![]() ![]() At times, the unique perspective of the game can make it difficult to tell where you can tap to explore different areas. Every screen is beautiful and just draws you in to the world and makes you wish you could physically explore it yourself. ![]() The handmade three dimensional world of Lumino City is absolutely amazing to look at. The puzzles generally make sense, and vary in difficutly over the course of the game, and interacting with the people you meet on your way is always a treat. For the most challenging experience, look up the pages corresponding to the area you are in only if you can't figure something out yourself, though it is nice to know you've got a hint book at hand. It says right in the front of the manual to only use in emergencies, and that is what I would recommend as well. Other times it will just give you a push in the right direction, while on occasion it will just give you the answer you're looking for out right. Sometimes your grandfather's book is essential to solving the task at hand. To use an item, tap and hold, then drag the item where you want to use it. Here you can access your grandpa's book (all 900 pages-don't worry, it's easy to rifle through), as well as anything else useful you may have picked up along the way. It’s a story of what can be achieved with a small team, some from unusual backgrounds for game dev, to create a luscious looking vista in a unique but impactful way.Just tap where you want to walk or examine. It was the studio’s independence and sheer creative nous that ultimately led to State of Play creating exactly the game they wanted. “And that was the best advice we ever got.” “But the investor, who would have been really good, and someone to help out and finish it, played Kami and said you don’t need me, launch this and you should be fine,” says Whittaker. This, at a time when the studio was considering obtaining outside investment to complete the game. Hardly a side-project however, the game was a success and provided the much-needed finishing funds for Lumino City. Though State of Play had its work cut out on Lumino City, during development the team also got to work on another game, Kami. Daniel Fountain did some lovely code which actually applies film grain and blur to these characters and makes them sit in the scene.” Do-it-yourself This is before, by the way, our final layer is gone onto it. ![]() And you can see that she’s got a shadow as well. Especially when you’ve got a moving character and you’ve got to match the character to that. “So I’d have a run, a jump, and climb up animations. “It’s basically a question of putting all of these different parts together,” says Whittaker. It was a process the team admits took longer than it had initially expected, but was ultimately worth it due to the pay-off. The animation was done in Flash, with the game’s lead character Lumi made up of photographs of coloured paper and her various elements. Though a crucial part of the process, there were still two more years of development after this, with lots of programming and animation work still to be done. “It can get within millimetres of these models without touching it.” “This thing weighs a tonne, so every little inch we were like: ‘watch that model’,” recalls Bidwell. The storyboard was honed meticulously, everything had to operate as was intended to make the puzzles work.There were no second chances. The impressive machinery cost £2,500 a day. It was an experience that also made the team somewhat nervous. They’re used to doing one shot a day probably for a film, but we were like, can you do 150?” “It kind of surprised the guy when he turned up. “They haven’t done anything like that before,” says State of Play creative director Luke Whittaker. And what’s more, these are often used for one shot a day in film – State of Play needed 150 in the same timeframe. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the project’s development is the use of the Talos camera rig, usually used in film. A year into development, its creators then got to work capturing each scene. Each set would then come together to form the entire Lumino City. Once this was achieved, it would build a physical set for the puzzle and scene to take place in. To build Lumino City’s stunning scenery, the team would very precisely design a rough virtual mock-up of a scene, to ensure its ideas for puzzles would actually work. It was a lot, lot smaller scale though, and we did some experiments with cardboard.” Capturing the city We did Lume in 2011 and that was a set as well. “We set up State of Play in 2008, and in all our games even back then we’d use paper textures, or if we needed to animate a horse, we’d draw it and then scan it in and use it. ![]()
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