Lucidity
Lucidity is a 2009 puzzle platformer by Lucas Arts. It starts a little girl named Sofi who traverses her dreams and is not directly controlled by the player. Instead, she continually walks forward and it’s the player’s job to guide her safely to the end of each level by use of randomly generated objects, such as a staircase to connect platforms and a spring to jump to otherwise out-of-reach areas.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is Limbo.
Lucidity provides examples of:
- Advancing Wall of Doom: These start to appear after the first act. If Sofi gets stuck and they get too close, she'll turn around and whimper in fear until you can get her moving again.
- Auto Scrolling Level: The entire game, since Sofi moves on her own.
- Cheerful Child: Sofi.
- Death Is a Sad Thing: The plot of the game is Sofi coming to terms with her grandmother's passing.
- Doing It for The Art
- Dream Land: The game takes place in Sofi's dreams.
- Empathic Environment: The levels in the second act, when Sofi is the most overcome by grief and confusion, start off full of Spikes of Doom and with loads more enemies, and gradually become less and less colorful. In Act 3, when Sofi begins to accept her grandmother's death, the colorful landscapes return.
- Empathy Doll Shot: It's more of an Empathy Rocking Chair Shot.
- Follow the Leader: Limbo is the Darker and Edgier variation of the theme.
- Granny Classic: Grandmother spends most of her on-screen time knitting in her rocking chair.
- Heroic Mime: Sofi, though she does her fair share of Voice Grunting and you can read her diary entries.
- Luck Based Mission
- Nice Hat: Sofi's bright red stocking cap.
- Nintendo Hard: It can get this way when the Random Number God decides it hates you and won't give you the one item you need.
- No Damage Run: There's an achievement for completing a certain level without getting hurt.
- Scenery Porn: Everything has a paper cut-out look to it, with lots of soft, muted colors to give it a storybook feel.
- Springs Springs Everywhere: A springboard item that launches Sofi into the air. There's also a slingshot that shoots her forward.
- So Proud of You: One of Grandmother's letters conveys this message.
- Sugar Bowl: Everything in this game is adorable.
- X Meets Y: It's a bit like Yume Nikki crossed with Lemmings. More directly, it's a variation of Gyromite.