Platforming Inside The Walls: The Sun And Moon

The Sun and Moon is the latest game to go from Ludum Dare entry to fully released title. It was the overall winner of the 29th iteration of the 48 hour game jam, developer Daniel Linssen impressing with his platforming interpretation of the theme "beneath the surface." In it you control a ball of light with the ability to phase through walls, reversing gravity while inside. Momentum is retained when transitioning and can be used for acceleration into large jumps. It's the sort of one-mechanic puzzle platforming I love and an updated version is coming to Steam on October 31st. You can still play the Ludum Dare prototype for free, if you like.

I've been playing a preview build of the Steam version which is even slicker than the original, with work obviously having gone into all areas. It requires a lot of precision to master the more difficult levels, and it's taken me several attempts to even beat them, let alone master the par times. The level selection map expands out quickly, with loads of different options to choose from almost immediately, so it's unlikely you'll get stuck. My favourite new detail was the great variation in music between the different colour palettes.

For something similar, Adam pointed me to The Floor is Jelly, which we covered back in June. They both use the momentum-saving "bounce" style superjumps. However, The Sun and Moon allows moving entirely through objects to open new puzzle avenues but doesn't have the wall-jumps of The Floor is Jelly.

Daniel wrote a big ol' post-mortem after the gamejam, detailing how he structured the development of the game. One of his other games, Roguelight, was also recently featured in our daily Freeware Garden series. The full version will be playable at the Digerati Distribution booth at EGX.