- 01Read light and sightlines
- 02Choose cover
- 03Move or change lighting
- 04Check exposure
Light and concealment
Lighting changes visibility conditions. Move through darkness or extinguish lights to alter safe routes.
The player's decision
Cross the short lit route or spend time darkening it first?
Original scenario
Original setup: a lamp exposes a key. A rear switch allows a slower setup that makes the same pickup position safe.
Start with this prototype
Build one guard, two switchable lamps and a key exit. Display light and visibility states. Escape with the key or retry detection; keep gameplay lighting explicit.
Change one variable
Vary lit radius and preserve both darkening and detouring options.
What to observe in a playtest
Does toggling light change exposure at the same spot? Do walls still block detection?
Take the full design card
Includes rules, scope, tuning questions and sources for further planning. It does not create a project automatically.
Original analysis · version 1
Common pitfall
A safe-looking shadow with a lit detection rule breaks trust. Match indicators to actual checks.
Observations and sources
Cases refer to public documentation. Developers and community wikis are credited separately; document review is not a claim of hands-on testing.
- Thief Gold (1999)
The developer emphasizes shadows and enemies that see, hear and raise alarms.
- Mark of the Ninja
The official guide explicitly describes observing from darkness and extinguishing lights with darts.
Brief for the studio
Opens the AI studio with the brief below in the input. You can edit it. Nothing starts automatically.
Build one guard, two switchable lamps and a key exit. Display light and visibility states. Escape with the key or retry detection; keep gameplay lighting explicit.
Covers are original AI-generated style illustrations. Game names reference publicly visible design choices and remain the property of their owners. This atlas does not supply screenshots or assets from those games. Prompts and combinations are original drafts for new games.