Ember’s Journey Leaves Players in the Dark (on Purpose)

Given our easy access to electric light, we humans tend to take sight for granted. That goes double for those of us that live in cities and therefore never have to rely on the moon for our nocturnal light — if the moon chooses to show itself at all.

Ember’s Journey is an upcoming platformer / puzzle game that serves as a pretty stark reminder of what happens when all the lights go out. The player piece — a small square — glows with its own soft light, as does the exit for each level.

That’s all the light you’re afforded, though. You must work thorough each level step-by-step, using only the small, blurry halo of light thrown off by the player sprite and certain in-stage objects. Needless to say, it makes for a spookily tense challenge. What’s around the next corner? Maybe something that can see better than you. Something that’s waiting.

Ember’s Journey comes to iOS and Android in July.

Nadia Oxford

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In the early aughts, Nadia fell into writing with the grace of a brain-dead bison stumbling into a chasm. Over the years, she's written for Nerve, GamePro, 1UP.com, USGamer, Pocket Gamer, Just Labs Magazine, and many other sites and magazines of fine repute. She's currently About.com's Guide to the Nintendo 3DS at ds.about.com.