In amongst the glut of AAA releases this month, we’ve seen no shortage of indie gems quietly sidling onto Steam, GOG and other platforms. The latest to make a quiet, dignified entrance is In The Shadows, a stylish looking 2D puzzle-platformer about manipulating light and shadow.
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Humble and quiet seem to be running themes with this game. Developers Colorspace turned to Kickstarter to help push the game past the finish line, raising a little over CA$13,000. Not much, as far as game budgets go, even if it was meant to just give production a boost.
Just from the trailer above, I can tell that the game is going to be dense with themes of inversion and contrast, with frequent switches between adult and child versions of the protagonist, light and shadow being central mechanics, and even one area shown being built around gravity inversion. All of this wrapped around a story about facing fears and seeking psychological comfort.
I can’t help but shake the feeling that other places will end up describing this as ‘Braid meets Fez’. There’s something familiar about the wobbly-armed run cycle of the pixel-art protagonists, and the combination of metaphorical mechanics, a focus on key-collection and optional bonus stars that conjure up images of both of those puzzle-platforming stalwarts.
As far as things to be reminded of go, though, those two aren’t bad at all.