Escape The Dark

We interpreted the theme as a dying torch running out of fuel, along with the literal goal of running out of the cave system. Unlit campfires scattered throughout the map allowed you to relight your torch and served as soft checkpoints to retreat to, although we didn't finish implementing an actual fail-state for being in the dark too long. Other than that, it's straightforward platforming with some doors and levers thrown in for good measure.

These cave paintings scattered throughout tell the tale of an ancient people that once inhabited these depths. A light smattering of environmental storytelling but really there just to break up the monotony of the single texture cave walls.

Even for a first attempt, I remember struggling quite hard with the sprite animations. Getting collisions to behave and the fires to actually illuminate the scene was also a pain. It's surprising how little you can get done in 48 hours even when focused. And it was certainly a different time for programming back then before ChatGPT snuck up on everyone.