The power of a child's imagination may be more powerful than any game engine. Compulsion Games hopes to harness that inventiveness and mystery in its upcoming game Contrast.
Contrast puts you in the shoes of Dawn, the imaginary friend of young Didi. Dawn helps Didi cope with her hectic home life — both her parents are performers in a dark and twisted vaudevillian world in the 1920s.
Dawn, luckily, isn't bound by the laws of physics, and has the ability to turn into a shadow to solve puzzles and explore the world. The game revolves around illuminating areas, and then traversing or manipulating the shadows that are created.
Contrast is a puzzle-focused platformer, meaning the gameplay doesn't revolve around combat. The conflict is generated by Didi's family: her mother is a burlesque performer who works long hours, and her father is a struggling circus organizer. Compulsion's PR and Community Manager Sam Abbott explains the family influences Dawn's appearance; she's a caricature of a burlesque dancer.
The story was inspired by Guillermo del Toro's dark Pan's Labyrinth, Abbott said, a film in which imaginary beasts and fairies help a lonely young girl. Since Contrast is told through Dawn's perspective and not Didi's, the world circulates around Didi, and Dawn cannot see other characters except for their silhouettes.
In Contrast's PAX demo, Dawn needs to escort Didi to the club where her mother is performing. She must manipulate shadows made by a carousel to climb to new heights, then later turn on spotlights to illuminate Didi's mother in the theater.
Abbott said Contrast's puzzle-based gameplay focuses on teaching players the inner workings of the light and shadow worlds without holding their hands. Each puzzle builds on new elements learned from the previous one.
Contrast will be out for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and PC via Steam in late 2013.
Images: Compulsion Games
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