Changelog at Bottom

In Spectrum of Shadow you assume the role of an alchemist that utilizes the spectrums of both light and shadow to craft alchemical glyphs. Make use of the tools in your arsenal to bend and manipulate light and shadows to reach the target combination of glyphs.

Can you solve the puzzles with as few tools as possible? Experiment in what is essentially an Alchemist's toolkit and push the boundaries of what is capable!

Pirate Jam 15 Submission by Zeflyn & average_atlas

Game Design Document

HOW TO PLAY:

The screen is composed of 4 major regions:

The top of the screen is your light source. The light source determines the pattern of light/shadow that is on the board by default. 


Cycle through light sources with this menu

The arrows in the bottom corners will cycle through the level's differing available light sources. If you feel stuck on a puzzle, try changing the light source!

The left side of your screen is the inventory; click and drag items from the inventory onto the play grid in the center of the screen. The right side of the screen is the transmutation table, on it is the target combination of glyphs required to complete the puzzle.

THE GRID:

The grid starts with 2 tiles occupied; one is the light source, the other is the output.

Your objective is to get various bands of light and shadow from the light source to the output tile. Landing a single band of light on the output tile will yield a glyph on the Transmutation Table.

TRANSMUTATION TABLE:

The Transmutation Table contains the target glyph combination required to complete the puzzle. As you cast bands of light on the output tile, colored glyphs will show in accordance with the band of color you've selected.

ITEMS:

Prism & Dark Prism

Prisms split light and shadow into their spectrums


Walls

Walls, when placed in the path of light, create shadows.

ITEMS WITH MENUS:

Some items, when selected, have menus that allow to manipulate properties of the light or shadow.

Lens

The lens filters spectrums of light into a single colored band.

Mirror

Mirrors redirection light and shadows

Magnifying Glass

Magnifying Glasses change the size of the glyph on the Transmutation Table produced by the band(s) of light/shadow going through it


Glass of Water

Glasses of Water rotate the glyph on the Transmutation Table by refracting the band(s) of light/shadow going through it.

Changelog:

v0.2.2 - Infinite Mode Bug
Changed:
- Fixed bug preventing movement to next infinite puzzle


v0.2.1 - Item Menu Hotfix
Changed:
- Item button size corrected to prevent overlap

v0.2.0 - Quality of Life Updates

Added:
- Button to clear entire play grid
- Button to swap to a new puzzle (infinite mode only)
- "More coming soon" page at the end of the regular game mode

Changed:
- Item menus open automatically when placed on grid
- Re-ordered the levels for better difficulty curve

Download

Download
Game Design Document
External

Comments

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(+2)

Damn, y'all did a banger of a job with this one!

(+2)

Baller Puzzle game, took me a bit to figure out what the best light source combos were. The eclipse one was my favorite.

(+2)

Had an absolute blast playing this. Loved the aesthetics and atmosphere and learning how the individual items synergize with each other to solve the puzzles. Knocked it out of the park yall. I absolutely loved it!!

(+2)

Took me a while to figure out where the settings for each componenet were, but other than that great game with really satisfying effects and vibe!

(+2)

I always wonder how people come up with such puzzlers. I love it and the theme fits so well/natural . good job

Thank you for trying it out! We essentially built the mechanisms for manipulating light first and then used the sandbox mode to make cool glyph combinations that we then turned into levels for people to beat!

(+1)

Wow you two. Just wow. The ambience, the sound when you move the prisms, the art, specifically the smooth dithering is excellent. I love it. I'll admit it took me a minute to figure it out, but it all works so well. bravo. 

(1 edit) (+2)

A cerebral puzzler with excellent execution.

Don't have anything else to remark on, really =)

(+2)

It's really cool. There is a bug (I think?) where if you combine two beams with the same shape, then any size modifiers are applied to both, even if the modifier is only on one of the combined beams. This behavior doesn't apply if the shapes are different.

Thanks so much for checking it out!
We'll be investigating your issue and once the judging period is over hopefully have a patch that addresses this!

(+2)

This is a lot of fun! I really enjoyed the mechanics!

(+2)

Fun puzzle game with neat interactions!

(+3)

I love the music in this game, can't believe she was able to top the subliminal soundtrack