PAX East 2018 – A Different Way Of Platforming In Projection

With many platform games becoming more grey to distinct them from one another, I wanted to find something refreshing and something that hasn’t been touched upon yet. And with this recent PAX East I was able to find Projection to standout upon the several other titles there.
Developed by Shadowplay Studios Projection has you play Greta, a troublesome girl who ends up running away and finds herself on an adventure visiting different countries in the process. The game’s engine mimicking shadow puppets based on the different cultures she visits. With a source of light to help guide her through this adventure, the dark worlds become an obstacle and you use that to your advantage. With the controllable light, you can prop it around objects to cast a shadow to use as an platform and overcome the game’s hurdles as you play.

At PAX East I spoke with the game’s Art Director Yosha Noesjirwan on the visuals of the game and their influences. Noesjirwan being from Asian descent and the other developers from German and Middle Eastern used their cultures for the settings in the game. As each culture has their own form for shadow play, they learned about their own culture and implemented into the game. And on top of the setting’s visual aesthetic of each location, the music for each location varies when playing.
The origin for the use shadows was just a concept they were playing with when casting shadows and later wanted to put it into a game. An interesting mechanic to have as usually it’s the opposite way around, using light to progress in games. From the playable demo, platforming with shadows was fairly difficult to do and adapt to. But later on understanding how to control the light and where its placement helps best came from feeling in the mechanic. Some parts of the platforming with shadows were annoying to do when lifting the player over an obstacle and would keep falling off. Another part when positioning the shadow and knocking myself off the ledge to my death in one part later on. But the game is still in the works and has its hiccups to fix, this isn’t the full version yet.
The light source would be more easier to control via mouse and keyboard for now until the full version is out. Another option that might be better than using the control stick is with the touch screen on the Nintendo Switch. I was unable to try it out, but was told the Switch version of the game will be able to control the light with that feature and might have more luck using that.

For what the light might actually be will be left unanswered as I was told it could ruin the story. But what I was about other obstacles later in the game that you’ll run into that the light can be used for. Using the light to your advantage when crystals come into play by positioning them to shoot a beam of light to damage or burn items that’s in your way. And they plan on expanding on that idea as they continue developing the game.
Projection will be available in Q1 of 2019 for Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n49qaNftQ28