Lighting the Way to Low Stress Gaming

If you’re looking for a magical, easy-to-play game for yourself and your children that’s full of beautiful art and music, look no further than “Light a Way”. With a 4.4 star rating in the Google Play store (it’s also available on iOS) and over a million downloads, it’s a safe bet that your family will enjoy this low-stakes, low-energy game. It’s popular enough, in fact, that a wiki has been made for it, and if you want to admire some of the art and strategize a bit before you play, I recommend taking a peek at it.

The game is set in a magical world beset by a great darkness enveloping it, caused by blob-like creatures called umbra which have descended and devoured the fey creatures that provide the world with light and goodness. You play a little girl who is gifted with a magical staff by one fey she helps. Armed with a light-emitting staff, the girl goes forth to save the other fey creatures. For each umbra she defeats, another fey is released, and the darkness is pushed back a bit more.

The game is a 2-D tap game, but after about ten minutes or so of this you can invest your points in powering up fey creatures that you attract to fight alongside you. I found that after just a bit of levelling them up, I could set down my phone to pet my cat or do some laundry…and still hear my fey teammates fighting away, knocking out enemies without my assistance. This helps to make short work of the umbra, a necessary help as their hit points eventually reach fantastical heights.

Don’t be alarmed by the powerful enemies, though: In the time I spent playing the game, not once did the enemy return fire. Instead, the game was an exercise in patience and whittling down the enemy, much as you might hack away at a colorful, menacing log. If the tapping wears away at you, however, and you want to work through the story quicker, there is the option to spend money in the game store to enhance your character and her fey companions, either by powering them up directly or buying assorted magical costumes and staff enhancements for the little girl.

As the game progresses, the little girl progresses along a map that marks her progress. From time to time, the game is broken up by wonderfully illustrated comic panels that provide exposition and highlight the achievements of the girl and her companions. While I couldn’t find a comic available for purchase anywhere of the art itself, I can’t help but feel that would be a fun bit of merchandise to offer fans. I’ve only just begun playing it, after all, and I’m already in love with the artwork.

“Light a Way” is developed by Appxplore Games, a studio based out of Kuala Lumpur, and appears to have come out in 2018. However, the game was still being updated as of February 2023, so there’s little need to worry about bugs or coming to an end in gameplay too quickly. The studio doubtless realized they had a little treasure on their hands, and I expect people to continue to enjoy this game for many more years to come.