Theme Explanation
- Gameplay -

明暗法 (mei-an-hou) or chiaroscuro is a compositional technique that emphasises the contrast between light and darkness.

Most of the gameplay takes place in the dark period, where the player must use their torch light to ward off agitated souls and monsters, and keep themselves away from danger.

After a certain period of time, the darkness clears away, taking all the hazards that came along with it. During the light period, players can recover lost health by rescuing souls scattered around the game world.

However, since rescuable souls rarely spawn on their own, the main gameplay twist is that players should try to AVOID banishing the non-dangerous souls during the dark period to be able to get the most amount of recovery/points as possible. This is especially important during the later cycles when recovery becomes a bit harder to come by.

- Limitations/Theme -

"Simplicity"
The main gameplay loop has been made explicitly simple: avoid the shadowy monsters in the dark, and rescue them during the light to recover your health. Some twists are added here and there to introduce difficulty, but the core idea remains the same.

"Limited Palette"
For its aesthetic, I opted to use a heavily-stylised low-poly 3D look with a customisable 1-bit colour palette.

"Light/Dark"
The calm/anomaly cycle originated from the idea of the world's constant cycle of suffering and abundance -- that even when we reach our darkest point, even a slight hint of light and happiness can make it a bit more bearable.