Akiko: The Sight Beyond
Role
Programmer
Producer
Date
Feb 2025
Engine
Unity
Perforce
Akiko: The Sight Beyond is a 2D puzzle-platformer where you play as Akiko, a girl who can see both the human world and the (spiritual) yokai world by switching between special eyes. After a yokai steals her original “Sight” eye, she must use a spiritual replacement eye to reveal hidden platforms, see invisible threats, collect spiritual power, and track down the boss who took her eye. The game focuses on simple controls, readable feedback, and a clear, eye-switching puzzle mechanic.
Inspiration
The game is inspired by Chinese and Japanese folk beliefs about people who can see spirits, the idea of two overlapping worlds, and yokai such as Dodomeki. We build on these traditions in a light, accessible way: no heavy horror, but a quiet, strange world where what you see depends on which “eye” you use. Mechanically, the game follows classic side-scrolling platformers, but replaces combat and shooting with world-switching, timing, and careful observation as the main challenges.
Story
Akiko is a village girl born with one special eye that lets her see yokai others cannot. Her grandmother, a former shrine maiden, teaches her to respect this gift and keep it secret. One night, the yokai Dodomeki steals Akiko’s supernatural eye, pulling her into a boundary space between the human world and the hidden spirit realm. To survive, Akiko receives a spiritual replacement eye (a gift connected to her grandmother’s protection), which allows her to see different layers of reality and continue her journey.
The game world is built around this dual vision: normal platforms and doors exist in the human layer; hidden paths, yokai, and traps exist in the spirit layer. Akiko travels through shrines, forests, and liminal spaces, using her new sight to move between worlds, collect spiritual energy, and finally confront the yokai who stole her eye. Themes include seeing beyond appearances, inheritance of spiritual duty, and learning to live between two worlds rather than fully escaping one. The detailed narrative (dialogues, inscriptions, cutscenes) is handled by the narrative teammate and integrated into levels through brief in-world text and encounters.
2D Platforming
The player runs and jumps through side-scrolling levels with a mix of visible platforms, hidden platforms, doors, and simple obstacles. Movement is responsive and timing-based, so players must control their jumps carefully, especially when landing on platforms that only appear under certain vision modes.
Eye Switching
Akiko can switch between two vision modes, but only one is active at a time. Players must quickly switch eyes while moving to read the level, avoid danger, and find safe routes.
Platform Eye (Normal Eye): Shows hidden or moving platforms and paths that are invisible to normal people. These platforms are often required to progress.
Yokai Eye: Reveals spikes, yokai enemies, and other spiritual threats that are invisible in Platform Eye mode.
The main challenge comes from combining fast eye switching with precise platforming: players need to decide when to see safe paths, when to reveal threats, and how to jump safely while the world keeps changing.
Level
The game is structured into three main platforming levels plus a boss level, each building on the eye-switching idea.
Level 1 – The Forest of Whispers
A simple forest area that teaches running, jumping, and basic eye switching. Normal platforms are safe but limited; switching to the Platform Eye reveals extra platforms needed to cross gaps, while the Spirit Eye briefly shows the first hidden yokai or traps. The goal is to reach the exit while collecting a few obvious spiritual items.
Level 2 – The River of Souls
A more complex environment underwater that mixes visible and invisible threats. The difficulty of this level comes from more invisible platforms and the existence of buoyancy. Players need to quickly switch eyes to handle more sophisticated platforms.
Level 3 – The Mountain Shrine
More vertical layouts, and add new environmental elements (wind) require confident use of both special eyes. Added more air currents to increase difficulty.
Players now juggle timing, movement, and eye mode under higher pressure, preparing them for the boss.
Boss Level – The Eye Thief Dodomeki
A focused arena/level where the boss’s eyes shoot out projectiles, and the player needs to jump over platforms and avoid areas of damage, and collect spiritual power to cast damage.
Technical Design
Eye Switching System
(ViewManager, HiddenPlatformInvisible)
The eye mechanic is implemented with two cameras and layer-based visibility. ViewManager listens for eye-switch inputs and toggles between the platform-view camera and the enemy-view camera. Only one camera is active at a time, so each mode cleanly shows different sets of objects. An eye-switch animation/SFX is triggered through the player controller to reinforce feedback.
Objects that should exist only in one vision mode (such as hidden platforms or air/water currents) subscribe to the same input and enable/disable their colliders accordingly using scripts like HiddenPlatformInvisible and CurrentInvisible. This keeps all “world layer” logic simple and data-driven: designers place objects in the scene and tag them with the correct script, and the system handles visibility and collision on switch.
Visual Feedback & Eye-Switch UI
To make each mode easy to read, I added a clear UI and color filter on top of the camera output for each eye state (for example, different screen tints / overlays). When the player switches eyes, both the active camera and the overlay update together, so players can quickly recognize which vision is active without guessing. This supports fast switching during platforming and reduces confusion in busy scenes.
Arts
References
