High concept: A sci-fi Metroidvania where light is both your weapon and your arm, requiring players to solidify and manipulate light to explore a decaying cyberpunk megastructure
World setting: A massive relic of a heavily industrialised world, the constant resource consumption and political fighting led to the core of the world, named the ‘’First engine’’ rupturing and wiping out the human race. The world is a sci-fi/cyberpunk setting with heavy emphasis on decaying technology
The plot: You are a Lumen, a being manifested when residual Hardlight, the primary fuel source used in the old world manages to gather and form a body. Awakening on the edge of the world, a guiding light guides you towards the heart of the massive city, for reasons unkown.
Core gameplay mechanic(‘’Hardlight’’): The character’s left arm can shift into 3 distinct weapons, each providing different playstyles:
-Sword: A neon light blue sword, providing a basic combat style with average range, damage and attack speed, having upgrade paths that can build into a longsword with good stat balance, a greatsword focusing on very heavy, satisfying heavy hits or a set of dual swords for fast attacks using a bleed/stack mechanic.
-Scythe: A soft neon purple scythe, using curved, heavier strikes with reduced attack speed, having upgrade paths that can shift into either chaining consecutive strikes for long, flashy combos, a lifesteal/resource generation combat style or a defensive, counter-attack based one
-Spear: A vibrant, neon green spear, using both thrust and spinning attacks. Upgrades branch into a hit-and-run poke combat style, a parry/deflection based one or a very aggressive glass cannon one.
| Hardlight arm | Core Color | Base Function | Advanced Upgrade Branches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardlight Sword | Neon Blue | Balanced melee & zoning | Longsword (Balanced) / Greatsword (Heavy) / Dual Blades (Bleed) |
| Phase Scythe | Soft Purple | Slow, sweeping crowd control | Combo-Chainer (Flashy) / Lifesteal (Sustain) / Counter-Attacks (Defensive/Guard) |
| Vanguard Spear | Vibrant Green | Linear thrusts & spins | Hit-and-Run (Poke) / Deflection (Parry) / Overclocked (Glass Cannon) |
Upgrade system: Prisma cells and light cells.
Prisma cells: Major upgrade resource, obtained from quests, world challenges and bosses, grant massive upgrade nodes that complement the branching paths or offer massive stat boosts (eg. ‘’combo chain gains an additional hit’’ or ‘’deflecting an attack grants a burst of movement and attack speed’’).
Light cells: Minor upgrade resource, obtained for defeating tougher versions of regular enemies, completing minor quests and finding hidden caches. They provide small buffs to a weapon as opposed to a certain path (eg. ‘’sword damage +10%’’ or ‘’spear attack speed +15%).