NVIDIA has been pushing for more powerful graphics since Gamescom 2018, when they officially announced the RTX series of graphics cards and what they could do. Ray tracing is a powerful new technique of enhancing the rendered scene with the help of neural networks and deep learning. Ever since, they have been pushing to make ray tracing more graphically perfect while reducing the performance impact on all titles using it. With the only complaints about the new technology being the performance degradation on enabling ray tracing and the lack of titles using it, NVIDIA is only glad to add to the number of titles actively using ray tracing besides optimizing the performance hit on using it.
For AAA titles having big budgets, working on the graphical side of things isn’t an issue. But for small indie studios who want the awesomeness of ray tracing, DLSS and other graphical technologies in their games, it is indeed a mammoth task. It is an even bigger challenge if the studio has only one guy working in it. That is exactly what Stay in the Light is all about. It is a one-man show by Richard Cowgill of Sunside Games. Having experience of working on titles like Borderlands and Battlefield,Richard was working with a 1080 Ti after the update that allowed GTX cards to enable ray tracing as well.
Stay in the Light is unique for a lot of reasons. In it, you’re hunted by “Him,” a creature lurking in a mysterious dungeon. With only a few items — a mirror, chalk and a torch — you must survive and avoid Him. There are treasures to be found, puzzles to solve and clues to uncover.
The game actively uses ray tracing as an active component of gameplay and not just for visual enhancement. Ray traced reflections show the things behind the player with pixel-perfect accuracy, so it’s an important way to determine if He is behind you or not. Enhanced shadows also help the player detect if He is on somewhere lurking discreetly in the darkness or not.
Stay in the Light is now available for purchase in Early Access on Steam.