Turbo Pudding
It’s Sunday, so here’s a page from the sketchbook. In Panemonium you spend every level breaking stained glass, so the world map is made of stained glass too. It’s one tall window of the town of Vitrea, seen from the street up, with four panes held in lead. Lantern Lane is at the bottom, then Belfry Heights, the Glasshouse and, at the very top, the Moon Dome.
The picture above shows the top of that window: the Moon Dome’s roof under the sun, near the end of a game. More about that sun at the end.
Four panes, from the street up
Each pane is a slice of its world’s town, painted the same way as the town behind the play field. Between the panes run thick strips of lead with a thin gold line along each edge and a row of rivets. More lead frames the window at both sides, and at its foot lies a cobbled street.
At the bottom of every pane hangs a small glass plaque with the world’s name and how many of its 15 stars you have, for example “WORLD 1 · ★ 0/15” over “Lantern Lane.”
Medallions on a lead path
Every level is a round medallion with eight panes of colored glass around a number. Each world has five of them, laid out in a zigzag from the bottom of the pane to the top, and every other world flips the zigzag the other way. A smooth path of dark lead joins them all, from the first level, just above the street, to the last one right under the dome.
The next level to play is the brightest thing on the map. It bobs a little, a ring of light keeps breathing out of it, its name sits on a dark ribbon under its three empty stars, and Gaffer hangs beside it, the copper lantern with the little flame face, in a warm mood for once.
Dark glass and a brass padlock
A level you haven’t reached yet is drawn in dark glass, with its number in dim lilac, and the lead path to it has only a faint line inside. In the browser, Lantern Lane is free, and every medallion above it wears a small brass padlock in the corner. Win the first boss, and Stone Steps, the first level of Belfry Heights, lights up as the next one, padlock and all.
A pane wakes up
Inside the dark lead runs a gold line, as far as you have gone, and little beads of light keep running along it toward the next medallion. A won medallion glows with the colors of dawn and turns its center gold. Under it are its stars, one to three, and three small bells, lit for the bells you found in that level. A level won in Relaxed gets a tiny green leaf on its rim.
Each pane wakes up with its levels. Every win moves the town in it a fifth of the way from dusk to dawn, and windows and lamps light up one by one, just as in play.
When you come back to the map after a win, it opens one level back. The newest stretch of gold draws itself in under a second, then the next medallion bursts open with a ring of light and twelve glints.
Boss roses
The last level of every world is its boss, and a boss gets a bigger medallion, a rose of twelve panes with the boss’s face in the middle. Until you get there, the face is only a dark silhouette with a faint lilac rim. Reach it, and the face shows: the Grand Chandelier dreaming, Old Bellamy sleepy, the Looking-Glass vain and Duchess Dusk haughty.
The sky over the dome
Above the last pane, you see the Moon Dome’s roof from the street: the drum with nine arched windows, the ribbed cupola, a small lantern turret and a thin spire. A shadow shaped like a moth, Duchess Dusk’s, keeps circling it.
At the start of a game, the sky over the dome is night with 70 twinkling stars, and the sun is hidden behind the dome. The sun stands as high as you have come: every level you win lifts it a little, the sky warms around it, and the stars fade. The windows in the drum warm up as the Moon Dome’s own levels are won. The sun has 14 rays, and they turn very slowly.
On a computer, the window stands in the middle of the dimmed town with a glass panel on each side: Vitrea’s four worlds on the left, and on the right the level under the pointer, with its stars and best score. And the map’s tune grows by one more voice with each boss you beat, up to three.
Lantern Lane is free to play in your browser at panemonium.com: the first five levels, the first boss included. The full game is $4.99, paid once. More about the game is on its Panemonium page.
