Gorgeous Platform Shooter, Glare, Coming Soon to Steam And Mac [PAX 2013]

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SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – Phobic Studios, the developers behind hit iOS game, Dragonvale, showed off their latest creation, Glare, at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend in Seattle.

The game is made in Unity, which will let the studio release on Mac, PC, and Linux at first, with some vague plans for mobile spin off titles in the future. It’s looking pretty delightful, with gorgeously rendered, faux-2D backgrounds and plenty of lighting and particle effects. That sounds pretty dry on paper, but it produces a lovely effect while playing. Here’s a quick video of the gameplay we saw in the closed-door meeting.

https://vine.co/v/h5a2M0UJJ7P

You’ll play as the little character in the video, shining your light on various things to affect them in different ways. Plants grow, darkness recedes, and enemies are pushed back. Later in the game, you’ll get weapons and such, turning the game into a shooting game fairly quickly.

“I wanted to make sure we made this a platforming game,” said Phobic co-founder Brian Powers, “so we took more time than usual to create the levels. So many radial shooter games put in platforming as an afterthought.”

There are, indeed, many platforming features in Glare, like double jumps, sliding down hills, wall jumps, and the like. The team is looking for a release soon, so keep an eye out on this one.

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