Tired of stodgy corporate games made by The Man and his minions? We're playing the 31 best indie games for a change of pace —- and so we can judge them. Today, Closure!
In A Sentence
Sketch art and playful use of light and shadows combine to make an interesting looking and interesting playing platformer.
State Of Completion
thinks that the game should be out sometime this year for the PC and Mac. Until then check out the Flash version.
Thoughts
Players use lightness and dark to recreate the terrain of Closure's levels by picking up and carrying balls of light. What you can't see won't get in your way, so when a ball is dropped and a distant floor's white lines recede into darkness, that darkness becomes a hole through which you can drop.
The same is true for every bit of the level: the walls, the doors the ceiling. So the game becomes about discovering how far light will reach and when you want to erase a barrier by making it unseen. It's a great way to get people to rethink the way they view the world around them.
Answers We Demanded
Kotaku: The entries of the IGF are an eclectic bunch, ranging from esoteric art titles to straight forward drop-in-and-play casual games. In creating your entry what do you hope to accomplish with your game?
Tyler Glaiel: The main goal in creating Closure was to show that it's possible to make an "arty" game without needing to subtract from other elements to tell a story. Hence, gameplay, music, art, atmosphere, and story all have even amounts of care put into them. Also, exploring the mechanic fully and fixing all what was wrong with the flash version is a huge part of it too. There's not gonna be a sequel, so any "that would be cool" ideas never get thrown on to the "save it for the sequel" pile.
Kotaku: What was the inspiration behind your game?
Glaiel: I tried to come up with an idea that would take "dark levels" and make them not horrible. I hate dark levels in games, they are always (excuse the pun) "black and white". Light = good, dark = evil. Or visa versa in stealth games. It's cheap and overused, so in Closure, both light and dark have advantages and disadvantages. People are afraid of the dark, but they can't get anywhere in this game without realizing that it's not always bad. Sometimes the light blocks your path, and sometimes it makes your path.
Kotaku: Why video games? There are plenty of ways for a person to express themselves creatively, why did you choose this way?
Tyler Glaiel: Why not video games?
Make sure to check out the rest of the Independent Games Festival finalists as we head toward the March awards show.