In The Dark 2 Developer Spotlight

A devastating virus threatens to cripple the Galactic Federations Chief Neural Core, threatening to put an end to intergalactic travel and turning a galaxy-spanning empire into mere island settlements - disconnected and alone. Join Ikalo Pann, Captain of the Starship Leviathan, to help her solve hundreds of complex puzzles, explore planets for clues, uncover the source of the virus, and bring the unknown terrorist before the Federation to answer for their crimes.

Watch the In The Dark 2 Trailer:

We asked developers Bryan of Pearacidic Games and Tom of Gumpy Function, about developing the sci-fi puzzler "In the Dark 2," the follow-up to their previous game "In the Dark" (Bryan has provided the answers for this interview on behalf of both developers.)

Watch the Developer Spotlight Video:

ModRetro Blog: Hey! Can you please introduce yourself and the game to everyone?

“I’m Bryan, and my studio is Pearacidic Games. Tom Lockwood goes by the pseudonym ‘Gumpy Function’. The title of our game is In The Dark 2, and it is a puzzle game. There is also a bonus top-down shmup game within the story mode.”

“The main gameplay loop is solving lights-out puzzles in either 4x4 or 5x5 grid sizes. Every light you switch will affect itself and the lights around it in cardinal directions. Once all the lights are off, you've solved the puzzle with the primary objective of the game is to solve a specific amount of puzzles to unlock further areas of the game and uncover more of the sci-fi story.”

What was the reason for developing this particular game? What inspired you to make it?

“Tom and I created this sequel to define what the first game should have been. We made In The Dark 1 in a month, and that was not enough time to really flesh out the story and graphics of what we really wanted to do with the concept. It was also made with only a 3x3 grid, severely limiting the number of puzzles you can make.”

“In The Dark 2 has a lot of inspirations, from 90s point-and-click adventure games to coin-plunking shoot-'em-up arcade games from further back. I personally was inspired by Tetris to create this puzzle game, as I wanted to give players a chance to pick it up and play it at their leisure, with short sessions if they wanted, but offer a full progression of puzzles that ramp up the difficulty if they want something more intense. Originally, In The Dark 1 was called Turn 'Em Off! and was a mini-game in another game I was working on. It's amazing to see how far it has come from those humble beginnings.”

When you're not working on games, what do you do? How did you become involved in game development?

“I try to play games when I can, or tinker with electronic projects or system modding. Surprisingly enough, I teach forklift safety training as my primary job. Like most people, I found myself tinkering with new software during Covid lockdowns and stumbled upon GB Studio. The rest is history. Tom is a stay-at-home father of two girls. Having more time available to him once a parent and no longer working full-time, he decided to follow his dream of creating games.”

“We use a technique called tile-swapping for ninety percent of the game's [development] heavy lifting of the coding. Every puzzle scene uses swapping for each light, and up to 100 tiles can be swapped at once (4 tiles per light, 25 lights in a 5x5 grid!) It's been fun learning ways to push myself during the development, and I've certainly incorporated knowledge from my other projects in this one.”

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us! Where can folks see more of your work?

“If you want to check out our game, it's available for preorder at the ModRetro website and there's also a demo available on our itch.io page as well.”