Neon White is a game that combines shooting and solving puzzles while moving through levels. It was created by Angel Matrix and released by Annapurna Interactive. The game was first available on Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch on June 16, 2022. It later came out on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on December 13, 2022, and was also released for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on July 11, 2024.
In the game, players take on the role of a character named Neon, who must defeat all the demons in a level as quickly as possible. Players use playing cards to represent weapons, and these cards can be used to do special moves like jumping higher or moving faster. The game was written by Ryann Shannon, who worked on OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, and Aevee Bee, who worked on We Know the Devil.
Gameplay
Neon White is a game where a group called the Neons, people who have done bad things and are sent to Hell, compete in a yearly contest. Their goal is to clean up demons in Heaven to earn the chance to stay there. The Neons must wear special masks that explode if they break the rules, disobey orders, or remove their masks. There are 100 Neons in the competition, and they all try to become the top Neon. The player controls Neon White, an assassin who is competing for the first time. White receives daily tasks from an angel named Mikey and meets old friends, but he cannot remember his past life due to amnesia.
The game includes several missions, each with multiple levels. To finish a level, the player must defeat all demons and reach a crystal-like goal. Completing a level gives the player "Insight," which helps them see hidden paths and items. The player moves by running and jumping, collecting Soul Cards found in the environment or earned by defeating demons. Soul Cards can be used as weapons, each with a basic attack and a special ability that activates when the card is discarded. For example, discarding a handgun card allows the player to jump twice in a row. If the player takes too much damage or falls off the map, they must restart the level. After completing a level, the player earns a medal based on their time: Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Ace. If the player finishes faster than a specific time, they earn a special medal called a "red medal," which is given for beating the game’s director, Ben Esposito.
Between levels, players can talk to non-player characters (NPCs) in Heaven’s hub world. They can improve relationships with NPCs by completing challenge missions and ranking up confidants. To unlock new missions, players may need to achieve a certain Neon rank, which depends on how many levels they have completed with Gold or better time medals. Players can revisit previous levels to improve their scores and advance further in the game.
Plot
Neon White, who has no memory, wakes up in Heaven with other sinners chosen from Hell. They are told by the Believers, a group that claims to speak for God, that they are called "Neons" and that God has judged them very harshly. Their only chance to be saved is through the Ten Days of Judgement competition, which happens every year to remove demons from Heaven. The Neon who kills the most demons during the competition will receive a mechanical halo that allows them to stay in Heaven for one year. White and the other Neons are given weapons and masks that will explode if removed. The Believers can also detonate the masks to punish any Neon who disobeys rules.
As the competition begins, White meets fellow Neons named Yellow, Violet, and Red, who say they knew him in a past life. He also meets angels named Mikey and Gabby, who assign tasks to the Neons.
During a daily message from the Believers, White meets Neon Green, the current owner of the mechanical halo. Green is feared because he has killed other Neons. Later, Violet tells White about the Old City, a forgotten part of Heaven said to hold powerful weapons. Red warns White not to go there because Green uses it as a hunting ground, but White ignores the warning and goes to the Old City with Yellow. There, they meet Green, and Yellow is killed when he tries to block an attack meant for White. After defeating Green, Green explains that the Believers made his halo using a page from the Book of Death and says he has plans for White. White then learns about the Book of Life and decides to find it as his doubts about the competition and the Believers grow.
White catches up with Green, who tells him the Book of Life is located at Heaven's Edge. Red stops a fight between White and Green and reveals that White, Red, Yellow, and Violet once worked together as assassins under Green’s leadership. Their last mission was to kill Blue, Green’s former boss, but they all died during the mission, though Green succeeded in killing Blue. The next day, Mikey refuses to assign White to Heaven's Edge, explaining that he knows the competition is fake and that he would rather see White for ten days a year than risk him never returning to Heaven. Despite this, White and Red go to Heaven's Edge anyway. Mikey later joins them and explains that Heaven was originally called Sheol but was changed by the Believers, who overthrew God to take control of Heaven. The Believers killed most angels and only spared those who agreed to serve them. They also took the Book of Death from God, but God kept the Book of Life and the Inkhorn, a tool used to write in both books, which made Heaven vulnerable to demons. Mikey shows White a page from the Book of Life that White had found earlier, helping him locate the full book.
At the Third Temple, White finds one of God’s hands holding the Book of Life. The hand opens when White approaches, but Violet, who was upset with White earlier, takes the book. Green kills Violet, and White and Green fight. Green’s halo breaks, freeing him from the Believers’ control. Green plans to destroy Heaven using the books, but Violet stops him by exploding herself and scattering the pages of the Book of Life. Green returns to Outer Heaven, steals the Book of Death from the Believers, and prevents them from detonating the Neons’ masks. The remaining Neons riot, and Green kills the Believers. White uses the remaining page of the Book of Life to recover and reassemble the book.
Once the Book of Life is complete, White searches for the Inkhorn, the last item needed to restore God. Mikey tells White that sinners who reach Heaven are free of guilt, making them the best Neons because they follow orders without question. White had guilt but was pulled to Heaven by Red, which caused his amnesia. God’s other hand is found outside Heaven, and Green says a soul is needed to bring it into Heaven to reopen the firmament. Red sacrifices herself by detonating her mask, and Green and White have a final fight over the books and the Inkhorn. White wins, and the angels perform a ritual to restore God. However, Green returns and tries to write everyone’s names into the Book of Death.
If White did not collect enough items to remember his past, his only choice is to write Green’s name into the Book of Death, turning Green into a demon and sending him to Hell. God then writes Yellow, Violet, and Red’s names into the Book of Life but excludes White because he failed to earn salvation and broke rules by writing names into the Book of Life. If White unlocked all his memories, he has the option to write Green’s name into the Book of Life, forgiving Green and showing he can let go of the past. After this, God writes White’s name into the Book of Life with his crew.
