Sometimes it’s hard to pick a favorite title after a PAX weekend, to figure out which will be the one to watch in the days ahead. The titles demoed can all blur together and it becomes a challenge to separate memories from facts, and plenty of reference is needed to one’s notes or photos to recall the feeling, the experience, the nitty-gritty of going hands-on with a new title.
Other times, there’s a standout game that nothing, absolutely nothing, seems to come close to touching. It’s rare, but when it happens, it’s magical.
We felt the latter with Projection.
Gather ‘round, friends, and let us tell you about a best in show type of title that you may, on first glance, think you’ve seen before. But you’d be wrong. The artistry and innovation in Projection are stunning, leaving the player wanting more and aching to return to the game. Yes, it might look like Limbo or Typoman or Inside, but trust us when we say Projection stands in a category all its own.
Your player avatar is a young girl, presented to you as a shadow puppet, inside a light projection box. You know the type—the old-fashion paper cutouts where, when light is shone, project a full picture. The game itself uses this as the core of its mechanics and puzzling, really just having the player move, jump, and interact—but on one stick is the avatar, and on the other, a small ball of light.
This orb is controlled all over the map, with no restrictions on lateral or horizontal movement. Where it goes, it casts shadows (which are directional, depending on which way the orb is facing) which then create new movement paths for the shadow girl. Where a path didn’t previously exist, the light can cast a shadow and create one… or take it away. The shadow girl can only move along the shadows, the dark outlines of the world, which makes synchronicity key in manipulating both control sticks.
It’s hard to say more about the game at this stage, since the demo was not long and there’s a certain magic in experiencing the gameplay for yourself. Currently, the team is aiming to launch Projection in Q1 of 2019, which is a long way off—but we have no doubt it’ll be worth the wait.
