Developing the concept: Moth To A Flame

I wanted to try keeping a devlog of my progress to keep things organized and have something to look back on once I'm finished with the game, to see if improvements can be made to my workflow. So here goes!

In this first devlog I wanted to talk about brainstorming the concept for my game and how I ended up with the idea. I started by brainstorming some general facts about light or game mechanics that include light that I though could be interesting. The idea of a maze-like puzzle game where you aim to reach a sunflower with a ray of light came to mind first, although I ended up scrapping it because I thought it might be a bit out-of-scope considering I'm going solo-dev on this jam.

I also recalled a clip I saw the other day of Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about the speed of light, and how from a photon's perspective, one moment it is born at the Sun's surface and the next it hits something on Earth. I thought this could make for an interesting mechanic perhaps, but wasn't able to develop the concept further.

Light refraction is also something that naturally comes to mind; having the light hit a prism and split by color channel. I thought this could add an interesting bonus mechanic to the sunflower game, perhaps having flowers requiring specific colored light, or obstacles only passable by the light of certain color, and the player having to carefully navigate the prisms of the maze to achieve this.

In the end, an idea came to mind which I really liked. I remembered the phrase "like a moth to a flame", often used as a metaphor for something being drawn to a specific thing no matter the consequences.

 I immediately remembered the countless times I've seen moths group around large city lights, or even porch lights, and covering them up. Which lead to the following idea: keep the moths away from covering all of the lights in the scene until daylight. The player has freedom turning lights on or off, but at least one light needs to be on at all times, and furthermore, not be fully obscured by moths. 

In order to keep tings interesting I'd like the player to have some power-ups/spells at their disposal. A simple one could be the ability to overcharge a light and cause it to shock nearby moths. This could also perhaps be restricted by the light energy generated, thus having a cooldown and requiring the risk of the light needing to be turned on for it to charge. 

Going back to the original brainstorm ideas, I really wanted to include a slow down effect where time moves slower than usual, as I find it to look very cool and wanted to try implementing it. So I thought back to the speed of light idea, and slightly adjusted it. Instead of instant effect, which isn't very readable for the player, you can control an active photon and move it around at "the speed of light" and slow down the rest of the scene.

 The photon leaves behind a trail that damages moths, implying its fast traversal through that line. I am still thinking about how to constrain this mechanic and make it both fun and balanced.

I am aiming for a cozy, relaxing night vibe for the game. This could make for a nice contrast with the dynamic and chaotic gameplay of warding off moths. I am not much of an artist, so this might be quite a challenge!

Finally I would really like to have a powerful story behind the game. I think the story should visually take place in the background, not necessarily related to the gameplay. I already have an idea in mind, but I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave it at that!