The Cave
A puzzle-platformer in which you are a shadow on a cave wall.
Drag across the wall to move the fireTouch the wall to move the fire
Click the wall to callTap the wall to call
Glare. Two seconds in the light, then the shadow.
RetroHub AI
Steam Next Fest, February 2027. Windows and Steam Deck.
Next Fest, February 2027
- IThe Wall
- IIThe Echo
- IIIThe Fire
- IVThe Sun
- The Return
Act I. The Wall
“here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them”
You are a shadow on the wall, and so is the ground. Move the fire and the ground moves.
Two lights are lit. Only the black, where both agree, will hold you.
Act II. The Echo
“would they not be sure to fancy, when one of the passers-by spoke, that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?”
The wall answers sound. Near things ring tight and bright; far things wide and faint.
A shadow that rings with a dashed edge is a sheet. It will not hold you.
Act III. The Fire
“the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows”
Turn around. It hurts. The block was on a rail, the fire was on a chain, and you were never the shadow.
Then daylight leaks in from the mouth of the cave, and every shadow's edge erodes. Only the deepest things keep a solid heart.
Act IV. The Sun
“he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.”
The sun is behind you now and shadow lies on the ground. The light is what hurts: two seconds of it at dawn, five at the water, a noon you can bear.
One night. No glare, nothing hurts. The stars are the shapes you first learned on the wall.
The Return
Then back down the raised way, carrying the thing whose shadow you once stood on.
Bridge the pit for the one still chained. Then choose.