TurnOn

TurnOn is a puzzle platform game about electricity and restoring light. After an accident at a power plant all electricity disappears from Electro City. The player controls an alien spark-like creature that uses power lines to travel around and needs to brings back electrical power. The game consists of levels divided over a large hub map that covers the city. There are different types of levels. In the regular ones the spark creature can explore the environment freely using power lines. Controls are limited to moving in four directions. The spark moves only in 2D, but the environment is in full 3D with different layers behind each other. That way the game uses a 2.5D effect to travel between the front and the back of environments if they are close enough to jump between lines.

This technique is also used to solve small environment puzzles, for instance to locate fuse boxes that activate elements in the environment. That way, progression in a level is not always linear and often there are multiple paths to explore simultaneously. At the same time actions are often linked to small story sequences in the environment, such as restoring light to scare off thieves, helping people in a house, bringing together two lovers on a date, and so on. Between levels there are often cut-scene sequences with comic book panels. Levels have several checkpoints as dropping off a power line leads to immediate death. Levels contain many collectibles and option tasks such as moving over lamps and other items to trigger actions, changing the environment and introducing light. This is rewarded with points, encouraging the player to fully explore environments looking for hidden triggers. Along the way blue electricity icons can be collected and these are sometimes on hard to reach places.

Next to the basic levels there are quicker ones where the spark moves in one direction by itself, and the player quickly needs to move it between the lines. These levels require reflexes with a lot of jumps. Red icons take away health (from a maximum of three), while green icons restore a portion. Some of these levels also act as boss fights, such as disabling a tram, but sometimes a boss needs to be defeated in a regular level as well.

The game is inspired by the World Wide Fund for Nature's yearly event Earth Hour, encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour, as a symbol for their commitment to the planet.