The lightning-fast first-person platformer surprised many upon its release. Designer Ben Esposito talks to GameDaily about how it all came together.
In June Annapurna Interactive . published neon white from indie developer Angel Matrix. The tiny studio is headed by Ben Esposito, the one-person developer behind indie darling Donut County. As a follow-up, neon white is a far cry from that game’s sinkhole sim gameplay, a decidedly purposeful change of pace.
“I wasn’t going to, but I’ve been working on” Donut County for six years, so by the end of the project I was ready to go somewhere fully different,” Esposito told GameDaily. “My work up to that point was very focused on this idea that video games weren’t even close to their potential as an art form. I believed that I had to think completely outside the convention in terms of mechanics, aesthetics, theme. My goal for neon white was to discover what I love about video games.”
neon white is a first-person puzzle platformer with an emphasis on speed. The game is built around a series of bite-sized levels with the aim of reaching the end as quickly as possible. Scattered throughout each stage are weapon cards that provide single-use movement options, such as a double jump, a forward streak, or a powerful punch.
While speedrunning is the main hook for neon whiteEsposito said this was not always the case. The game started life as a more traditional shooter where players would be forced to manage scarce ammunition across a wide arsenal of weapons.
“I just didn’t like it!” said Esposito. “So I started with the concept of the weapons that could be discarded for extra abilities, and when we passed it on to friends, we found it was a lot of fun to use the discard skills to try and complete levels faster and faster, so eventually we designed everything around it.”
In most cases, while zooming to the end of a course, you’ll need to take out all enemies before the target unlocks, but weapon/skill cards are lost after using them for their moves. In this way, neon white is still an exercise in resource management, as in Esposito’s original vision.
Dual-use cards can be a lot to think about, especially in a game that focuses on going as fast as possible. That is why it was important to Esposito that each phase was presented in such a way that the objectives were simple and easy to understand.
“Brightness was the most important feature when building levels,” Esposito explains. “One tool we use for this is consistent reporting. Red doors mean they are breakable with a skill and they always represent the path forward. Ivy and plant details almost always mean you’re headed in the right direction. Waterways give you a speed boost and always flow in the direction of the main trail.”
According to Esposito, the level layout was the fundamental tool for guiding players. Ever since neon white is so fast that every stage and encounter is designed to be quick to read.
“When the player enters an encounter, we make sure that they can clearly see the challenge (enemies, platforming) and the means to overcome the challenge (cards) within a second without turning their camera. The other things are just details.”
This, said Esposito, is Neon White’s “Magic trick;” stage layouts are designed to keep players on track without thinking. However, to reduce their completion times, players must mentally determine the best order to use skills and scour each stage for shortcuts like in a racing game.
One of the most distinguishing features of neon white is his attitude. The game takes place in the literal heaven, where the amnesiac protagonist follows a mysterious death. As “Neon”, White gets a chance at eternal salvation if he can defeat a handful of other Neons in a demon-killing competition.
White’s relationship with the other Neons is central to the game’s story. Slowly, as White deepens his bond with them, they will reveal bits of his life on Earth and the complicated situation in which he ended up in Heaven. Much of this takes place through a social system similar to that of the Persona or danganronpa series. In fact, Esposito cites them as inspiration behind Neon White’s relationship mechanics.
In most levels you can find collectible “gifts” that will deepen your bond with the various side characters. Doing so will unlock bonus levels, insight into a character’s past, and fun dialogues.
“We built the story and characters to provide context for the action and to be a nice break from the blazing pace of level optimization,” Esposito explains. “We had the idea of adding collectibles to each level as a kind of puzzle that gave players the opportunity to explore the levels. Originally they were only going to unlock bonus levels, but we ended up integrating the collectibles with the characters as a way of merging the very different concepts in the game.”
When asked if the game in heaven was a reflection of his own religious beliefs, Esposito said his own faith certainly played a part in the development. However, the Angel Matrix team was more interested in how Heaven as a concept has been portrayed in popular media throughout history.
“We love the absurdity of depicting the sky and how celestial depictions often manage to feel both gaudy and austere at the same time,” Esposito said. “My faith certainly played a part in exploring religious topics, although not in a way that I wanted to spread my beliefs, but instead as an exercise to explore what I believe in.”
As a total package, neon white is a sort of amalgamation of several gameplay elements: part FPS, part relationship sim, part resource management. On paper, this combination feels like it could be a little impractical. According to critical consensusthough, the end product is a smooth and new experience.
“…neon white is still an insanely stylish fast-running platformer,” PC Gamer’s Natalie Clayton wrote in their review. “It’s the kind of game I could easily imagine sinking into for hours trying to get myself into the top 10 of a single song…”
Esposito said the team appreciates all the positive feedback. And while they had no intention of making anything to please everyone, it was a confirmation to see that most players are enjoying themselves immensely. neon white.
“I’m really proud of our small team that has created so much great content and how we managed to stay 100% committed to our weird, specific vision,” Esposito said. “It’s really a confirmation to see that there are a lot of people who have played the game and appreciated the atmosphere and the non-intuitive way the game came about.”
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