Overall score: 8.5
preface
If you're an indie game developer, no fame, no experience, no money. But if you are not willing to give up your pursuits, you still want to make a game with highlights, you still expect your work and art to be a little closer, even if it is only "edge".
But you can't have too much extravagance, the bone of reality makes you have to carefully consider the limited choices, the resources you can rely on are very limited, and you need to take responsibility for yourself.
So, what form of game will be easier to fulfill your wishes?
Is it an action game? A bit adventurous, even the simpler 2D action games test the balance of the system.
Is it a role-playing game? Not so easy, RPG's dual demands on gameplay and storytelling make it not easy to navigate.
Maybe a simulation game is more appropriate? The idea is good, but any content simulation game has a lot of requirements for the delicacy of the simulation prototype.
Why not try a text adventure game? You can try it, but only if you have a considerable control over the plot and the picture can you stand out.
So, is there a more suitable option?
I think puzzle games are a good choice. Not because puzzle games are easy to design and simple to complete, it may be the opposite, making puzzle games has high requirements for logical thinking and creativity. But if you have a big enough brain hole, a good idea, you can support your expectations and realize your quest for artistry.
"Lighting the Torch" is such an independent work that achieves art with creativity.
"Lit the Torch" is an action puzzle adventure game developed by foreign independent studio Corn Entertainment, originally released on Android and IOS platforms, has now been ported to PC, and was launched on Steam on August 3, with a price of 6 yuan.
If you are tired of the so-called "masterpiece" bombardment and aesthetic fatigue of the popular games that brush the screen, you may wish to try this "Light the Torch".
Unique puzzle mechanics
Entering the game, we went straight to the game process. The protagonist of the story is a burning flame villain, and the flames fluttering above his head are constantly swaying, like long hair fluttering in the wind, which is better than this called "Little Red Man". At first I thought he was a girl, but it turned out that I was wrong because the real "Blue Sister" appeared.
After a brief monologue, our Little Red man embarked on his own adventure.
As the name suggests, the player's goal is to light all the torches in the scene, which are distributed throughout the scene, however, they do not exist on only one plane, and most of the torches cannot be reached with ordinary moving jumps. This brings us to the core mechanics of Ignite the Torch: use magical "lenses" to change the scene in front of you, allowing reality and memory to overlap.
Everyone in front of the screen must not be clear, so let's take a look at a few examples.
If you encounter a wall block on the only way to the torch, when you place the lens here, you will see that the wall does not exist in the lens, and you can freely travel between the two ends of the wall. And when you turn off the lens, the wall still stands there. The method of communication also works in the lens, and if you are blocked by a wall in the lens, perhaps that wall does not exist in "reality".
The world inside and outside the lens is independent of each other but echoes each other, and the use of lenses can achieve the effect of transferring flowers and trees and stealing the day. By mastering the boundary position of the lens, you can construct a jumping platform that did not exist in the first place. Combined with the timing of the jump and the movement of the lens, the little fireman can be allowed to land on the platform of the other plane, and these operations are very commonly used in the puzzle solving process.
In the short storyline of the chapters, we learn that this "lens" is the villain's control of memory, not the wonderful "magic mirror". In the eyes of the player, this ability creates a sense of spatial dislocation, but in fact, our flame villain is a time traveler walking between two planes.
This mysterious space manipulation experience may be involved in many works, such as Portal, Monument Valley, etc., but in a 2D flat scene game, "Lighting the Torch" shows no less gameplay than the former, and this unique flat space experience is impossible to express by 3D visual effects.
Advanced to puzzle solving
After a solo journey, Little Red man meets another half of his heart: the blue sister who exudes a mysterious atmosphere. Since then, our little red man has embarked on a happy journey with the goddess, his excitement is overflowing, and for the player, he has to face new challenges.
In the following levels, we need to let the blue sister help us light the torch, open the mechanism, and gather the strength of the two people in order to make the torch light a bright and warm flame. In the game, Blue Sister's actions are related to the Little Red, moving sometimes in the same direction and sometimes in the opposite direction. Only the actions of the Little Red Man will have an impact on the perspective of the picture, while the Blue Sister only acts synchronously, and will not switch even if it reaches the current perspective outside the screen. Sometimes although the player is controlling the Little Red, the blue sister's actions are the real purpose.
As the Little Red Man said, "Help each other, do not distinguish between each other", I don't know if the player feels that the Little Red Man has a deep affection for the Blue Sister?
The adventure is not everywhere safe, and the little red and blue sisters will encounter obstacles from ghosts. There are two types of ghosts in the game: black demons with long horns and snail-shaped monsters with white skulls. If you touch them, the little red and the blue sister will disappear at the same time, so our little red people must devote their wisdom and ability to protect the blue sister. But the ghosts are not just enemies in the game, a large number of mechanisms need the "friendship help" of the ghosts, players can use this operation to change the way forward of the ghosts, let the ghosts help open the mechanisms that block us.
Grotesque picture - the style of Akira Shinbo
The graphic style of "Igniting the Torch" is quite distinctive, with dark backgrounds, confusing shadows, strange objects, significant contrasting colors, and simple geometric lines, which makes it easy for the author to think of the personal style of Akiyuki Shinbo, a well-known Japanese animation supervisor.
