Partner Content by E-Home Entertainment
The legendary Lao Tzu wrote, "the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long." While scholars seem split, some believe he was prophesying the coming of Candleman. This unlikely hero, literally a candle with two legs, can only blaze against the darkness for 10 seconds before completely melting down. And in a world of pervasive gloom, Candleman must wisely choose his times to shine to navigate around the traps, monsters, and puzzles waiting in the darkness.
This novel concept came to be when a Ludum Dare competition tasked game creator Gao Ming with creating a game based around a theme of "10 seconds." Accordingly, that's exactly how much light Candleman can generate each level; luckily, his wax and wick are restored upon starting a new one. Seems a little strange, but then, so is a sentient candle with legs.
Success at Ludum Dare lead the nascent game to a popular run on Kongregate and, eventually, acceptance into Microsoft's ID@Xbox program, which let Ming bring his indie studio into the picture, the aptly named Spotlightor Interactive. Over a few years of development they refined the idea further, and this past February Candleman finally saw release, exclusively on Xbox One.
Luckily for Ming and company, the final game repeated its earlier successes, faring well on Metacritic. Good job, Candleman!
As well reviewed as Candleman was, a lot of players found the ending… anticlimatic. Strange, even. For a game designed to generate a very specific tone — like a sort of dark fairytale — the critical consensus was that Candleman's final act dropped the narrative ball.
Enter Lost Light, the new DLC coming out October 20th. Completely free to owners of the base game, Spotlightor reveals that Lost Light will bring Candleman's journey to its true conclusion. The studio says to expect about one and a half hours of new content spread across three chapters and 12 levels, which comes to about a third of the length of the original game.
So that's cool. But you might be wondering what this puzzle-platformer is actually like to play. So, here are 18 animated GIFs that show off the Candleman's moody world and light-, dark-, and fire-focused gameplay.
Candleman's world is dark and moody, sometimes completely black. If you thought Limbo was dim, well…
Luckily, your heroic candle can blaze against the darkness to reveal paths and pitfalls.
Alas, he can only shine for 10 seconds before melting completely away. Light is now a luxury.
A variety of deadly environmental hazards will test your mettle. On the bright side, these flame columns also generate some light.
These spiky flowers are fond of the light too. Which is unfortunate, because they're deadly to the touch.
It's hard to know when flowers are lurking, waiting for you to trigger a deadly bloom.
Not all flora seek to harm you, though…
…some are actually very helpful. Good job, nice flowers.
Can't say the same for the ghosts, though. At least the little ones are afraid of you…
…and the big ones can't see very well.
That said, you don't want to be sparkin' a flame anywhere in their vicinity.
A lot of the gameplay is based on physics, too.
Slight changes to Candleman's positioning will steer floating lilys, or roll massive glass bottles.
And, of course, your fire can trigger lots of environmental reactions, such as firing this conveniently placed cannon.
Or setting off this extremely well-controlled rocket.
Other objects will react in less expected ways, helping you solve the many puzzles.
You can even melt ice, which is pretty cool so long as you're not also walking on it.
Ultimately, the tenacious Candleman's limited abilities will see him through his quest. Onward and upward.
So that's the story on what's probably the world's first candle-based platformer. If you enjoyed its original run, you'll definitely want to check out the free Lost Light DLC to see the true ending of Candleman's fateful quest. And if you haven't, well, you might just want to brave the darkness. As you can see, there's at least a little light ahead. Both the original Candleman and the free Candleman: Lost Light DLC are available today.
E-Home Entertainment Development Co., Ltd. is a joint venture of Microsoft and the Oriental Pearl Group, and also the first registered company at the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. The company strives to published high quality games on Xbox - locally in China and globally. Currently, E-Home is one of the largest publishers for the Xbox One platform in China.
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