On the show floor of EGX 2013, tucked away in the expo's Indie Arcade, Chroma showed itself to the world with a playable demo for the first time. In visual terms, as a cutesy, pixelated, retro-inspired 2D platformer, the passion project of lone creator Mark Foster was hardly unique against the tide of games driving the indie boom at the time. But its central mechanic was, quite simply, awe-inspiring.
In an act that rivaled Braid's time-remind gimmick and Fez's signature perspective-shifting conceit, Chroma's big sell saw players climbing (and descending) the gradients of shadows. With a primary character who emanated light, a tap of the action button froze an otherwise shifting shadow in place, and allowed a secondary shadowed figure to move along the angles in the dark; reaching otherwise inaccessible areas and cracking puzzles the first character on their lonesome could not. It's hard to explain just how exciting that first use of the mechanic was, and how empowering that pure and mind-blowing eureka moment felt. Shahid Ahmad – then senior business development manager at Sony – took one look at it, and wanted Chroma on PlayStation platforms immediately.
