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Beneath The Lighthouse is a puzzle action game released on October 29th, 2015 on iOS on the Apple App Store, on Android on the Google Play store, and on browser on January 28th 2016. 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[1]to follow soon after the game's mobile release[2].

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 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 has remaining lives. If all lives are depleted, the level has to be started from the beginning of the set. Players are given three base lives, but can replenish some from certain areas within some levels. This lives system has currently been removed from the Google Play version of the game and will be removed from the Apple App Store version[3].

If the player dies ten times on the same level, a "Skip" option will be shown and the player will be able to skip the level by watching an advertisement video. However, no trophies will be received for the skipped level if this is done. The skip option is currently only available in the Google Play version of the game and will be added to the Apple App Store version[3].

Levels[]

55?cb=20120317190109 Incomplete section

This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Needed: Full content for levels 4-40, text content for levels 1-3

Level 1[]

Click [show] to see this video

Level 2[]

Click [show] to see this video

Level 3[]

Click [show] to see this video


Level 4[]

Level 5[]

Level 6[]

Level 7[]

Level 8[]

Level 9[]

Level 10[]

Level 11[]

Level 12[]

Level 13[]

Level 14[]

Level 15[]

Level 16[]

Level 17[]

Level 18[]

Level 19[]

Level 20[]

Level 21[]

Level 22[]

Level 23[]

Level 24[]

Level 25[]

Level 26[]

Level 27[]

Level 28[]

Level 29[]

Level 30[]

Level 31[]

Level 32[]

Level 33[]

Level 34[]

Level 35[]

Level 36[]

Level 37[]

Level 38[]

Level 39[]

Level 40[]

Ending[]

Penguin 1

This navigational box contains a spoiler. Click [show] to open the box.

The lighthouse flickers on and begins shining a rotating light around the area, which is now shown to be dark and rainy. The camera pans right, showing the grandpa looking at a piece of paper while riding on a ship called FOSSIL. Noticing the working lighthouse, he tosses the map and sails his way back to shore.

The boy is then seen pacing back and forth in front of the door to the lighthouse when the grandpa walks up to him. The two embrace each other, and the boy gives the grandfather his cap back. The grandfather puts it on his head and hesitates before shaking his head and putting the cap on the boy. The boy looks up at the cap, then at his grandfather.

The camera zooms out to reveal the boy and the grandpa as a white flash appears and the rain slows down. As the clouds clear away, an ascending scale plays as the camera pans up and stops on the night sky, with the title "Beneath the Lighthouse" appearing among the stars.

In-app purchases[]

Item US ($) EUR (€)
Premium Unlock $3.99 5,15€

Beneath The Lighthouse has an in-app purchase called "Premium Unlock" that when bought removes advertisements. On the iOS version of the game, the lives system is also removed. The effects of this in-app purchase are automatically active in the Apple TV version of the game.

Achievements[]

Name Requirement(s) Points
Game Center Google Play
All Trophies Get a trophy in every level. 100 1000
Start Of The Collection Get a trophy from one level. 10 10,000
Midas Touch Get a gold trophy in every level. 100 10,000
Reunited Complete the last level. 100 10,000
Golden Touch Get a golden trophy. 20 5000
No Turning Back Complete half of the levels. 70 5000
The Hard Way Refuse to skip a level when the opportunity to skip it comes. 25 2500
Never Give Up Die 20 times in the same level and complete it. 25 2500
Bathe In Glory Watch the ending video again after beating the final level. 25 2500
Perfect Run Complete a three-room level without dying. 25 2500

Versions[]

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[4], optimized level 14 so it runs better on older devices[4], fixed a glitch regarding the debris of crumble blocks[4] and another glitch regarding detecting boxes, and players are no longer forced to watch the introduction[4] and the skip button in it have been fixed[4].

Certain areas of the game were also polished, such as lanterns no longer swinging irregularly in places[4] 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[4].

Trophy glitch update[]

This update was released on November 23rd, 2015, on Google Play and on January 4th, 2016, on the Apple App Store and is labelled Version 1.1.3 on that store. This update fixed a glitch with the Midas touch and all trophies achievements not being awarded even when the requirements are filled.