Development
Lead designer Ben Esposito created an early version of Neon White as a first-person shooter game in 2017 while working on Donut County. He made this project as a way to take a break from his work on Donut County. After Donut County was released in 2018, Esposito returned to the Neon White project to continue developing it. Around this time, a game called Slay the Spire was released. This game used cards, and it inspired many other indie games to use card-based systems. Esposito said that using cards instead of real weapons was a key design goal. He explained that players should think of cards as tools that help them move more effectively, not as weapons.
The idea of using cards led Esposito to describe the game as a "card-based arena shooter with a lot of randomness." However, he found that giving players random cards made the game harder to play. To fix this, he decided to give players specific cards, which made the game more focused on speedrunning. Esposito said that videos of speedrunners influenced this change. He noted that very skilled speedrunners often solve puzzles to save time rather than relying on perfect execution. He wanted players to have a clear path to complete each level but also included clues that encouraged them to find shortcuts or use cards in creative ways.
Esposito faced challenges when testing the game because some players completed levels but did not return to improve their times. To address this, the team added the Neon Rank system, which required players to return to levels to earn rewards. They also made changes to prevent players from feeling discouraged. For example, they only showed friends' and global scoreboards after players completed levels with specific goals. They also added ghost support and shortcut hints for players trying to improve their times. The team set a design goal that each level would have at least one major shortcut needed to earn the Ace medal rank. They based target times for medals on how less skilled players performed. However, the team found that their own performance times were too fast, so they adjusted their ghost runs with small mistakes to create more realistic time goals.
In 2019, Esposito brought in more developers to help build the game. The team was named Angel Matrix, a reference to 1990s anime. Treating the game as a puzzle, Esposito removed some typical first-person shooter elements, such as showing the gun visually or limiting the number of guns players could carry. He added team members to help with the game’s visuals and character designs, including Aevee Bee, Ryann Shannon, and his wife, Geneva Hodgson.
In May 2022, Steve Blum, Alicyn Packard, Courtney Lin, Ian Jones-Quartey, SungWon Cho, Zeno Robinson, Salli Saffioti, Ben Lepley, and Bruce Barker were announced as voice actors for the game. In June 2022, the game was officially announced for release on June 16, 2022, for Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows. Later, versions for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were released on December 13, 2022.
Reception
Neon White received "generally favorable" reviews on Windows, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5, according to Metacritic, a website that collects game reviews.
Eric Van Allen of Destructoid praised the game's unique visual style, thoughtful story, level design that encourages speedrunning, and well-developed characters and voice acting. He wrote, "[Neon White] is a fast-paced, anime-inspired shooter with style and a strong emotional core." Oisin Kuhnke of Eurogamer recommended the game, highlighting its story, themes, and anime influences, and praised its gameplay centered on speedrunning. He noted, "Neon White has some of the best level design I've ever played in an arcade-style game…the excitement I felt when achieving a top score in a short time was unlike anything I'd experienced before." Blake Hester of Game Informer called Neon White "my favorite game of the year" and praised its level design, story, gameplay, and visual style similar to Japanese action games like Killer7 and El Shaddai.
Richard Wakeling of GameSpot appreciated the game's replay value and creative card-based mechanics, calling it "a perfect combination of level design and player progress." However, he mentioned the story was slow-paced and the writing was weak. Dan Ryckert of Giant Bomb gave the game a perfect 5-star rating, comparing its visual style to 90s video game magazines that exaggerated a game's effects. He said, "It quickly captures your attention, and the real fun and challenge become clear with repeated play."
Scott McCrae of Nintendo Life praised the game's fast and satisfying gunplay, strong writing, high replay value, excellent visuals, and energetic music. PC Gamer compared Neon White's visual style to a Dreamcast game and wrote, "If you can accept (or enjoy) the quirky style, Neon White is a fast-paced speedrunning platformer with a strong visual identity." Morgan Shaver of Shacknews highlighted the game's flexibility, allowing players to complete levels in many ways, and wrote, "Neon White gives players a thrilling speedrunning experience through creative challenges." The Verge noted that while some later collectible locations were confusing, repeated play helped players understand the game better, adding, "those replays showed me how the game works—and now, I want to perfect my runs."
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Neon White was created by the band Machine Girl. Lead designer Ben Esposito chose them after listening to their 2020 EP RePorpoised Phantasies. Esposito had been a fan of Machine Girl since their 2015 album Gemini and emailed them during the 2020 lockdown to ask if they would work on the game's music from home. Matt Stephenson, the lead artist, agreed after confirming that Esposito was serious about the project. He then shared many unfinished songs for Esposito to use in the game. Esposito said he wanted the music to continue the style of RePorpoised Phantasies, and about half of the final game's tracks were chosen from these demos, while the other half were new songs made just for Neon White. Esposito also said about half of all the music created for the game was not used in the final version.
To guide the soundtrack's style, Esposito wanted it to sound like music from older games, such as those from the Jet Set Radio and Ape Escape series. Stephenson also found inspiration in Mick Gordon's music for the Doom series for some later tracks. While working on the game, Machine Girl began touring live, and Stephenson wrote calmer music to help manage stress. The main theme for the game's hub world, "Peace of Mind," was written during a very busy day when the band was rushing to meet a show deadline and one of the van passengers became sick. The soundtrack was released on Bandcamp and streaming platforms at the same time as the game. It was split into two volumes: the first included music from the main missions and side quests, and the second featured tracks that played during non-gameplay moments.