Perpetual night is a retro style puzzle platform game where the lighting offers more than simply enhancing the pretty artwork, instead the light in the game actually effects your character as you transform between human form and demon form in order to solve the puzzles, beware also of the red light which will destroy your body and force you to begin from the last checkpoint.
The alpha demo introduces a few story aspects which will obviously be further developed as the main game progresses, with robots using ghosts to run electronics and commenting on the “trapped ghost inside the meat shell” before you fall below, and the eyes in the darkness in the wall tutorialising a little along with explaining some of the story as to how you came to be in the castle seeking your missing brother.
In this early version of the game light transforms you between human and demon form, where the human can interact with levers, pull objects and essentially interact with anything that involves thought whereas the demon form is quicker, can run faster and jump higher as well as climb mossy walls which a human could not traverse but lacks the intelligence to pull a simple lever. This is where the puzzle aspects begin as transformative lights need to be manipulated to allow you to progress through the rooms and progress through the game.
There are secrets even in this early aspect of development which are an essential feature of games such as this to stand out from a simple platformer, other essential aspects do tend to be optional paths with risk and reward, and there does seem to be a collectible feature with diamonds throughout the levels, however this is an early demo and doesn’t give away too much but shows just enough to get you interested in the main game, obviously there is a rich storyline behind the game also which will be unveiled, and choices seem to be permanent as opposed to some games where you can leave and come back and everyone has amnesia you have one chance to talk to npc’s and give a good impression much like in real life.
The mechanics feel good, no slippy platforming which would be the death of a game like this, you feel in control and able to traverse the environments perfectly fine, there are times you may fall through floors with clipping issues, but this is something with moving platforms and you have to remember this is still early in development so these wouldn’t be an issue in full release, and the main mechanics are sured up and allow you to enjoy the experience.
If you are looking for a 90’s style platformer this is exactly what you are looking for and reminds me of early 2d prince of persia games, and I would expect the full release to have further puzzle aspects and more light forms and transformations, perhaps some even being secret and hard to obtain, others perhaps being necessary to open paths in a traditional metroidvania style. (I know I don’t like using that, but for lack of a better name for games where new power’s allow you to open new area’s of the game and the fact that it is now industry wide standard for the term)
If you like what you see go greenlight the game and follow the progress.
Vote for perpetual night on steam greenlight now https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=660278735