Lights Out
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A game about not being able to see what you’re doing.

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I. Gameplay
II. Aesthetic
III. Technology

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I. Gameplay

Lights Out is a room-by-room roguelite where the player can only see what’s around them for a limited time, and during this time they cannot move. The player is forced to hold the spacebar in order to lift the darkness that masks the room, and only once they release the space bar are they able to fight.

Fighting works in a chain-based combo system. The player can left click on the area of the screen where an enemy is to either dash in that direction, or if an enemy is sufficiently near the cursor and in range, dash to and hurt the enemy. Each hit will briefly lift the darkness in a small region around the player.

However, while the player is fighting one enemy, other enemies in the room will likely have moved. Some enemies will be melee-only, while others may possess the ability to fire projectiles. Any enemy attacks will also like up the room in a small radius around the enemy.

Skill will play a factor as the player must memorize and predict the location of many enemies at once, while simultaneously dodging any (glowing) projectiles. The player is often not even sure as to where they are on the screen, let alone any enemy units.

The player will occasionally be given the opportunity to shoot their own gun, though ammunition is very limited. These bullets - as enemy bullets - will light up the room in a small radius as they travel. Ammunition only has a chance to be obtained through destroying certain enemies, some of which carry a higher chance to drop ammunition than others. The player can only carry three bullets at a time, since the game is primarily melee-oriented.

Levels will be stitched together in a grid-like fashion, similar to Flinthook or Warframe on a grid. As the player continuously plays through the levels, they will get harder. Due to the sprawling nature of these levels, there will be a mini-map in the top-right corner that will track all visited rooms. Each room is a standard size of about one screen. Eventually, the odds will ramp up to ensure that the player will encounter a boss room.

The boss will be untouchable by any melee attacks, throwing waves of bullets and bombs. The boss itself will not glow, though the bullets and bombs will usually reveal the whereabouts of the boss. The player will be forced to destroy the boss via ranged attacks. The boss will occasionally spawn dummy versions of a certain previous enemy type, which the player can destroy to obtain bullets. These bullets can then be used to destroy the boss.

There will be several enemy types.

The default “fodder” enemy type will lethargically throw out melee attacks. These melee attacks will deal small amounts of damage in a short range in a small radius around the enemy. They will have a quick red “tick” (which will leave behind trailer particles) before fully channelling their attack.

The default fodder ranged enemy will fire bullets in the direction of the player, though they move slowly and expire quickly.

There will be slightly tougher versions of both of those enemies, which will be designated by a greater proportion of their body being red.

There will be an “elite” enemy, which will be able to use melee attacks if the player is particularly close, as well as use ranged attacks if they are further away.

There will be a “shielded” enemy. The shielded enemy can only use melee attacks, though it possesses a shield which fully blocks the first blow, regardless of how much damage it takes. This means that the player will likely have to dash in to destroy the shield, dash out to avoid getting hit by a melee attack and dash back in to finish them off. A large part of this game is dashing back and forth between enemies so as to avoid taking damage.

There will also be several ranged enemy types, such as a shotgunner enemy or a machine-gun enemy. The machine-gun enemy will fire quick bursts of 5 or 6 bullets before having to reload.

There will be a “heavy” enemy, which will take multiple hits while only being able to use melee attacks. Melee attacks from this enemy will deal double damage.

There will also be traps in this game. Traps will periodically “tick” red to alert the player of their presence. If the player moves or dashes over a trap, they will suffer the consequences.

One such trap is a standard bear trap, which will clamp shut upon being moved over. This will briefly keep the player from moving. Another trap is a laser mine, which will activate when walked on. Once activated, it will take a moment to prepare before detonation- damaging all nearby enemies and allied units alike. Another trap is a laser gate, which will simply damage the player if they run through it. These are generally longer, so as to simulate a wall.

This hub room will present the player with the option to either play the tutorial or enter the world of gameplay. This will allow the player to get used to being in-game before launching them directly into a room full of enemies. This room will be lit as if the player is holding the space-bar, though the player will still be able to move.

When starting up the game, the player will be greeted by a splash screen and then given the option to start the game, access settings or quit. The Settings button will cause a settings menu to fade into view. The Play button will cause the player to materialize into the aforementioned hub room.

II. Aesthetic

In general, the game will be in black and white. The player and all allied entities will have blue elements, while enemies will have red elements. In general, this is to provide a quick chromatic vocabulary that red = bad, blue = good or “don’t worry about it”.

The graphics will overall be minimalistic, terrain will be white against a black background. Only entities that the player needs to be aware of are coloured. When lighting up the room, there may be a thin beige/orange haze to create the sense of a dim light.

Noise maps will be used often. These will be used to create variance and randomness in the way that lighting appears. Though visual clarity is a priority, the graphics should not look overly “clean”. Everything should have the appearance of a long-forgotten factory, regardless of whether this reflects lore.

The UI will be also minimalistic and must reflect the aesthetic of the game. Strong blue accents may be used periodically when clicked, which may leave lighting trails which remain momentarily on the next screen. Red accents should not be used, though if they are they must signify the depreciation of a value - for example, reducing volume or disabling a setting. Conversely,there will be blue accents when increasing the volume or enabling a setting. When it’s ambiguous as to which one to use, the blue one should take precedent. All menus (save the main menu) should have a white border with a black stripe in the middle, or an equally effective method of softening the white.

The HUD will be similarly minimalistic. It must display health and bullets, and when the combo is greater than 1, combo. If the player performs multiple successful attacks consecutively within a short space of time, they will gain combo. Combo will be displayed in the center of the screen between health and bullets on the left and right sides, respectively. It will shake and grow in size every time combo increases. There may be blue lights emitted from the combo counter on each enemy kill, or at least on higher combo numbers.

III. Technology

The menu screen will be a stand-alone scene that will direct to the room manager.

The room manager will by default have the player instanced into it. It will store all rooms in a coordinate system in a dictionary to link coordinates and room type, where the hub room is Vector2(0, 0) of type “hub”. The room to the right will be Vector2(1, 0). The room directly above will be Vector2(0, -1), etc. This way, the room manager can keep a “current room” counter as a Vector2, and find the next room by adding the direction that the player chooses to move to the current coordinate. If this exists, another room will be instanced and placed at the specified location.

Since each room will be a standard size, this allows the camera to seamlessly scroll to the desired room coordinate and the player to be slightly moved into the room.

When the player enters a room that does not exist within the room list, the room will be semi-randomly generated(with some constraints), instanced and their entry will be appended to the dictionary at coordinate Vector2(X, Y) and type “Z”.

The room manager will by default have a black mask applied to it with some slow-moving noise map to give the impression of darkness. When the player is observing the room, the mask is lifted gently via a semi-transparent light node which will also be tinted slightly beige/orange. The soft noise map will still be visible.