The Hour Before

Before the first light, the valley has never been seen. Everything is Ash: grey, soft, unnamed. You are the lamplighter, and the hour before dawn is yours. Raise your lantern and the light names what it touches, for good. The wavy mound becomes water that runs downhill and gathers. A grey seed, once that water reaches it, drinks and grows into a tree. A spark becomes fire that climbs dry wood and eats it away. Everything you name stays in colour behind you, while the rest of the world waits in Ash. But the dawn is coming from the west, and it names on its own. You only have the hour before it arrives. Eight small rooms each teach a single idea: water finds its way down, a seed drinks what reaches it, fire is stopped by water and fed by wood. Then they ask you to put those ideas in the right order. At the end of the valley waits the first light itself, still unlit and grey. Raise your lantern to the great beacon, and let the day come in over everything you named. A short, quiet puzzle platformer made in one weekend for the Nimble Game Jam (theme: FIRST LIGHT). 

Controls. Walk with A and D, or the left and right arrows. Jump with Space, W, or the up arrow. Raise the lantern with E or Enter to name what is at your feet (the same key turns the pages of the intro). Press Tab to give the screen back to the night and restart the room. In the menu, choose with W and S and confirm with E. Tip: the light names only what is right at your feet, so stand on the Ash first, then raise the lantern. If the dawn catches up to you, the night simply gives the room back.

Credits. Design and code by KZ. Audio middleware: Made using FMOD Studio by Firelight Technologies Pty Ltd. Sounds and music by Epic Stock Media. Built on HiveEngine.