Shadowfey

This is an entrant in the Pirate Software Jam July 2024 - Shadows & Alchemy.

The GDD for this game can be found here

Story

Shadowfey is a simple shadow with simple dreams, to just sit and chill in the background, not freak anyone out, just kinda be there and be a good shadow. But alas Shadowfey has been snared by a tinkering wizard in The Prism! a confusing device where instead of light and shadow being separate, they are mixed - and worse, light steals the very shadow essence of Shadowfey. Rather than be an unfortunate experiment, Shadowfey must escape The Prism and return to the normal world.

Gameplay

It's a simple single screen puzzle game that involves moving objects around a level to cast shadows/light and have objects move in a way that lets your Shadowfey character make it's way from a start to a finish.

It's casual friendly; you can attempt a puzzle as much as you like, there are 26 levels total, with about half being teaching puzzles the other half being challenge puzzles.

Controls

Left Mouse Click

• Start a Shadowfey level attempt by clicking >>
• Click menu/ui buttons

Left Mouse Drag/Drop

• Drag Black Barriers around the level to block light
• Drag extra Goals to set custom paths for Shadowfey

Spacebar

• Kills Shadowfey instantly, useful to quick cancel an attempt

EMERGENCY

• If the level gets broken somehow, you can click the top left menu button and select "Reset Level"

Mechanics

Color affects Shadowfey in different ways, some good, some bad:

• Any amount of Color affects Shadowfey the same, so lighter/darker shades of a Color are exactly the same mechanically, eg. if some Cyan is overlapping some other Cyan to make a more saturated Cyan - it's exactly the same as if there was only 1 layer of Cyan for Shadowfey
• Cyan - reduces Power which Shadowfey needs to Attack things (including the Goal flag for each level)
• Yellow - reduces Speed which makes Shadowfey move slower
• Pink - reduces Resist which makes all Colors affect Shadowfey more/faster
• Green - grants Shadowfey a Speed boost
• Red - grants Shadowfey Dodge which lets Shadowfey pass through objects instead of Attacking them
• Blue - grants Shadowfey Protection which makes Shadowfey immune to Color draining
• White - no effect
• Gray - no effect

Barriers block light and cast shadows:

• Black - these Barriers can be moved by the player to change the light and shadow of the level, a key to solving many puzzles
• Grey - these Barriers cannot be moved, but can still be Attacked or Dodged

Goals set the direction that Shadowfey moves through the level:

• Every level has a Final (not numbered) Goal flag
• Some levels let the player drag/drop more numbered Goals around the level - Shadowfey goes to them in number order, but each Goal costs a bit more Attack than the previous

Enemies appear in some levels:

• Blue eyes don't move and cost some Attack Power to destroy, or they can be Dodged
• Spikey eyes can move and kill Shadowfey on contact, but they can be Dodged

Gems of Cyan, Yellow, Pink colors appear in some levels:

• A Gem refills to max the Color resource for Shadowfey

Level Editor

You can make your own levels with the same editor i used to make the puzzles! (also handy to cheat past levels if you get really stuck)

In edit mode:

• Completing a level doesn't auto progress, so you can iterate easily
• The tick box bottom right enables/disables the use of Goals
• The left menus spawn a the chosen thing on your mouse cursor
• You can toggle a Barrier between Black/Gray by pressing Spacebar while dragging it
• You can set the movement path for a Spikey eye by pressing Spacebar while dragging it
• Click Save on the right side to set the level name and the message/hint/taunt, then close Edit Mode with the top left button
• Outside of Edit mode you click the top left menu button and choose "Share/Load" which will display the level code in a textbox for you to copy and paste somewhere to share

If you make a cool puzzle, add a comment to this page with the code so other's can try it too :)

Enjoy!