Summary
The Way She Falls is a 2D platformer focused on light and time. Players play as the king of shadows who is in love with the sun and searches the world trying to find a way to get closer to her. The game focusses on the unique interaction between light and time to create a deep puzzle and platforming experience
Game-play
The Way She Falls is a 2D platformer and puzzle game, players navigate puzzles made of shadow by manipulating light in various different ways. Players move forward by advancing time hence changing the angle of the sun and adjusting the shape of the level. Likewise when players move backwards they reverse the path of the sun, undoing any changes to the shadows but leaving any changes to the level in place but only at that time, for example if the player pulls a lever at one minute into the level the lever will still be pulled, but only at the one minute mark when the player would have.
The king of shadows is also the most powerful of all shadows, able to reach a little way out of his two dimensional existence into the third dimension and alter the objects around the level to change or make new shadows.
In each level players seek out the last rays of the sun to gain a little of her attention and find a way to get closer to her however once the sun is gone players play through moonlit levels, the moon is the suns evil sister and seeks to stop the king of shadows reaching her by sending her own followers after him. In the night levels the king of shadows is weaker and the light changes are out of his control, at the whimsy of the moon. The moon will also send people such as night watchmen with torches or graffiti artists to try and hinder or destroy the king of shadows.
Mindset
The King of Shadows is a basic puzzle games, during the day the players take on challenging puzzles and ideas by manipulating time to get closer to their objective while during the night players face off against the moon in a time trial to test the skills they learn during the day and possibly learning new skills. The two cycles are symbiotic, the day levels teach players to look for certain indicators and types of puzzles helping them to easily identify them when they play the night levels where the light changes out of their control however during the night levels because the moon controls the light the game can show players partials solutions to puzzles that might not be so obvious, providing them the full puzzle during the next day cycle. Using this method to indirectly teach players should help to provide a more refined and rewarding game and hopefully move towards a state of flow by keeping gameplay challenging but giving players all the tools they need to succeed.
Highlights
● Unique use of time and light
● Difficult puzzle solving
● Controlled difficulty curve by teaching mechanics in the two cycles
