TECHMASH

Tag: #THANKSLIGHT

  • Mind-Bending Dimensions: ‘THANKS, LIGHT.’ is Bringing Portal-Style Shadow Puzzles to PS5 and Steam This September

    Mind-Bending Dimensions: ‘THANKS, LIGHT.’ is Bringing Portal-Style Shadow Puzzles to PS5 and Steam This September

    Puzzle fans, get your thinking caps ready. Game Source Entertainment (GSE) has officially announced that THANKS, LIGHT., a brilliant 3D portal-like puzzle-platformer, is locked in for a global release on PlayStation®5 and Steam in September 2026.

    Developed by the talented South Korean indie studio Lightersgames, this title is already turning heads in the indie community, having earned accolades at Korea’s INDIECRAFT event and a coveted spot in the Selected Indie 80 showcase at the Tokyo Game Show.

    If you’ve spent the last few years searching for a game to fill the Portal, Superliminal, or The Talos Principle shape in your heart, this might just be your next obsession.

    The Mechanic: Shift Between 2D and 3D

    At its core, THANKS, LIGHT. plays with a deceptively simple yet mind-melting mechanic: the manipulation of light, shadow, and substance. Wielding a flashlight, you explore a surreal, menacing, and beautifully minimalist complex where your perception dictates reality.

    • Shine the Light to Create 3D Mass: Pointing your light at a 2D silhouette transforms it into a tangible, physical 3D object. A flat line on the wall suddenly unfolds into a staircase or a towering pillar with mass, weight, and collision.
    • Absorb the Light to Flatten Reality: By absorbing the light, you switch physics off. A rolling boulder instantly loses its volume and freezes as a flat 2D shadow. A wall that blocked your path suddenly becomes a flat surface you can bypass entirely.

    As you dive deeper into its 3-chapter, 60+ stage campaign, the rules escalate. You’ll soon find yourself juggling mirrors that duplicate objects, lenses that resize structures, and merging mechanics that fuse entirely different forms together.

    “Like Portal and The Talos Principle, this game features solid puzzle mechanics that enable interaction with distant objects.” > — Jeep Barnett, Former Valve Portal Developer

    A World That Watches You Solve It

    The game takes place in an eerie, liminal space built by an enigmatic entity known as the “Administrator.” The aesthetic flows beautifully from pristine marble museums to corporate offices that repeat just a little too often, eventually fracturing into a glitch-laced, black-and-white space where reality leaks through the walls.

    Worse yet? You aren’t entirely alone. There are things hiding in the shadows, and the architecture itself feels alive, watching your every move.

    Play the Demo Right Now

    Can’t wait until September 2026? You don’t have to. Lightersgames recently rolled out a major content expansion for their free playable Steam demo. The updated demo includes a first look at Chapter 3, freshly optimised gameplay, and an immersive new soundtrack to get you entirely lost in the atmosphere.

    Head over to Steam, add it to your wishlist, and start training your brain for the full release this autumn.

    Game Details

    • Title: THANKS, LIGHT.
    • Developer: Lightersgames
    • Publisher: Game Source Entertainment (GSE)
    • Platforms: PlayStation®5, PC (Steam)
    • Release Date: September 2026
    • Genre: 3D Puzzle-Platformer / First-Person Adventure

    Find out more here

    #IndieGames #GamingNews #ThanksLight #PS5 #SteamGames #PuzzlePlatformer #GSE #Lightersgames #PortalLike #TechMash

  • Lighting the Way: Why ‘THANKS, LIGHT.’ is the Next Big Portal-Like Mind-Bender

    Lighting the Way: Why ‘THANKS, LIGHT.’ is the Next Big Portal-Like Mind-Bender

    If you’re the type of gamer who still wakes up in a cold sweat thinking about Portal’s Test Chamber 18 or the perspective-shifting wizardry of Superliminal, then Lightersgames has something very special—and potentially very frustrating—for you.

    The South Korean indie studio has officially pulled back the curtain on THANKS, LIGHT., a first-person 3D puzzle-platformer that turns the simple act of flicking a flashlight into a reality-warping mechanic. It’s sleek, it’s surreal, and it’s heading to Steam and PlayStation 5 in September 2026.

    The Core Hook: Dimension Hopping with a Flashlight
    In most games, light is just there to help you see the monsters in the dark. In THANKS, LIGHT, light is the architect. The game centres on a deceptively simple premise:

    Illuminate: Shining your light on a 2D silhouette transforms it into a tangible 3D object. A flat drawing of a box on the wall suddenly becomes a heavy cube with mass and collision.

    Absorb: Removing light (or “absorbing” it) does the opposite. That massive pillar blocking your path? Hit the switch, and it collapses back into a weightless, two-dimensional shadow.

    It’s essentially “Geometry with the gravity off,” forcing you to build your own platforms and pathing by deciding what deserves to exist in 3D and what should remain a shadow.

    More Than Just a One-Trick Pony

    While the 2D/3D toggle is the star of the show, the developers are layering on additional mechanics across three distinct chapters:

    Mirrors: To duplicate objects.

    Lenses: To resize shapes (think Superliminal vibes).

    Merging: Combining different shapes to create entirely new tools.

    A World of “Orderly Oppression”

    Visually, the game leans heavily into the Liminal Space aesthetic. You’ll navigate vast, pristine marble halls and brutalist structures designed by an entity known as “The Administrator.”

    It starts orderly and clinical, but as you progress, “glitches” begin to appear. The pristine environment starts to fracture, suggesting that this perfect geometric world isn’t as stable as it looks. It’s got that same eerie, “someone is watching me” tension found in The Talos Principle or Control.

    Key Details & Release Info

    The game has already started making waves in the indie scene, earning a spot in the Tokyo Game Show 2025 “Selected Indie 80” and receiving a nod of approval from former Valve developer Jeep Barnett (who worked on the original Portal).

    Techmash Verdict: If you love “Aha!” moments that make you feel like a genius (after making you feel like an idiot for twenty minutes), THANKS, LIGHT. is one to watch.

    Ready to test your perception?

    You don’t have to wait until September to get your hands on it. A free demo is currently available on Steam, covering the opening chapter and the basic “Illuminate” mechanics.

    Find out more here on Steam – https://shorturl.at/kTNPA

    #GameSourceEntertainment #THANKSLIGHT #puzzles #3Dportallikepuzzleplatformer #Lightersgames #games #gaming #gamers #platformgames #gameplay #demogames #videogames #arcadegames