Will of the Wisps
A young girl sets off one evening to collect fireflies, but as the darkness settles, she discovers she has lost her way in the forest. She finds herself guided only by the light of the fireflies she collects in her jar — but she will soon discover that the more light she collects, the less she wants to see the dark things lurking in these haunted woods. Perhaps, she hopes, the gathered light of the fireflies may reveal a path to safety. Or, perhaps, to more things darker still.
Will of the Wisps is a spooky fairytale game of both exploration and escape. This game began as an entry into Ludum Dare 40, a 72-hour game development contest with the community-voted theme: “The more you have, the worse it is.” The young bugcatcher gathers fireflies to light her path, but the light she collects reveals more and more dangers still.
As a game designed to be a dark and atmospheric journey, we were proud to be chosen as a Top-20 Finalist, receiving 19th place out of a contest of 2,886 entries. The game also received Top-10 scores in three individual categories: the soundtrack and sound effects came in 4th place for Audio, as well as another 4th place score for “Mood,” and a 10th place score for the game’s Graphics.
Though the game is a brief 72-hour contest game, our team has been especially proud of the atmosphere it achieved, not only through its visuals and sounds, but also through the mechanics of exploring, searching, revealing new paths, and escaping the dangers they contain. We were proud to find community recognition as well, with a humbling and gratifying reviews page, and a number of “let’s play” videos on YouTube.
