Lightfall — The Descent (Landing v2)

painting the descent…

painting the column

Painted cross-section of the deep sea, with bioluminescent fish suspended above ochre seamounts

dive, extract, evolve.

Physics-driven extraction online role playing game

wishlist on steam — soon

the trailer

Shot Down, Sunk, Stranded

All that can save you now is your advanced nanite technology, your wit and your will. Take hold of the creatures in the ocean, recover the pieces of your ship, return home.

Painted cutaway of the wrecked saucer's interior, hanging over open water, its rooms lit one by one as drive pieces are docked

the objective

Survey the Deep, Recover Your Ship, Piece by Piece

Hull Plate

01Hull PlateGull Sweep

Hull Plate

The first thing to tear off, and the shallowest thing to find. Bent, scorched, still mine.

Lights the The Hold

Lamp Core

02Lamp CoreNorthern Reach

Lamp Core

The saucer's own light. Cold water kept it whole.

Lights the The Decanter

Seed Cradle

03Seed CradleIcy Fringe

Seed Cradle

Where the nanite seed is loaded. Without it there is no piloting anything.

Lights the Research Bay

Drift Vane

04Drift VaneSargasso Meadow

Drift Vane

A steering fin, tangled in weed and colonised inside a week.

Lights the Specimen Wall

Storm Shroud

05Storm ShroudStorm Alley

Storm Shroud

The outer skin that took the entry. It is thinner than it was.

Lights the Transponder

Current Coil

06Current CoilPale Current

Current Coil

Wound copper the length of my arm. It has been rolling downstream for months.

Lights the Brood Nursery

Brine Filter

07Brine FilterBrine Way

Brine Filter

Vent water ate the housing and left the mesh. The mesh is the part I need.

Lights the Wash Bay

Spiral Gauge

08Spiral GaugeNautilus Ground

Spiral Gauge

A depth instrument, and something has been living in the dial.

Lights the Sounding Array

Still Anchor

09Still AnchorQuiet Sea

Still Anchor

Sunk clean into silt with nothing disturbed around it. Nothing here hurries.

Lights the Reliquary

Signal Horn

10Signal HornTwilight Channel

Signal Horn

It still calls, faintly, on a frequency this ocean answers.

Lights the Drive Core

Blue Lens

11Blue LensBlue Deep

Blue Lens

Ground glass, uncracked. Four bands of water above it and not a scratch.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Sounding Rib

12Sounding RibWhale Road

Sounding Rib

A structural rib lying among structural ribs. I nearly swam past it.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Plain Keel

13Plain KeelAbyssal Plain

Plain Keel

Half buried on the flat. The plain has had time to file the edges down.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Fall Impeller

14Fall ImpellerSilent Falls

Fall Impeller

Turning still, driven by the falling water itself. It has never once stopped.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Glass Rotor

15Glass RotorReef of Glass

Glass Rotor

Fused into the reef it fell on. Getting it out breaks something of theirs.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Watch Array

16Watch ArrayKraken Watch

Watch Array

My eyes and ears. Something large has learned to use the shadow it casts.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Forlorn Ballast

17Forlorn BallastForlorn Sea

Forlorn Ballast

Dead weight, and the only thing in that water heavier than the silence.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Midnight Cell

18Midnight CellMidnight Pass

Midnight Cell

Power. Still warm to a host's skin, which is how I found it at all.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Trench Strut

19Trench StrutDeep Trench

Trench Strut

Wedged in the wall of the trench, holding the trench apart.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

Drive Heart

20Drive HeartBone Field

Drive Heart

The last piece, at the bottom of a graveyard. With this the saucer leaves.

Buys one profession point at the Drive Core

01–10

lights one ship system

11–20

one profession point

level = pieces + 1

1 to 21, kept forever

Painted plate of the Sargasso Meadow, seen side-on beneath the surface

SunlitTwilightMidnightAbyssalHadal

The Game

Painted naturalist plate of an anglerfish and its lure above a banded sea — fig. i
Descend
— no level select
You enter at the surface and keep going. Nothing gates the water — only what lives in it.

Painted naturalist plate of a lantern host feeding among smaller fish — fig. ii
Feed
— size is the whole language
Green is smaller than you and it is food. Yellow is your size and it is a fight. Red is bigger and it will eat you.

Painted naturalist plate of a host rising through a shaft of light — fig. iii
Ascend
— extraction or nothing
Nothing you carry is yours until you swim it back out. Die below and the hold goes with you.

Painted naturalist plate of a lantern host and the cone of light it carries — fig. iv
The Lamp
— light cuts both ways
Below the last blue, light is something you carry. The cone is how you read the water — and how the water reads you.

Painted plate of a scent plume trailing behind a loaded host — fig. v
Scent
— a full hold smells
Everything you kill and everything you carry trails a plume. The heavier the hold, the further the water reads you.

Painted plate of a laden host weighed down by its hold — fig. vi
Weight
— greed is slow
A full hold costs you speed and stamina on the way up. Every extra specimen is a decision.

Painted plate of banded currents running across the water column — fig. vii
Currents
— the water has an opinion
Ride a band and you save stamina. Cross one and it takes the difference out of you.

Painted plate of stirred silt clouding the seabed — fig. viii
Murk
— you blind yourself too
Drag the bed and the silt hides your light and your motion. It never hides your scent, and it takes your own lamp with it.

Painted plate of a pressure gauge and a depth ceiling — fig. ix
Pressure
— the host is the hull
Every host has a depth it cannot pass. Go deeper than the body allows and the water starts collecting.

