By: Aaron Li

Everybody can play and beat video games. What differentiates a new player from a pro player is the amount of time it takes them to do so. Players trying to beat the game as fast as possible are known as speed runners. These players spend many hours speed running the game and are trying to find any possible short cuts to make their time shorter.

The game, “Neon White”, allows many of their beginning players to experience this “speed

running” without spending the time pro players usually do to find all the shortcuts.

“Neon White” follows a deceased assassin with amnesia called White. White is competing

against many other assassins to kill demons and get out of hell. The meaning of this game is

between the interaction of the player and the individual levels in the game. The goal is simple,

kill demons and get to the finish line. Each level can be completed within a mere 30 seconds.

What’s interesting is that after you have completed the level once, a gift, something you can

give to another character to deepen your relationship with them, will spawn somewhere on the same level. This gift will help you use the previous abilities you utilized to complete the level in another way. Trying to obtain these gifts will lead you to a much faster way of completing the level.

“Neon White” makes you feel like a god at speed running, but the game designed it this way

intentionally.

IGN, a famous game reviewer corporation, says that “As a result, Neon White boasts not only a marvelous sense of momentum, but also a fantastic ability to flatter you. There were

certainly many occasions during Neon White where I felt like the greatest dead parkour assassin in the universe; breathless moments where I’d reached the end of a level and picked up my trophy by bounding and blasting by the seat of my pants, and playing the footage back felt like watching someone else playing. Someone much better than me. For an entirely unexceptional shooter player, Neon White’s capacity to make you feel like you look good playing it is a real credit,.” proving the point of how well developed the game is.

Unlike those cheap and money-grabbing mobile games, Neon White was designed carefully so that they can engage the player to think through the game and feel achievement when

completing its levels. Its carefully designed levels make it enjoyable for new players and

veterans alike find ways to be motivated to keep playing the same levels. The simple game may seem bland on the cover but carries many layers of creative and careful development inside.