not bad bro

Puzzle themed flash. Graphics play off the difference between light and darkness. Exploring for hidden items is always a great bonus feature, as the game can be completed normally by just finding the way to escape. This game needs a working save feature.

I am impressed by the graphics and the number of levels. Never seen that kind of dynamic lighting in Flash!

However, I think the level design could be improved significantly. As Kwing pointed out, the levels are tedious. I kept hoping for new mechanics (or interesting interactions between the mechanics), but it just felt like the same mechanics in increasingly convoluted configurations. I would have preferred a smaller number of levels, if they were more interesting or varied.

The lighting mechanic is really cool, but in the context of a puzzle game it seems to do more harm than good. I think the darkness mechanic would be more suitable in a game with enemies, because then it would create constant fear and tension. In a game like this, with no danger, it just creates confusion and frustration.

I experience severe FPS drops in some parts of the game. I'm assuming that's due to the lighting.
(When I run it in Ruffle, the lamp doesn't work, and there are no FPS drops.)

On that note, I also tried increasing the FPS to 60, which made the game much more pleasant. Menu transitions are much smoother, and character speed is increased.
(There's still lag related to lighting though... perhaps a different algorithm would help?)

It's a shame you lost the source files.
I'd love to play an updated version.

It seems FFDEC can decompile it successfully -- both the scripts and the art. Only the fla (project structure) needs to be rebuilt. All the "raw materials" are there!

p.s. the menu in between levels being "playable" is a nice touch

its a fun one
lots more levels than I thought!
sorry to hear that you lost the source files :(
maybe you can decompile with FFDEC jpexs?

The production value and top-down puzzle mechanics remind me of some of the old school Miniclip games (Acno's Energizer comes to mind.) The light effects are the standout feature and look absolutely fantastic, but the graphics themselves are no slouch either. The walking animations look great and the lerping on the menu UI is unusually smooth.

Mechanically the game is simple, but made more difficult by the darkness mechanic. Early on the game is actually pretty linear. Sure there's a decent amount of backtracking, but there are only so many places to go, so even without seeing the entire level you can intuit where to go next.

Later on, the darkness becomes more of a nuisance than a mechanic that encourages problem solving. Sure, the player knows that the green/red floor switches toggle floor grates and the pull levers toggle the walls, but once the darkness makes distant obstacles impossible to see, the player never truly knows the consequences of pulling a lever, especially since even if they can see a grate or wall moving, it's always possible that a different one is also moving somewhere else. The result is that there's a ton of trial and error, which is made all the more tedious by the player's slow movement speed (it's not actually that slow, but when you have to traverse the level 5+ times it becomes really noticeable.) I'm not sure exactly what the big O complexity of these levels is but it feels like it's at least polynomial complexity. Perhaps if there was some message that said "N platforms moved" or visualize little sound waves coming from everywhere that walls moved it would make it easier for the player to understand the consequences of their actions and plan accordingly.