The Lantern

           The Lantern





The mechanic is called ‘The Lantern’. The Lantern can be picked up by the player and is normally only obtainable by completing a puzzle first. The Lantern changes what the player would previously perceive to be dangerous or inaccessible. With use of the lantern, spikes that would originally be thought to be dangerous can be changed when in the light of the lantern, and not just spikes but many different objects (see fig. 1), such as edges of cliffs revealed to be boulders (see fig. 2) and even creating new obstacles such as revealing bear traps that would be harmless grass outside the light of the lantern, this will normally be a section of the game in which the player will no longer be able to continue with the lantern and would have to drop it (see fig. 3).

The player can drop the lantern at any point while holding it, the lantern has no time limit and will never cease working. When the lantern is dropped it is simply placed at the player’s feet, there will be other lanterns that can be picked up later in the game. To ensure the player cannot continue to use the lantern indefinitely, the lanterns will reveal new obstacles that the player will not be able to get past without first dropping it (see fig. 3). The lantern will be required to get past a multitude of obstacles and also dropped to get past others, the figures I have created reveal how this mechanic will work in the game. The lantern’s radius is small and will cover just a few feet in a circle around the player.