On the Shadows is a very inventive little first person puzzler that plays with perspective in some mind-blowing ways as you move in three dimensions, but your shadow still exists and interacts with other shadows on a two dimensional plane.
On the Shadows is a game that takes a little while to wrap your head around and has some innovative mechanics that are a little hard to put into words. In the game you can move around much like in any traditional first person game, but you are bound by the physicality of your 2D shadow – so if your shadow runs into the shadow of an obstruction then you won’t be able to go through it and if your shadow trends atop another shadow then you will float in the air being held up by the shadow.
That’s just the start of the intricacies explored in On the Shadows though – you can move objects and light sources to cast shadows, you can deal with multiple light sources at the same time and you can walk towards and away from light sources to alter the size of your shadow. It allows for some very complex puzzle design that forces you to think in 2D and 3D at the same time in some very inventive ways.
At the moment the visuals in On the Shadows are extremely basic, but the shadow-manipulating mechanics are pretty incredible and the puzzles are very creative. You’re often presented with a puzzle that makes you think “well that’s simply not possible” only to blow your own mind as you figure it out. A shadowy puzzle game well worth shining a light on.
Download The On the Shadows Alpha Demo Here (Windows)