Light Fall Preview

From coolbeans

I’m the type of fella that often sticks with playing games in or past their official 1.0 form. In the case of assessing that kind of work, it’s easier to write about because the developer has determined it as being shippable to mass market; “what you play is what you get” if I could twist that old phrase. So with playing Bishop Games’ first video game, Light Fall, in an early 0.1.5b version it can be tough to get acclimated to a short preview experience that still clearly has a lot more content in store for players.

Another tale of humble indie beginnings, Light Fall is the product of a group of Canadian developers, both new and seasoned, that got some early praise from the likes of IGN at PAX South 2015. Eventually, they took to Kickstarter and reached 110% of their goal. It certainly wasn’t an easy task. “Objectively speaking, Bishop Games is a team of three no-names working on their first game.” Says Bishop Games’ Benoit Archer. “We knew that convincing people to believe in us and in our game would be no easy task. We’re glad it worked out in the end, but yes it was a very emotional and stressful 30 days.”

As an early rough-cut of the game, Light Fall does have a chance of being a puzzle-platformer worth the investment.

http://i.imgur.com/ybGumc6....

With that background story out of the way, just what is Light Fall about? The game focuses on a young boy who winds up in Numbra, a harsh world filled with dangers like unforgiving pink crystals and bats. Similar to Bastion, there’s a heavy reliance on storytelling and world-building with a crotchety old bird speaking about the main character in the third-person and explaining different aspects about this world. For such a short preview, there’s a lot to glean about this world: a missing group of people, several gods with different traits, and a teaser of some oracle that appears later on in the game. Even this early into it, a lot of effort’s been placed into this story. “In our opinion, a good storyline is often left behind when it comes to platformers;” says Benoit Archer, “we want to change that.”

While I think that’s being a bit harsh to the glut of indie platformers trying to implement storytelling, Light Fall is showing a lot of promise to deliver where others may—arguably—fail. While not as stentorian and smooth as say…Bastion’s narrator, the old man voice actor throwing around a few gibes against you and other fictional characters here works well. The delivery is on point and it’s mildly humorous within the darkened setting.

The black/white color emphasis will immediately bring up comparisons with LIMBO. The boy has the black body and face with big white eyes, emulating said game to a tee in that respect. But it wouldn’t be fair to suggest it apes that art style altogether. While there is the 2D level design showing that clear inspiration, the background is often filled with a purple-and-blue color palette. As mentioned earlier, anything with pink colors are the only hazards besides falling to your death; piles of pink crystals are scattered throughout and winged enemies have pink lights on their head.

http://i.imgur.com/DWyQbWP....

Is Light Fall more than a pretty face? Well…I’m a bit hesitant to give a resounding yes. The basic mechanics work as expected for mouse and keyboard. A WASD and space bar setup for standard running on a 2D plane. The science behind simple things like running and jumping still feels like a bit of polish is needed when trying to nail wall-hopping and landing onto skinny platforms. For such an early version, however, the sense of speed and inertia during easier platforming parts feels better when precision isn’t much of a factor.

Outside of the basic puzzle-platformer setup, another core mechanic in Light Fall is the Shadow Core, a black box that can be summoned out of thin air. By hitting either the up or down arrow (on m/kb) this Core will appear above or below you respectively. Hitting ‘up’ results in your character remaining still while WASD is used to enable you to set the box in any direction. Hitting the down arrow after a jump makes it materialize beneath your feet. You can do a jump-and-block combo a few times to get past longer expanses of hazards that couldn’t be surmounted in a single jump. Since the cooldown timer after running out of uses (corresponded by the lights on Shadow Core) is forgiving, you could be able to stay in the air for a long time. While it may sound like an interesting concept, I’m still a bit hesitant about the execution.

The puzzles with the Shadow Core just vary between moving the box to block pink lasers and moving towards a highlighted area in order to open a gate. These types of uses with it feel more like a speedbump; slowing down the momentum previously gained to do some simplistic puzzle or careful task. With that key worry out of the way, I do like its more-standard implementation below the character’s feet. Acting as a small, supplemental platform, it’s a great way of avoiding a fail state due to one bad jump or pulling off a continuous series of skillful jumps.

http://i.imgur.com/y213KcG....

The best of both worlds really: an idea that accommodates for a welcoming skill floor and a respectable skill ceiling. I really, really hope to see later levels show off that potential. And it would be nice for a better animation than what’s used. It sounds like a real nitpick but there were a few moments that the spinning box animation (when it appears) felt a bit too delayed when I picked up speed.

This is where it’s tough to make some kind of final determination on the product itself with such an early version: you see some gameplay issues but you’re not sure how the final product will turn out. So far, I haven’t seen how the Shadow Core mechanic to puzzles will be such a boon. There could be some great uses in finding hidden objects or pulling off great stunts but I didn’t see the opportunity here crop up much here. Still, Light Fall’s pleasing to the eye and the story setup could go somewhere interesting. For now, I express cautious optimism of the game—heavy on the optimism.

Day 5 | Bishop Games