Glittering Light 2

Glittering Light 2 is a rogue-like game that combines unique ASCII-graphics and minimalist game design.

There was a – by now long begone – period, when glyphs and symbols were the primary interface between human and computer. Partly out of technical need, partly for practical reasons, the letters got pressed into a raster by then – and this raster became the defining element for the ASCII art (and so, the earlier typewriter art looks almost unbelievable free-form to our modern eyes), that was often the only feasible way to output graphics in a computer game at all.

Glittering Light 2 is – at its core – an true ASCII game: The levels consist of letters that are rendered on the screen, and even the good old grid is still there; but the glyphs ascend over their position in the grid, which is also set into a perspective (and shifted by a few degree). And this causes an almost miraculous effect.

For when playing a traditional top-down crawler-game, it remains uncertain if the characters and signs are symbols for things that look different in the games reality, or if the game depicts a world consisting of these signs. I believe it is fair to assume that the lion-share of the players and developers tends to the first variant – but bringing up the needed imagination to see the world that is emulated through the ASCII art requires an certain effort, and personally, I often experienced that I somewhere slip into moving my „@“ sign towards an „S“, instead of attacking a snake with my ranger.

It might be that these familiar signs and characters are easier regarded as other objects when a – in their context – unfamiliar third dimension is added, or maybe the scale is shifted enough towards the second variant, so that we can’t but accept that we move through a world consisting of symbols. I’m not even sure if there is much of a difference. All I can say is that the game feels very plastic, immersive, when played – the dissonance described above is, at least for me, largely neutralized; instead of moving an @ through a maze of lines, it feels like moving through a strange, mysterious world.

The sound design is well done, but there is a somewhat enigmatic aspect: The background music that starts at the beginning of each level abruptly always stops after a while – I can’t say if this is a glitch, or if this deliberately mirrors the – also somewhat abruptly appearing – soft end you’ll encounter when playing.

For the game mechanics themself are rather at the minimal side – you rave through a maze filled with enemies, and need to collect a resource („Glitter“) to unlock portals that transport you deeper into the chain of dungeons. Another resource („Drive“) allows you to improve either your attack or your hitpoints, another one („Light“) restores your health. You can attack adjacent enemies by pressing space – hits and evades are chance based – and getting to many strikes from them will result in your character getting killed, which means in this game: You awake from a dream, but only to find yourself in darkness. There is a certain threshold where I keep to get stuck, as the enemies grow faster in power than I do, and evading them ain’t always possible – and I don’t think that I oversee something here, but it rather seems to me that the developer doesn’t intend to develop games where you can juggle on to infinity. I believe he intently made a game with a limited, set scope, where the atmosphere and the fundamental idea are much more important than the balance or the gameplay – for these aspects aren’t an end in themself here, but seem to be primarily important as fragments of the artistic vision of a game that doesn’t tell a story other than a parabola on life itself.

Glittering Lights 2 is a great, unique, yet somewhat enigmatic game. The developer, NoTimeToPlay didn’t only develop several other games, but also poured his love for digital writing systems in various text editing software’s – most of his work is available under free licenses.