This was one of the more ambitious jam entries I played. Trying to build a quiet 3D adventure with environmental storytelling, a talking lantern, and a mechanic built around physically pulling shadows out of the world is a lot to take on in 96 hours.
The atmosphere was probably the part that worked best for me.
The world felt very quiet and isolated, and the lack of music actually helped that. It reminded me a little of the emptiness and scale of Shadow of the Colossus, with the lantern filling that companion/information role that made me think a bit of Navi from Ocarina of Time.
I really liked the core shadow mechanic too. Pulling a shadow free and then repurposing it as something physical is a strong idea, and I could see a much larger puzzle game being built around it.
Where I struggled was the manipulation itself.
Once I had a shadow, there were a lot of controls involved in placing it correctly: moving it, rotating it, stretching it, changing its proportions, and lining it up very precisely. That gave the system a lot of flexibility, but it also made some puzzles feel harder because of the controls rather than because I was solving something difficult.
I think some snapping or contextual assistance would help. If Iāve clearly figured out that a shadow belongs across a gap, getting it close to the correct size and position could cause it to settle into place. That would preserve the puzzle of understanding what to do without making exact transform controls the final challenge.
The same complexity made controller play feel awkward to me. There are enough separate manipulation commands that keyboard and mouse felt better suited to the current system.
Visually, the environments supported the lonely atmosphere fairly well, but I felt a disconnect between the serious tone and some of the character/cutscene presentation. The opening especially had a much simpler visual style than the mood of the story suggested. If the game continues development, I think a more cohesive visual direction would help the world and narrative land more strongly.
Audio was mixed for me. I actually liked the absence of music, because the silence gave the environment some tension. Some of the sound effects were harder to place, though. There was one recurring sound that reminded me of a trap door or heavy object closing, and I often couldnāt tell what event had triggered it. More spatial or contextual clarity there would help.
Thereās a real concept here.
The shadow mechanic, the lantern companion, and the quiet world all feel like pieces of something that could become much more interesting with more time. For me, the next step would be reducing the friction in manipulating shadows and bringing the presentation closer to the tone of the story.