ENTOMBED

My daily commute by train has become a great opportunity to sketch up some concept art for some of the key moments in the game. Thus:

Development of the game has picked up again in recent weeks. The 2D art style is working really well for me and allowing me to get my ideas implemented much more quickly and painlessly. One of the benefits is that concept art like this can be recreated in the game far more accurately than it could using 3D assets.

I've set myself the goal of creating an introductory sequence made up of about 15 rooms, which will ideally act as a kind of new pre-release demo to replace the old IndieGoGo prototype build. I plan to use this demo to show off the darkness effects, demonstrate how the world will be explored and start to introduce the story.

More news to come in the next few weeks! Follow Luminesca on Twitter or Facebook for the latest.

black jellies in motion

I previewed the 2D art style in my previous blog post, but here's a video of it in motion:

The video demonstrates two key features:

1. The dangerous black jellies, which close in on light sources and constrict your movement. Their poisonous tentacles slow you down and make you easy pickings for the ominous, eyeless maws.
2. The use of light to create more dynamic situations. The brightness of your light now affects how far you can see in the dark and changes your relationship with other creatures. If it becomes bright enough you can scare away weaker enemies like infant jellyfish.

I'm making headway with refining the story and trimming out the superfluous parts, which is helping to shape the overarching level design. This in turn is helping me decide which gameplay elements (creatures, obstacles, etc.) no longer fit the game, and I'm building a much clearer idea of what Luminesca is about. To me, this is a very important part of its design.

And finally, some good news. I'm working on a new playable prototype which should be available via certain digital distributions platforms. If you pre-order the game you can get early access to this for a discounted price. If you donated to the IndieGoGo campaign you will get a key to download it at no extra cost (this is essentially an updated version of the 'preview build' being delivered in a more secure way).

2 new screenshots to start the week

tardy update

Sorry for the lack of updates, etc. etc. I'm going to be open and honest about where Luminesca is at the moment.

The donations the project received via IndieGoGo were incredibly generous and allowed me to spend time developing an actual working prototype, which has helped me more than I could have possibly imagined. But the funding only lasted for so long and I've had to return to full-time work so I can pay the bills. Unfortunately, progress on Luminesca has slowed down quite a bit as a result.

But it hasn't stopped completely! Luminesca is incredibly important to me and has been slowly simmering for several years in one form or another. Developing a working version of the game has opened my eyes to a lot of realities about the project, from high-level project management issues (e.g. it takes a lot of time and effort to make a game on your own) right down to the nitty-gritty quibbles (this camera is too close, and that move speed is too slow).

Ultimately, I decided that I wasn't happy with the direction that the game was heading in and that it had grown into something quite unmanageable taking my budget and time constraints into account. So I've taken a step back from the game, looked at what wasn't working and now I have gone back to the drawing board. Here's what I've come up with:

As you can see I've gone back to 2D, this time using a plugin for Unity called Orthello. I came to the conclusion that 3D art is not my forté, and implementing it has a tendency to increase the number of bugs and graphical oddities tenfold. 2D art is simple, clean and (most importantly) quick and easy to create. This means it's way more manageable for a one-man team and I have a much greater chance of actually finishing the game!

I'm not showing off the game in motion just yet as there are still some kinks to iron out, but I'm already feeling much more confident about development and I'm progressing much quicker than before.

What do you think? Do you like the new style based on this early look?

initial level design

I blocked out an initial layout for the whole game world so I could run through it and get a feel for its size.

The image shows the main path through the game's various zones. At the moment it just represents the shortest path from A to B but will eventually be weaved into a more complex network of intricate tunnels and caverns.

On previous projects I've often spent a lot of time recreating detailed level design sketches in the editor, only to find that the scale is way off throughout the whole level. One of the things I love about Unity is how easy it is to quickly chuck in a load of prefab shapes and copy and paste until I have a simple layout ready. Then with one click I'm swimming around in the game engine and very quickly getting an idea of whether it feels the right size or not.

The world of Luminesca is still in its early stages but it feels like a good size; it's big enough to give a sense of grandeur without being so big that it's unreasonable to try and fill it all with enough detail.

The next stage is to look at each zone individually and start implementing the main gameplay and story beats. I'll start with the mid-game section before book-ending it more simple and more complex versions of the gameplay.

end of the IndieGoGo campaign

Yesterday marked the deadline for supporting Luminesca on IndieGoGo and I'm pleased to announce that the project reached a total of:

$1,510

I'd like to say a huge "Thank you!" to everyone who donated to support the game, your generosity makes all the difference. While the result of the crowd-funding campaign was a long way off its ambitious goal the money raised will be a great help in supporting development for the near future.


what happens next?

This is really just the beginning for Luminesca.  The plan is to continue making the game and taking pre-orders to fund development along the way (this may take a little while to get up and running).

The preview demo we have been working on alongside the IndieGoGo campaign provides a good foundation to build upon with a set of fun mechanics and interesting characters. Behind the scenes I'm drawing up maps and plans for the game's full story mode which is now beginning production.

If you donated on IndieGoGo you will be contacted soon.

Check back here soon for more news, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or IndieDB for notifications.

update 006: control fixes

This is the last update before the IndieGoGo timer is up. If you want to donate and start playing the game, now's the time!

The update addresses some problems players reported with the controls for the game, and is automatically applied and playable now for anyone who has donated $5 or more.

• Removed the buoyancy effect that pulls you upwards all the time and replaced it with a simple floating animation which plays when you're not pressing any buttons.
• Replaced the brief pause when you take damage with a screen shake.
• Improved the tube worms' animation and allowed them to damage biting bugs and smash breakable blocks.
• Improved movable blocks physics stability and smoothed out movement.

Although this is the last update before we run out of time on IndieGoGo, the game is still in early stages, and there will be many more major improvements to come in the future. This is made possible thanks to the generosity of everyone who has donated so far and we hope this is just the beginning for Luminesca.

Thank you!