Light in the Dark

September 28, 2018

As a fan of the classic point-and-click adventures from the eighties and nineties, I frequently look back to those games for inspiration for my own. A couple of LucasArts’ earliest adventures, Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders incorporated an interesting technique for searching darkened rooms. As luck would have it, my upcoming Sleuthhounds: Cruise game just so happens to also have a darkened room in need of searching.

Zak searches a cave in Mount Rainier using his handy pocket lighter.

In Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken it’s possible to obtain a couple of different light sources such as a flashlight or lighter. When wandering into a darkened room, these items can be used to create a small area of light around the mouse pointer while the rest of the room remains dark.

Homes searches the lounge with a handy (but not currently depicted) lamp.
Click to view larger.

In Cruise I aim to have a similar circle of light when searching a darkened room. In the above work in progress shot, Pureluck Homes is surrounded by the circle of light. Currently I have the light centered on Homes himself instead of on the mouse pointer, as in Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken, but I haven’t decided if I prefer this or not.

As well, in my current work in progress development Homes is just standing with no apparent source of light. This mirrors how the LucasArts games worked but for my game I intend for Homes to be shown to be actually carrying a lamp. If I decide to center the light on the mouse pointer instead of Homes I would further have Homes himself automatically turn to face where the mouse pointer is in order to line up better with the light oval. In either event, because of my early experience with this technique in LucasArts games there’s a certain undefinable something that feels adventurey about including a spotlight of this sort, hence its inclusion in my own game.

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