Shady Part of Me

Shady Part of Me is built around a single duality: the girl, who lives in three dimensions but can't bear the light, and her shadow, who lives in two and needs light to exist at all. Puzzles ask you to control both, casting shadows from 3D objects that the shadow can then traverse as platforms, while the girl moves through rooms and triggers the next stage.

Douze Dixièmes painted the whole game in a watercolor style that bleeds at the edges, and the narration — voiced by Hannah Murray of Game of Thrones and Skins — frames the journey as an internal one, a small person trying to face whatever the dream is keeping from her. A rewind ability lets you walk back failed attempts without the screen punishing you for them.

The game runs around six hours and treats every puzzle as a quiet emotional beat rather than a brain teaser. Surprises in the second half recontextualize the early levels, and the watercolor palette shifts as the dream loosens.