connor]

looks really fun, but i dont think ill be able to play it for too long knowing how i hate games that have like nobody in them since it just makes me feel like their all dead ._>

[SyDaemon]

looks really fun, but i dont think ill be able to play it for too long knowing how i hate games that have like nobody in them since it just makes me feel like their all dead ._>

That cracked me up.  They do give off that kind of vibe, don't they? Being alone is still better than being in a place full of zombies though, if you ask me. 

Still, if you look at the animated gif, you can see another white haired scientist at the bottom, so you're not alone!

[ephoete]

Wah, really cool progression since last time! 

Love the HUD (I know it doesn't seem important that does remain an important finishing touch for the overall experience :p)

[SyDaemon]

Good grief I suck at replying on time! So very sorry!

It's funny you've mentioned the HUD, because we're striving to simply not have any at all.

Check out this little sequence:


Please forgive the speed and the jumpiness of it.

What is does show are a few stuff we needed visual feedback for.

Switch to target indication
The white blips pulse from the switch to the object its acting on, in this case a block that moves from left to right.

Glowing switch
The switch itself glows with a white outline to indicate itself as an interact-able object.

Glowing switch to target indication
The "line" that blips pulse when the switch is flipped to indicate an effect.

Switch active meter
There's a meter integrated right into the switch body to show the "progress" of its activation, during which it serves as a cool down to prevent switch spamming.

We're hoping these things would help preserve our goal of having a clean HUD.

Also, before I forget again. Happy Holidays to everyone!