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GDC 2016: Explore the Darkness in Puzzle Adventure ‘Fire Child’ from Randy O’Connor

You may know Randy O’Connor from his self-published shooter Dead End HD (Free) or his unique game concept collection app Distractions (Free), or perhaps you’re aware that he has worked with Tiger Style in the past as lead artist on Waking Mars (Free) and contributing artist on both Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (Free) and Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon (Free). Randy is one of those game developers who loves exploring new concepts, and in fact the idea for his latest game, a puzzle adventure titled Fire Child, evolved from a concept he tried out in his Distractions app. In Fire Child you play as a young girl searching for her lost toys by striking a match to briefly light up your surroundings and discover where your lost toy is at. You’ll also need to avoid being hit by monsters who are lurking, and you have a limited number of matches so you’ll need to be strategic about when and where you use them.

Things are still somewhat early with Fire Child, but already it’s looking like a really interesting puzzle adventure. The art style is fantastic, and although we forgot to crank up the volume on the demo device (oops!) the sound is wonderful as well and both do a great job setting the mood of the game. It’s a procedurally generated game so each level with be different each time you play, and despite this random element there will also be a story tying everything together which will slowly unfurl as you progress. There’s no firm release window for Fire Child but you can expect to hear more about its progress in the coming months.