Lanterncast

Lanterncast is a portrait mobile silhouette puzzle built around a traveling paper theatre. Inside the lantern wagon, an amber lamp faces a rice-paper screen across a set of brass depth rails. The player moves articulated fibre-paper puppets between those two anchors. Sliding a brass ring changes the puppet's distance from the lamp, so the live charcoal projection grows or shrinks immediately. Later tales add a glowing hinge, foreground and background occlusion, a shared lamp, moving shutter windows, counterweighted linked rails, and negative space that must remain lit.

The goal is readable without relying on abstract numbers. A solid charcoal shadow is the current result. A dashed paper cutout is the target. Vermilion hatching and directional arrows identify a specific mistake, while celadon double edges and brass lock pins show that the silhouette is ready to Cast. The first session teaches the loop in three playable steps, then each tale introduces or recombines one meaningful decision.

The first release contains eight handcrafted tales and thirty-two persistent scenes: Moon Hare, Crane's Reach, Bridge Crossing, Twin Guardians, Storm Procession, Giant and Child, Broken Crown, and Homecoming Panorama. New scenes change the target structure, rail relationship, hinge direction, occlusion order, timing window, linkage rule, negative-space opening, or retained panorama boundary. They are not random recolours or tolerance-only variants. Difficulty progresses from a single generous scale match to multi-control scenes that combine retained shadows, linked movement, negative space, and a final shutter window.

Every successful Cast preserves the player's real projection result, puppet pose, movement count, maximum edge error, and prop use. Completing a tale earns a Story Seal. Master Cast is based on all scenes in that tale: average silhouette match, worst edge error, total actions, and prop restrictions. It cannot be manufactured by a random multiplier. Story Cabinet keeps completed tales, the first and best Cast records, and the player's long-term mastery evidence.

Accurate play awards Ember. Between scenes, Prop Trunk offers a hinge pin, soft diffuser, or brass counterweight, each trading immediate help against Master conditions. Failure keeps earned progress and points to the exact rail, hinge, hidden edge, or shutter window that needs work. Accessibility options include English and Simplified Chinese, left-hand layout, reduced motion, pattern-coded errors, separate music and sound-effect volume, and full mute.

Rewarded advertising is limited to an optional free prop redraw or doubling remaining Ember. It cannot arrange a puppet, complete a shadow, grant a Story Seal, alter Master Cast, or restore missing story content. Interstitials are limited to non-gameplay navigation from Tale Ledger or Story Cabinet back to the wagon and share a cooldown. Lanterncast uses a fixed-camera 2.5D presentation: physical-looking wood, brass rails, puppets, and lamp distance communicate space, while a stable 2D silhouette surface keeps judgment clear. The release does not promise a free camera, physical cloth, infinite procedural stories, online co-performance, AI auto-solving, or offline cinematic rendering.