Painted plate of an ecosystem shifting between calm and aggressive tempers — fig. x
Temper
— the water changes its mind
A region has a temper. Feed it, disturb it, or bleed in it and everything in the band reads you differently.

Painted plate of hydrothermal vents venting heat into black water — fig. xi
Hazards
— heat is shelter and hazard
Thermal plumes lift you fast and cook what lingers. The floor's only cover is the thing that burns you.

pinned in the ship · do not swim through

Painted plate of Moon Jelly Drift — Moon Jelly Driftshutters your lamp

Painted plate of Stinging Hydroid Curtain — Stinging Hydroid Curtainclings and slows you

Painted plate of Sargasso Bladder Raft — Sargasso Bladder Raftshakes your carry loose

Painted plate of Comb Jelly Veil — Comb Jelly Veilshutters your lamp

Painted plate of Salp Chain — Salp Chainclings and slows you

Painted plate of Pyrosome Column — Pyrosome Columnthrows you off your line

Painted plate of Bloodbelly Bell — Bloodbelly Bellshutters your lamp

Painted plate of Siphonophore Thread — Siphonophore Threadclings and slows you

Painted plate of Glass Squid Nursery — Glass Squid Nurseryshakes your carry loose

Painted plate of Helmet Jelly Cloud — Helmet Jelly Cloudshutters your lamp

Painted plate of Bone Anemone Field — Bone Anemone Fieldclings and slows you

Painted plate of Larvacean House Drift — Larvacean House Driftshakes your carry loose

Painted plate of Ghost Nettle — Ghost Nettleshutters your lamp

Painted plate of Hadal Bristle Mat — Hadal Bristle Matclings and slows you

Painted plate of Trench Siphon Colony — Trench Siphon Colonythrows you off your line

and much more to comesheet in progress

nothing on this sheet is part of the food chain — each one charges you the moment you touch it.

reading the water

cold
still
fast
warm
sulfuric

understanding the biomes

Kelp forest
Reef shelf
Open drift
Boulder garden
Sand flats
Sea grass meadow
Pinnacles
Wreck field
Whale fall
Vent field
Caverns
Trench walls

0 – 500 m · one atmosphere

Sargasso Meadow

Daylight. Your lamp is worthless and everything sees you.

the classes

The Hosts

a host is the body you wear. its level, its abilities and its element are its own.

some hosts are yours. some are other players.

the first bind · ten wearable bodies

Painted specimen portrait of a lanternfish with glowing photophores along its belly — LanternfishBlight · starter

Painted specimen portrait of a barreleye fish with upward-facing tubular eyes — BarreleyeLuminescence · starter

Painted specimen portrait of a translucent bioluminescent jellyfish — MedusaLuminescence · starter

Painted specimen portrait of a long chain-like siphonophore colony with glowing bells — SiphonophoreBlight

Painted specimen portrait of a translucent glass octopus with faintly glowing eyes — Glass OctopusLuminescence

Painted specimen portrait of a gulper eel with an enormous hinged jaw — Gulper EelCinder

Painted specimen portrait of a deep-sea anglerfish with a glowing lure — Sea DevilLuminescence

Painted specimen portrait of a spiny armored deep-sea isopod on the seabed — Bone IsopodFathom

Painted specimen portrait of a rust-red deep-sea squid — Abyssal SquidLuminescence

Painted specimen portrait of a pale deep-sea shark gliding through dark water — Pale SleeperArc

Painted specimen portrait of an orange and white clownfish — ClownfishCinder

Painted specimen portrait of a royal blue tang with a yellow tail and a spine at its base — Blue TangCinder

Painted specimen portrait of a broadclub cuttlefish with banded arms and a wide mantle — Broadclub CuttlefishLuminescence

Painted specimen portrait of a ribbon eel, black to blue to yellow, threading a crevice — Ribbon EelCinder

Painted specimen portrait of a small velvet lanternshark with a faintly glowing belly — Velvet LanternsharkArc

Painted specimen portrait of a vampire squid with a webbed cloak and red eyes — Vampire SquidLuminescence

Painted specimen portrait of a hairy-armed yeti crab over a vent — Yeti CrabFathom

Painted specimen portrait of a transparent sea angel with beating wings and hidden hooks — Sea AngelLuminescence

Painted specimen portrait of a dumbo octopus with two ear-fins walking the bed — Dumbo OctopusLuminescence

Painted specimen portrait of a translucent trench snailfish with an unfinished skull — Trench Snailfish ElderRime

the lethal apex · these are people

Saltwater Crocodile

Great White Shark

Orca

Electric Eel

Painted specimen plate of an electric eel coiling through deep water — Electric Eel

Painted specimen plate of a blue-ringed octopus with glowing rings — Blue-Ringed Octopus

Leopard Seal

Black Marlin

Sperm Whale

Colossal Squid

Painted specimen plate of a colossal squid, arms and hooked tentacles trailing in black water — Colossal Squid

Greenland Shark

Painted specimen plate of a Greenland shark with a copepod on its eye, in near-black cold water — Greenland Shark

Genetic material, the currency.

painted host, gut full of genetic material — snatch it

painted seafloor chest — loot it

use it

painted gut gauge

a full gut slows you and leaks scent — V vents 5%.

Painted gameplay frame: a lanternfish host descending past ochre rock

in the water, on your phone.

A golden host rising through a sunlit column of water, a barnacled drive fragment held beneath it

everything you carry, you carry up.

wishlist on steam — soon