Wayforward Interview - LIT - WiiWare World

An extract from the WiiWare World interview with Wayforward about their upcoming WiiWare game, LIT:

"WiiWare World: What is the basic storyline in LIT?

Jordan Mayer: The game follows Jake, a typical high school kid who finds himself trapped in his school after everyone has been replaced with dark creatures. Also trapped in the school is Jake's girlfriend Rachael. The player must guide Jake through each classroom in the school in order to defeat dark faculty members and reunite with his girlfriend.

WW: Can you tell us a bit more about the actual gameplay? The light and dark gameplay mechanics sound intriguing.

JM: Jake can safely tread anywhere that light spills onto the ground, but stepping into darkness causes him to get pulled under by dark students. To get Jake through each room safely, the player must turn on any light objects that Jake can reach (lamps, televisions, etc.) to create paths of light that get Jake to the exit. Some of the light objects are pretty complicated, and either move around or turn off on a timer, forcing the player to not just figure out the correct path to each exit, but also be on their toes about how quickly they move Jake around. There's also a light meter at the top of the screen. Having too many electrical lights turned on at once will burst this meter, shutting off all lights and forcing the player to start that level over.

WW: How did the idea for LIT come about? How much does it owe to survival horror games like Resident Evil?

JM: LIT's development team had previously worked on a horror demo for the DS, so there was a lot of interest in continuing that genre on console when WiiWare was announced. Although the game does pay homage to horror classics like Silent Hill, its gameplay is more similar to puzzlers like Adventures of Lolo or Sokoban. We wanted to create a very classically-styled puzzle game, but wrap it in lots of atmosphere and dark visuals.

WW: How many levels are there in total? Can we expect boss fights?

JM: The game features 25 puzzle classrooms, plus 5 more boss classrooms. The goal of each puzzle classroom is to reach the exit intact, but in boss rooms the player must assault the boss with light in order to defeat them. The gameplay in those rooms still relies on puzzling mechanics, but bosses are generally pretty aggressive toward Jake which ups the difficulty. Each boss has its own weakness, so figuring out what that is, and what light objects are available in the room, is a big part of the challenge."