In Paper Nowhere, there is an item called the Periscope. It is a compact magic mirror with a very unique enchantment that allows it to be used to see things that cannot normally be seen from the user's location.

In gameplay, the player can use the Periscope to rotate the camera, allowing them to look around and observe their surroundings. Being a game about exploration, this can be extremely useful for finding new paths through the level, figuring out where you are in relation everything else or even just looking at birds and tall buildings.

However, despite it's usefulness, the Periscope is the most forgettable item in the game. Every other item fits it's purpose like a key fits a lock. The crowbar is hook-shaped and fits on to levers and monkeybars, the pen pierces through weak materials and allows Doodle to write on walls, the lantern (not yet available in the demo) lights up dark rooms and increases visibility. The Periscope is one of the only items in the game that doesn't have a clear action and reaction. And players forget to use it as a result.

So... You may now be wondering what we're going to do about this? Well after some thought, I decided that perhaps a good solution is to do something comparable to the scan visor from Metroid. So I began thinking about the most simple way to achieve this within the limitations of my skills and the limitations of the engine. And it was thinking about limitations of the engine that I came up with the simplest potential solution: Lights!

I could make lights appear on objects of interest when using the periscope, with each type of object having a different color. This would even help with allowing me to make level design more artistic because I would be able to clarify things like for example, what can or can't be hooked with a crowbar, through non artistic means.

This could also be fun and interesting for me to work with from a story perspective, as each color can be associated with an magic element, which could potentially allow for some interesting environmental storytelling and world building by using the colored glow to figure out the elemental affinity of various things and characters. But I'm getting ahead of myself now. Only time will tell if I try to pull that off...

In the meantime, we will probably be experimenting with the creation of this feature as well as others in the coming days.