In the Google Play version, this update also improves user experience with Google Play game services.

Google Play update version 4[]

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

Balancing update[]

This update was released on January 7th, 2016, for Google Play and April 29th, 2016 on the Apple App Store. This update removed the lives system, allows players to skip a level by watching a video advertisement if they fail the level enough times, disables Cross Promotion advertisements when Premium Unlock is purchased, and adds four new achievements.

Because the lives system was removed, the game's game over screen was also removed and the button on the main menu to buy the Premium Unlock in-app purchase was changed so that it no longer has an icon for infinite lives.

Google Play update version 5[]

Released on January 20th, 2016, and labelled Version 1.0.12, this update enabled Google Saved Game functionality.

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.

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[5]. 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[6]. Beneath The Lighthouse was announced on July 31st, 2015, with a teaser trailer for the game also posted[1].

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[7]. 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[2]. On October 26th the game's release date of October 29th was announced[8] and on October 29th the game was released[9].

The Google Play version of Beneath The Lighthouse was updated on January 7th, 2016, with the balancing update, which removed the lives system from the game, among other changes. Nitrome explained that this update would be coming to the Apple App Store version as well and that they were removing the lives system because most players were not progressing to the game's later levels, which Nitrome saw as unfortunate considering the work that was put into the game[3]. Although this meant the loss of revenue gained through players buying the Premium Unlock to remove the lives system, this system was not a significant part of the game's revenue and Nitrome thought that this loss would be offset by more of the regular ads being shown[3]. The update was later released on the Apple App Store on April 29th, 2016.

The beginning of development for Beneath The Lighthouse's game mechanic was inspired by Roly Poly[10].

The art of Beneath The Lighthouse is based on Ditto[11]. During development Nitrome considered making Beneath The Lighthouse a premium title; however, they eventually settled on using a new funding model instead[12].

On mobile, Beneath The Lighthouse's initial released ended up having a very large file size due to the game's high resolution and large sprites[13], cutscenes, and Unity (the program used for developing the game) taking a long time to compile the game[14][15].

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[16].

Reception[]

Promotions[]

On October 28th, 2015, the game was featured on the front page of "Made With Unity"[17].

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[18].

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[19].

Awards[]

On the Google Play store, the distributor of the Android version of Beneath The Lighthouse, the game was awarded the Editors' Choice award. This event occurred during the time period of February 12th, 2016, to March 9th, 2016[20].

Cameos[]

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

Removed content[]

Prior to the balancing update, the game used to have a lives system that would give the player three hearts to complete the whole level, with a heart lost every time the player died and the player having to start the level from the beginning if all three hearts were lost.

The game also had heart pick-ups that appeared in some levels, these pick-ups appearing as dark red hearts that would refill one of the player's lost hearts if one had been lost, and would do nothing if the player's heart supply was full. This heart appeared on several levels, on of them being level 19.

Because the lives system was removed, the game's game over screen was also removed. This screen appeared whenever the player depleted all of his/her lives, and allowed for the player to buy Premium Unlock, watch a video advertisement for three more hearts, share the game for three more hearts, restart the level, or go back to the level select menu.

Glitches[]

Screenshot 2015-11-02-20-24-36-2-

The boy stuck in the wall of the room

  • 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.
  • Although lives have been removed from the Google Play version of the game, the image showing that sharing the game grants three lives is still visible if the player quits a level.

