Beneath The Lighthouse

Beneath The Lighthouse is a puzzle action game released on October 29th, 2015 on iOS on the Apple App Store and on Android on the Google Play store. The game was released for Apple TV on the Apple TV store on October 30th, 2015, but only as a premium game. An Amazon App Store release is planned along with a browser release that is planned to follow soon after the game's mobile release.

The player plays as a young boy searching for his lost Grandpa.

Controls

 * Mouse - rotate screen (browser)
 * Slide finger - rotate screen (mobile)

Gameplay
In each level of Beneath The Lighthouse the player has to maneuver the circular room in which the boy is contained in. The boy is not directly controlled, rather it is the positioning of the room that allows him to maneuver. The room's orientation can also affect certain hazards and obstacles. Rooms are connected to each other via green pipes, which signal a checkpoint. A level consists of about Two to three rooms and ends when the boy reaches the door.

The boy will die on contact with any hazards, and respawns at the start of the current room.

If the player dies ten times on the same level, the game will show an optional "Skip?" option and the player will be able to skip the it by watching an advertisement video. However, no trophies will be received for the skipped level if this is done.

In-app purchases
Beneath The Lighthouse has an in-app purchase that when bought removes the lives system and removes advertisements. The effects of this in-app purchase are automatically active in the Apple TV version of the game.

Achievements

 * Start of the collection: get a trophy from one level
 * Gold touch: get a golden trophy
 * No turning back: reach the half of the game
 * Reunited: complete the last level
 * All trophies: get all trophies
 * Midas touch: get all golden trophies

Release version
This version of the game was released on October 29th, 2015, on the Apple App Store and Google Play and was labelled Version 0.3 on the Apple App Store and Version 1.0.1 on Google Play. This version was the release version of the game on iOS and presumably Google Play, except on Google Play it is described as an update which adjusts the display of the price and fixes a bug that affected where the boy was respawned when he died.

Google Play update version 1
This update was released on October 29th, 2015, and fixes a few bugs. Another respawn glitch was fixed, a glitch that caused all levels in the game to be unlocked was fixed, and a bug that caused level 11 to crash was fixed. It is labelled version 1.0.3.

Apple App Store update version 1
Released on October 30th, 2015, and labelled Version 1.1, this version reduces the game's file size of 94 megabytes down to 43.7 megabytes and mitigates the chance of a respawn bug happening.

Google Play update version 2
Released on November 5th, 2015 on Google Play and November 7th, 2015 on the Apple App Store, this updates fixed several bugs and polished some other aspects of the game. The update is labelled Version 1.0.4 on Google Play and Version 1.1.2 on the Apple App Store. This update fixed a freezing bug at the start of the game, optimized level 14 so it runs better on older devices , fixed a glitch regarding the debris of crumble blocks and another glitch regarding detecting boxes, and players are no longer forced to watch the introduction and the skip button in it have been fixed.

Certain areas of the game were also polished, such as lanterns no longer swinging irregularly in places and a small loading image appearing when a level was being loaded.

Google Play update version 3
Released on November 5th, 2015, this update fixes a glitch with background sounds still playing even when they were disabled and also introduces sound improvements to the game. Previously, the game had only mono sound instead of stereo due to Nitrome having to compress the game's sound so the game's file size did not exceed Google Play's file size restriction, but with this update volume is balanced for all sound throughout the game.

Google Play update version 4
Released on November 23rd, 2015, this update fixes a glitch with the Midas touch and all trophies achievements not being awarded even when the requirements are filled. The update also improves user experience with Google Play game services.

Google Play update version 5
This update was released on December 3rd, 2015, and is labelled version 1.0.9. This update's update notes state that this update improves user experience with Google Play game services.

Previews

 * July 31st, 2015 - Nitrome released a teaser trailer of Beneath The Lighthouse.
 * August 21st, 2015 - A GIF showing Beneath The Lighthouse's gameplay is posted.
 * September 4th, 2015 - A GIF showing a level from Beneath The Lighthouse is posted.
 * September 5th, 2015 - A GIF showing sponges from Beneath the Lighthouse is posted
 * September 22nd, 2015 - A GIF showing a glitch from Beneath the Lighthouse is posted on Twitter
 * October 2nd, 2015 - A promotional image of the game is posted.
 * October 23rd, 2015 - The game's trailer is posted.
 * October 27th, 2015 - A GIF showing the auto-winch hazard is posted.
 * October 28th, 2015 - A GIF showing roller bombs and extra lives is posted.
 * January 7th, 2016 - Nitrome releases an update with 4 new achievements, removal of lives system and "rage quit prevention" mechanic allowing player to skip the hard levels.

Development
Beneath The Lighthouse was first indirectly mentioned on July 1st, 2015, when Nitrome mentioned that they would use the Ditto art style again and that the product of this may occur in the near future. The game was again alluded to on July 24, 2015, in a Friday update post where Nitrome said that they would be revealing a new game the following week and it would be the next game to come out. Beneath The Lighthouse was announced on July 31st, 2015, with a teaser trailer for the game also posted.

Starting in late August 2015, GIFs of gameplay were revealed over the following weeks. On October 2nd, 2015, Nitrome shared that the game was approaching completion and would soon be ready for submission to the various app stores the game was planned to be released on. On October 23rd, 2015, the game's trailer was released and it was revealed in it that the game would be released on the Apple TV app store. On October 26th the game's release date of October 29th was announced and on October 29th the game was released.

The beginning of development for Beneath The Lighthouse's game mechanic was inspired by Roly Poly.

The art of Beneath The Lighthouse is based on Ditto. During development Nitrome considered making Beneath The Lighthouse a premium title; however, they eventually settled on using a new funding model instead.

On mobile, Beneath The Lighthouse ended up having a very large file size due to the game's high resolution and large sprites, cutscenes, and Unity (the program used for developing the game) taking a long time to compile the game. Nitrome managed to fix this large file size problem for the iOS versions of the game, the Apple TV version having this problem solved prior to its release and the Apple App Store version fixed in a later update.

Because Nitrome wanted all versions of Beneath The Lighthouse to be released around the same time, the release date of the Apple App Store and Google Play version of the game was delayed and made October 29th, 2015, so that the game's release would be near the game's Apple TV release date.

Promotions
On October 28th, 2015, the game was featured on the front page of "Made With Unity".

The game was featured on the front page of the Games section of the Apple App Store on October 29th, 2015, the same day the game was released.

Nitrome tweeted on November 7th, 2015, that on the Apple App Store Beneath The Lighthouse had been featured in the "Best games of October" and "More games we love" section.

Cameos

 * The Girl from Ditto can be seen in level 18.
 * Gems from Ditto can be seen in level 20.

Beta elements

 * The game used to have a game over screen.
 * The game's first version had a lives system and additional hearts in the levels.

Glitches

 * Sometimes the boy will drop through the wall and become stuck in it.


 * Sometimes when the boy dies, he will not respawn at the checkpoint but at a different area.
 * In level 21 in the first area, the boy can get stuck to an exit pipe.
 * Cutscenes cannot be viewed on low-end mobile devices, and trying to view them will bring the player to a blue screen or even crash the game.

Trivia

 * The game's gameplay is similar to Roly Poly.