Alt-Controlled 3D Maze
- "Light It Out"
Born from a school project, Light It Out evolved into an indie arcade game that premiered at Super MAGFest 2023 in Washington, D.C. This spine-chilling 3D maze adventure takes players deep into a crumbling railroad, where they navigate using an innovative flashlight controller equipped with photoresistors. Guided by a gripping narrative, players dive into a tense, first-person journey of suspense and survival.
TEAM
Rama, Smitha
MY ROLE
Game Designer & Developer, Exhibition Director
TOOLS & SKILLS
Unity, C#, Adobe Photoshop & Premiere, Arduino
Timeline
Dec 2022 - Jan 2023
Ideation & Prototype
What if players mirrored the actions of the in-game character?
Driven by this question, I explored the concept of player-character synchrony, creating a flashlight-based controller powered by Arduino and photoresistors to detect light.
Players, immersed in complete darkness, use the flashlight to illuminate their path while unraveling the mysteries of the maze. To see if the idea works, I quickly prototyped a low-fidelity version in Unity. After try-and-error using Arduino for the first time, I got to realize my ideation and received positive feedback from play-testers.
Narrative & Game Mechanics
Transforming a small assignment into a MAGFest-featured arcade game required designing an immersive experience.
Narrative
Players take on the role of John, a security guard in a derelict metro, who must find the "yellow door" to escape the maze.
Game Mechanics
• Navigate the maze by illuminating paths.
• Hide in darkness when hearing ominous footsteps to avoid capture.
User Flow
This interplay of light and sound fosters urgency, suspense, and discovery.
I designed a detailed storyboard and user flow, ensuring seamless integration of narrative and mechanics into the gameplay.
/1. Intro Animation
/2. Arcade Instruction - a
/3. Arcade Instruction - b
/4. Game Scene
/5. Ending Animation - a
/6. Ending Animation - b
/7. Ending Animation - c
/8. Ending Animation - d
Game Development & Animation
As the team lead, I assembled a trio to bring this arcade to life.
• Game Design, Programming, and Animations: My responsibility.
• Illustrations: Handled by Smitha.
• Arduino Programming & Fabrication: Completed by Rama, in collaboration with the team.
/Unity Development
/Fabrication Design
/Sensor Try-out
/Ending Animation - a
/Ending Animation - b
/Ending Animation - c
Exhibition
The reception at MAGFest exceeded our expectations. Players were captivated by the flashlight alt-controller, enthusiastically engaging with its unique concept.
Seeing players record, discuss, and gather around our arcade was deeply rewarding.
The overwhelmingly positive feedback reaffirmed the impact of our game’s innovation and execution.
Awesome! The idea for this is super cool and creative. This would be awesome to be a fully developed game, and I think it has a lot of potential
Very intuitive! I loved it.
Cool concept and great twist at the end. It'll be great in VR!