Trivia[]

The YouTube thumbnail
  • The gameplay is similar to Roly Poly.
  • In the YouTube thumbnail of Beneath The Lighthouse, a wider version of the game's icon is shown.
  • If the background ambiance is listened to closely, seagulls and wave sounds can be heard.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Beneath The Lighthouse - Teaser, 31 Jul 15, retrieved 31 Jul 15.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Beneath The Lighthouse Trailer!, 23 Oct 15, retrieved 27 Oct 15.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Ultimate Briefcase - Coming Soon! → comment by Nitrome: The update [Android "Balancing update"] is coming to iOS aswell. We liked the old system but not many people got anywhere near finishing the game. This seemed a shame as there was a lot of variety and a big end cut scene. The hearts system was not making a significant portion of the revenue and we felt people sticking with the game might lead to more of the regular ads being shown that would probably offset it., 17 Jan 16, retrieved 20 Jan 16.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: More bug squishing!, 3 Nov 15, retrieved 6 Nov 15.
  5. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Vault gameplay ! → comment by Nitrome: we love the ditto style too...it's deffinetly [sic] going to get explored again...perhaps sooner than you think :), 1 Jul 15, retrieved 2 Aug 15.
  6. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Friday updates are BACK!, 24 Jul 15, retrieved 31 Jul 15.
  7. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Beneath the Lighthouse, 2 Oct 15, retrieved 2 Oct 15.
  8. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Only 2 days to go!, 27 Oct 15, retrieved 28 Oct 15.
  9. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Beneath the Lighthouse - OUT NOW!, 29 Oct 15, retrieved 29 Oct 15.
  10. Nitrome on Twitter: [1]: Nitrome: Check out our next game #Beneaththelighthouse in action. Please help spread the word! #RETWEET #gamedev #pixelart
    Jared B/ekbmrb: So it IS a sorta-remake of Roly Poly!
    Nitrome: it's so SO much more than a remake. But the starting point is inspired by it sure.'', 4 Sept 15, retrieved 4 Sept 15.
  11. Nitrome on Twitter: [2]: Nitrome: sorry to disappoint. Helm did work on BTL but mock up and palette was done by Mat. Glad you liked it!
    Nitrome: [art is] based on Ditto though which was largely made great by Helm :), 30 Oct 15, retrieved 30 Oct 15.
  12. Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Beneath the Lighthouse → comment by Nitrome: Beneath the Lighthouse is very like a premium game...we even considered it. Ultimately we settled on a new model for the game where you can play for free or unlock premium which has no ads or any free to play mechanics., 2 Oct 15, retrieved 6 Oct 15.
  13. Nitrome on Twitter: [3]: @RohitBhatia29 it's also a bit higher Rez than we usually go for. Bigger sprites were needed because of the single screen mechanic., 29 Oct 15, retrieved 29 Oct 15.
  14. Nitrome on Twitter: [4]: @RohitBhatia29 yeah, that'd be the cutscene(s) and the huge *spolier* [sic] at the end., 29 Oct 15, retrieved 29 Oct 15.
  15. Nitrome on Twitter: [5]: @RohitBhatia29 It should be 94meg, we are aware it's quite large. Unity compiles quite huge. And we went a lil overboard on the cutscenes ;), 20 Oct 15, retrieved 29 Oct 15.
  16. Nitrome on Twitter: [6]: @CraigGrannell thanks Craig, we put a lot of effort into it and even held the mobile [Apple App Store and Google Play] launch slightly so they could all [Apple App Store, Google Play, and Apple TV] go at once., 2 Nov 15, retrieved 3 Nov 15.
  17. Nitrome on Twitter: [7]: Neat! Beneath the lighthouse has been featured on #madewithunity in there game spotlight. Thanks @unity3d #gamedev, 28 Oct 15, retrieved 28 Oct 15.
  18. Nitrome on Twitter: [8]: Another awesome feature from the Apple #appstore ! Thanks :) [9], 29 Oct 15, retrieved 29 Oct 15.
  19. Nitrome on Twitter: [10]: Wahoo, @AppStore has featured Beneath the lighthouse in 'Best games of October' and 'More games we love' section. 😊, 7 Nov 15, retrieved 11 Nov 15.
  20. Editors' Choice Android Apps on Google Play on the Wayback Machine (archived 12 Feb 16 ) (Beneath The Lighthouse has not yet been added)

    Editors' Choice - Android Apps on Google Play on the Wayback Machine (archived 9 Mar 16 )
  21. http://www.nitrome.com/comments/?hid=794800&pid=794562&t=2&id=1376


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