Lost Shadow: From Humble Beginnings

I've been thinking about an idea for a game lately.  Tentatively titled Lost Shadow, the game would be a survival adventure about a shadow that has become unlinked from its source, and how a shadow survives in a world where other shadows swallow up unbound shadows.

I also have a comics class, and we have been assigned a project: come up with a 4 page story.  I am going to use the opportunity to expand on the idea.  I'll start with the extremely rough page sketches.

Page 1

This sequence shows our dead human, lying under a street light.  Slowly, the shadow peels away from underneath.  Not much to say other than this is how I see the game starting out; require the user to hit the move buttons to slide out from underneath.

Page 2

After breaking free, the first mechanic would be demonstrated by some sort of animal (I quickly drew a raccoon) running up to or by the dead body.  The animal's shadow would impact the unbound, un-anchored shadow, and knock it aside; this would show that other shadows have mass.

Page 3

This sequence shows a drunk man opening a bar door, and stumbling out.  He would leave the door open, and allow the player controlling the shadow to go in.

Page 4

The shadow enters the bar.  The original idea I had for the haze is that distorted lighting by fog, smoke, and other things belonging to the gaseous ilk would be able to obscure the shadow, allowing it to stealthily move around.

Several ideas didn't make it into this conceptual comic.  One sequence I envisioned for the game would be to show another unbound shadow sitting by itself on a wall that is lit up by a car's headlights.  If the player strays too close, an in-game engine scene would play out where the man in the car that was reading would flick the lights, signaling to someone.  There would be an ethereal sort of scream, and the shadow that was sitting idly would mysteriously disappear.  It would serve as a clue, to avoid getting swallowed up in shadow.

Another thing that I'd like to show is how unrestricted the movement would be in terms of directionality.  If there was a lit surface, the shadow could essentially move on it.  For example, one scene would be the shadow encountering a lit pool, and then traveling along the bottom.

There are other mechanics I have not yet fully thought out as well.  For example, does non-natural lighting have different effects?  What would a neon light do, or a black-light?  I don't know yet.