Game project

In The DarkPixel-horror survival with dynamic light

In The Dark is a top-down pixel survival game built in Python and Pygame. You move through a hostile world where light is limited, danger hides in the shadows, and every flashlight cone matters.

Pixel artDynamic lightingPygame
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Gameplay footage of In The Dark, showing pixel survival action.
NOW PLAYING · IN THE DARK

Project at a glance

Role

Game design, programming, pixel art direction, systems design

Stack

Python · Pygame · Tiled-style level design · Sprite sheets

Core idea

A relentless, atmosphere-heavy survival game where light is a resource, vision is limited, and the environment can turn on you at any time.

Key features

Dynamic day / night cycle & lighting

Light isn't just visual flair — it's a mechanic. The game simulates a full day/night loop:

  • Dawn, day, dusk, and night lighting states
  • Flashlight cones that cut through darkness and reveal enemies
  • Visibility and mood that change as the world transitions from safe to hostile

The lighting system drives tension: you can't see everything, and that's the point.

Enemy AI & encounter design

Enemies have their own trait system from basic attributes such as speed, damage, and size to which Virtual Inteligence they follow.

  • Basic chase behaviors for roaming threats
  • Enemy difficult scales with time and distance from the point of spawn

Physics-aware movement & collisions

Movement is designed to feel responsive without losing the crunchy, retro feel:

  • Tile and object collisions managed in Pygame
  • Smooth directional movement with pixel-snapped rendering
  • Layouts shaped around chokepoints, flanking routes, and escape paths

Built for iteration & expansion

Under the hood, systems are modular so the game can grow:

  • Separate modules for rendering, input, VI, and UI
  • Data-driven definitions for items and enemies for easier tuning(Allows )
  • Room to add new enemy types, and weapons without rewrites

Outcome

In The Dark serves as a playground for experimenting with lighting, AI, and progression systems inside a tightly scoped pixel-horror world. It blends low-fi visuals with deliberate systems design, making each step into the dark feel risky, intentional, and just a little bit cursed. The project is ongoing, I decided that Voxcorda was more important at this time.