Independent development continues its course and this time it presents us with Light Fall, an attractive 2D platform with a lot of challenge and inventiveness. Proposal? Take us between the challenging jumps of Super Meat Boy and the dark setting of Limbo. The result, as we tell you is its analysis, is another title to take into account by lovers of the genre.
Author Bob Bates comments in his book Game Design that video games are based on verbs, actions that the player can perform during their games. Running, jumping, shooting, talking, buying, building … In this sense, each game has its own set of verbs (actions), but the secret of success is really that they are combined to form phrases (game dynamics) that sound really good.
Light Fall is a good example to address this concept. We are faced with a lateral “scroll” platforms where you start without knowing practically anything. Everything until you understand that you can move, jump, run… and you start combining verbs to overcome obstacles. Later you realize that you can climb, and shortly after that your character is able to generate blocks to stand on to avoid a crash into the void. Your language as a player gains new words every time, something that allows you to play with more and more variables.
The key to this platform adventure is to present verbs in a gradual, agile but balanced way, so that we perceive an evolution over the course of each minute of play. Variety is built on the perception that we are increasingly combining more complicated actions, and obstacles are placed to determine our progression. Everything results in a challenging platform , but that generates high satisfaction once you have overcome it.
Teaser trailer for the beautiful Light Fall
Jumps between SUPER MEAT BOY and LIMBOLight Fall is a project developed by Canada’s Bishop Games and funded through Kickstarter with almost 600 backers and $ 20,000. He does not hide his influences, and cites various video games on his website. The first is Super Meat Boy , from which he inherits the mechanics of “try again”, without lives, based on repeating and repeating until the section in question is overcome. The other video game mentioned is Limbo , clearly due to an artistic design that bets on a dark setting, where shadows and contrasts prevail.
We have various skills. One of them consists of creating blocks, which allows us to overcome certain obstacles.
These two references are key to understanding a video game that has four worlds and more than a dozen levels, which give 3-4 hours of play . The story is simple, but well told, and it goes even beyond the classic platformer. With its not infrequent introductory sequences, it places us in the world of Numbra, a land of eternal darkness about to be the victim of an imminent threat. All narrated through the voice in English (subtitles in Spanish) of the Stryx owl, which narrates our actions and even provides us with advice with which to move forward.
It is a challenging platform, which generates high satisfaction once you have overcome itPerhaps the highlight of the set are the final bosses , very atypical, because they are based on an indirect fight. Although our protagonist has an attack action, it is not applied directly on the enemies, but on the environment. Thus, the confrontation continues to be against the platforms, which ultimately, and once drawn, give us victory over each of the monsters that are presented. In other words, the result is fun, original and satisfying.
The distinctive character of Light Fall is in actions like generating blocks that we can use to reach parts that would be unreachable otherwise.
But … what makes Light Fall different from other video games of the style? Certainly, we are not facing something precisely groundbreaking, but it is coherent. He knows how to combine platforms with a series of skills that range from jumping and climbing to generating essential blocks to overcome dangerous gorges. It requires skill at the controls on the part of the user – a lot – and therefore (message to “fishmen”) it is simply necessary to have a gamepad to enjoy the title 100%.
Obviously, it must be made clear in its analysis that one of the great buts of Light Fall is its very short duration, something that explains another of the mistakes, and that is that more levels would have allowed experimenting with more situations. In the end, it tastes little, and we only have the possibility of speed-runs . Something that, however, is not a trivial matter, since the game is designed to run, jump and overcome challenges at breakneck speed. In fact, there are times when the game seems to break its balance of difficulty for this matter, since there are parts that you can overcome by taking advantage of the skills, without practically touching the ground.
Light Fall has a unique artistic section, a combination of characters and dark environments, together with an interesting use of colors.
These small imbalances add up and make us understand that Bishop Games lacked a better balance to go further. Not so for the artistic and sound, since there is a lot of talent behind the scenes, and a lot of pleasure when it comes to accompanying the platforming adventure musically. It’s just that it needs to be rounder, smooth out rough spots and, above all, provide a more durable and replayable product. But if you are a lover of the genre, do not hesitate. You are facing a bet that appreciates the time invested.
“Okay”
Light Fall
Light Fall is yet another platform expression, in this case inspired by great exponents such as Super Meat Boy or Limbo. It also has its own personality, and that is what sets it apart from the rest, thanks to its unique abilities that give rise to a gameplay based on fast jumps, which requires a lot of skill at the controls. A video game, therefore, challenging, although not very durable, and that to stand out has needed to go more in depth in the interesting approaches it defends.
- Very challenging, with a good progression in terms of difficulty
- The protagonist’s actions allow a constant variety in situations
- Imaginative and satisfying final bosses
- Short duration and replayability
- Failure to play with his own concept and push it to the limit
