black jellies in motion

I previewed the 2D art style in my previous blog post, but here's a video of it in motion:

The video demonstrates two key features:

1. The dangerous black jellies, which close in on light sources and constrict your movement. Their poisonous tentacles slow you down and make you easy pickings for the ominous, eyeless maws.
2. The use of light to create more dynamic situations. The brightness of your light now affects how far you can see in the dark and changes your relationship with other creatures. If it becomes bright enough you can scare away weaker enemies like infant jellyfish.

I'm making headway with refining the story and trimming out the superfluous parts, which is helping to shape the overarching level design. This in turn is helping me decide which gameplay elements (creatures, obstacles, etc.) no longer fit the game, and I'm building a much clearer idea of what Luminesca is about. To me, this is a very important part of its design.

And finally, some good news. I'm working on a new playable prototype which should be available via certain digital distributions platforms. If you pre-order the game you can get early access to this for a discounted price. If you donated to the IndieGoGo campaign you will get a key to download it at no extra cost (this is essentially an updated version of the 'preview build' being delivered in a more secure way).