David Hellman

Last spring I blogged about a game called Lit, by WayForward Technologies. The game’s premise, as described in a press release, came scarily close to an idea I’d had some years before. Naturally I seized the dwindling opportunity to prove I’d thought of it first.

Lit is now available for download on Wii Ware. Its similarities to my concept are gratifying, but it is resolutely its own game. And I like it a lot.

In Lit, you are a guy making your way through a haunted high school. The darkness is toxic; venture from the clearly-delineated light areas of the floor and you’ll instantly be abducted by shadows. You must therefore light a path using whatever devices you come across: lamps, computer monitors, motion-activated security bulbs, spotlights on rotating necks, and more.

Rhythmically, the game alternates between careful observation and planning — sweeping your flashlight over the murk to spot useful features — and bursts of action. These include fun, punctuating events like knocking out a window with your slingshot, and more complex sequences, like dancing through a series of moving spotlights while turning other fixtures off and on.

I love the balance of the clear, puzzley, rulesy elements and the filmic, immersive elements. So many games these days swing hard towards one or the other, giving us total abstraction or else doing everything to hide their game-ness. Lit seems quite comfortable being a videogame. It resembles a schematic as much as it does a movie. It uses an overhead perspective, its dynamics (like the contours of light areas) are modeled simply, and each room is a single-screen puzzle board … But its darkness is evocatively horrible, its soundtrack is emotive, and it’s perfectly happy to jump into a Resident Evil 4-style over-the-shoulder view.

In some ways this feels a bit retro. I can’t help but be reminded of Playstation 1 games, games leaping at the opportunities of 3D while remaining grounded in the simpler models of 2D design. That duality sometimes looks like a sort of adolescence next to a modern game like Dead Space, which uses all its cleverness to sustain a cinematic impression. That’s the right thing for Dead Space (I’m a fan), but it’s refreshing to play a game like Lit, which readily admits to artifice. That’s something I’ve always loved about videogames: human, tactile situations expressed through artifice, as a system.

Other things I love about this game: That the opening cinematic simply shows your hero running through the dark, then crouching beneath a blackboard, which becomes the main menu. That there is no other early exposition. That I can skip just about anything non-interactive by pressing A. That there is no tutorial. That you have to figure out on your own what everything does.

Try this game. It’s a gem.

Well, Animex ‘09 has come and gone. Getting back to normal life, I’m invigorated by the memories of the past week. Thanks to the organizers and everyone I met. It was a great time.

For those unaware of Animex, it’s an intimate, well-run conference that brings together truly amazing, accomplished people as well as people like me, and totally dedicated students.

Some have inquired about recordings of my talk. It was filmed, and should be available at some point. I’ll pass on the info when it comes in.