Akiyuki Shinbo often draws the background with contrasting color blocks and simple lines, such as scene shaping in "Goodbye Mr. Despair" and "The Story of Makeup". Some people say that the purpose of this style of expression is to make the audience focus on the performance of the characters rather than the picture itself, but in my opinion, it is more to create a sense of psychedelicity of the picture as a whole. "Lighting the Torch" almost completely inherits this style, and the difference in tone between the inside and outside of the lens, the layering of opposite colors in the background, and the set outlined with shadows and lines all reflect the surreal sense of virtual reality.
The depiction of grotesque scenes is the signature of Akiyuki Shinbo, and the strange dance of the demons in the enchantment of the enchantment in "Magical Girl Circle" is a typical expression of the new house style. And "Lighting the Torch" also shows this grotesque in the game, with black monsters, coiled plant tentacles, and huge blades swaying slightly like butterfly wings, which seem to inform players that they have penetrated into the unknowable alien world.
Akiyuki Shinbo's classic still painting use also appeared in "Lighting the Torch", the most obvious is the huge girl form in the game, the silent shadow silhouette was originally part of the screen set, but when the player lit a certain number of torches, the girl will take a step out of the picture, this static contrast alternate gives the player a strong picture impact.
Although I don't know if the screen of "Lighting the Torch" really borrows from the style of Akiyuki Shinbo, such a similar style performance still makes the author feel very connected, and it is really interesting to encounter the strange animation style of Shinbo in the game.
The advantages of indie puzzle games
As mentioned in the preface to this review, the author believes that puzzle adventure games may be indie games, with relatively easy artistic expression and relatively small investment in the form of games. Taking "Lighting the Torch" as an example, the author will explain the basis of my own views
First of all, it must be explained that any game genre has its own unique charm, and any form of game can carry a specific artistic connotation. And what is the art in the game? What kind of game can be called a work of art? There is never an absolute answer to such a question.
The author believes that in the face of artistry, different types of games have their own unique position, regardless of genre and volume. But just as every player loves different genres, each category of games has an irreplaceable core of content. Within this core scope, striving for maximum expressiveness with limited investment and making the work stand out is the common goal of every independent game developer.
So, what are the advantages of puzzle adventure games?
1. Content concentration
The core of the puzzle game is the puzzle, and the design of the puzzle can have a guiding element, that is, the core mechanism.
In "Lighting the Torch", space transformation is the core concept, and the double synchronization and mechanism opening and closing derived from it are all based on this expansion. It can be said that a unique puzzle-solving mechanism can support a work, which can make the player's eyes shine, and it can be called an artistic creation that has not been seen in the past, and such works include "Zasa - An AI Story". This is difficult to achieve in other types of games.
Of course, puzzle games don't necessarily have core mechanics, and a single mechanic is only suitable for small-scale works, and puzzle design is not an easy task, but the concentrated content still points the way for game developers.
2. It is easy to create an atmosphere
The author always feels that the infectious game atmosphere is an important expression of the artistry of the work. Perhaps the atmosphere shaping is not the unique advantage of puzzle adventure games, different from the emotional mobilization of RPGs and text adventures, and also different from the contextual substitution of simulation games, puzzle adventure games are better at attracting the player's attention to a specific scene style. The psychedelic style of the background in "Lighting the Torch" and the colors in the lens that are different from reality, combined with the exquisite BGM, make the player feel the intersection of dream and reality.
Although the shaping of the atmosphere is not directly related to the puzzle itself, because the player is in a more active state in the puzzle, it is not necessary to immerse the player in the game atmosphere created by the producer without a lot of writing, "Limbo" and "Inside" are the most typical examples.
3. Do not win or lose with face
Puzzle adventure games can be without tall technology, without huge investment, without huge volume, without fine production, these are all face jobs. As long as the core of the game is special enough, it can show different values. One might argue that the same is true of other game genres, but perhaps only puzzle gamers really agree with that.
If your RPG is in a 2D low-element style, only a few sentiments are willing to be accepted by players.
If your action game characters are a bit stiff, they will be pointed out by a large number of action players.
If your simulation game modeling material appears to be rough, it will be evaluated by some players as unenterprising.
If your text adventure stand-up is no different from the early native works on the NScripter engine, it must fall out of the way of some players.
Even if your game is only a little bit worse on the face, the player always does not give face.
But if you're doing a puzzle game, you can feel a little more at ease, because in the eyes of puzzle solvers, it's a little more glorious to be dissuaded by puzzles than to flee in a hurry that doesn't adapt to the game.
epilogue
As an indie game, "Light the Torch" has enough creativity, the unique concept can make players refreshed from the beginning As a puzzle game, the puzzle content of "Light the Torch" is interesting enough, although it is not rich, it is also worth exploring carefully. As an exquisite work with artistic temperament, "Lighting the Torch" can be described as a real realization of the incredible act of seeing the big in the small and making four or two pounds.
A small volume work from the Android platform to the PC, a humble work that only sells for 6 yuan, "Lighting the Torch" brings players not only a unique puzzle-solving experience, but also a psychedelic and strange spiritual perception, a colorful exploration journey. It is already a work that has achieved its own artistic value, whether it can be noticed and recognized by most players or not, it must be extraordinary for those who are fortunate enough to approach this work.
Of course, "Lighting the Torch" is not the only one in its kind, and the puzzle game has won a lot of glory for the artistry of independent games because of its own advantages. "Limbo", "Inside", "Botanicula", "Meru Domain", "Monument Valley", "Zasa - An AI Story", etc., have all left unique memories in the author's mind.
"Lighting the Torch" confirms that indie games can also achieve their own art, and AAA masterpieces may not be within reach. Inspiration, creativity, and the pursuit of artistry always belong to every game person who dedicates his talents and painstaking efforts.