Lux is a first person puzzle game initially developed as a University project by a team of 11. It was an ambitious project undertaken over a six week period. Over this period the team developed the initial concept, designed a number of puzzles, created concept artwork, assets, built the engine and implemented a demonstration of the game-play, including a tutorial section, into the custom made engine. The aim of the project was to come up with an interesting, innovative game idea and then create a proof of concept demo from scratch. Once the project was complete it became more than just an assignment for University and some members of the team have decided to continue to work on the game in their spare time.
Back story
The game is set in a steam punk/futuristic universe. An unknown force is consuming all light sources throughout this universe. Light has therefore become a commodity, and light-hunters scour the galaxies to collect what little light they can find, for both trade and survival. Take on the role of a light-hunter who sets out to discover the reason for the light’s disappearance…. before it’s
too late.
Game play
The game’s main mechanic involves reflecting, absorbing and mixing different coloured light. The player wields 'Tulip' a light-manipulation device (which is effectively a ‘light gun’). This can reflect, absorb, mix and emit light with a varying degree of focus. Reflecting allows the player to alter the angle and intensity of the light beam. Absorbing allows the player to store two colours in Tulip and discharge these colours of light. The player can also mix the colours, for example if Tulip absorbs Blue and Green light, the player can mix these two creating Cyan light which can then be discharged. This device is used in the completion of puzzles which progressively become more complex.
A simple puzzle may involve the player reflecting a white light into a corresponding white receptor to open a door. Another simple puzzle may involve finding a yellow receptor and having to mix green and red light together to fire the resulting yellow light into the receptor to activate a lift.
Puzzles become increasingly more complex as new situations are presented to the player, for example there are points in the game where the world’s colour becomes inverted, this forces the player to think about how colours change when inverted and to plan ahead for possible inverted puzzles.
With the stringent time restrictions given on the project, at present the demo only features very fundamental puzzles. Some of the more complex and interesting puzzles that have been designed have not yet been implemented into the game .... so stay tuned!
