Luminux: Light Fusion [Demo Available!]

[erichermit 9]

 

 

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Abstract: Mobile & PC colorful sliding block action puzzle game

Genre: Action-Puzzler

Game Progression: Gameplay complete, completing QA and seeking the expensive licenses for publish.

 

Web Player Link: Luminux

Game Trailer:

 

Luminux is planned to be released primarily as a game for both mobile and pc. It is thus designed primarily with touch screens in mind, but I have found that the control scheme communicates fairly to mouse as well.

 

Premise

Hello there! Luminux is an action-based puzzle game that marks a return to game development for myself and my friends.

The premise of the game is simple. By sliding blocks around (which, in turn, slide other blocks around) you attempt to keep the board from filling up. While sliding 3 blocks of the same color into a straight line is enough to destroy them, earning proper points requires creating thinking in order to line the blocks up so that multiple rows will be destroyed at once.

A prototype of this game won first place in a Microsoft-hosted coding competition, prompting us to create a fully fleshed out and polished version for a true release!

 

Screenshots

 

 

 

How to Play

Sliding the blocks so that 3 or more colors line up in a row will explode them, giving points. However, exploding more blocks at one time increases the amount of points gained by an exponential factor. Thus, it is best to avoid blowing up 3 blocks save for clearing them off the field. Ideally, one should be aiming to blow up multiple rows at the same time, which is performed because when a block is moved, it also moves all other blocks that it collides with, allowing you to move multiple blocks into position at once.

Simply click on a block and drag it to move it.

You will see a block zooming into the screen as it is spawning. If you move a block over the square it is about to spawn in, you will deny it from spawning and a new block will spawn elsewhere.

Every 24000 points, you will gain a new "Rank", which will clear the entire board of blocks, giving you a bit of a breather. It will also increase the Badge you receive at the end.

There are two game modes. Action mode is a race against the clock as blocks start spawning faster and faster. Reflexes and quick thinking are key here. In Puzzle Mode, the blocks only spawn as a function of your own moves, giving you the time to actually plot out the perfect execution. In return, the blocks spawn much more frequently. 

 

Other Features

Luminux is going to contain both local, regional, and facebook-integrated high scores, as well as online leaderboards. This is to allow you to compete not only directly with your friends but with other players worldwide!

The game will also contain a myriad of unlockable titles based on your performance, the results of which are displayable as an orbiting star on your main menu and high scores. This star becomes more extravagant and prismatic as you unlock greater titles, allowing you to feed your vanity or brag with a glance.

Story / Setting / Purpose:

There is no real "story" here. In a colorful environment, the user is prompted to fuse colorful blocks (AKA "Lums") together in ways such as to earn the most amount of points.

 

Character Bios:

There are five different colored blocks, each with a unique- 

Just kidding, there are no characters in this game, obviously.

 

Credits

Developers: Joey Caero, Eric Hornby, Cory Kocurek

Coding: Joey Caero, Eric Hornby

Graphics: Cory Kocurek

Music: Alex Beroza, CDK, masl123

Sound effects: ejfortin, timbre

Edited February 7, 2014 by erichermit

[Rave 14]

Cool game! Will certainly play it. One question: If you use Unity (not sure about that), wouldn't default Android/WP Phone licenses be enough? As of 4.2 Android/WP Phone/iOS base licenses are free so unless you need things they can't allow, why don't save some money and buy them from game's earnings?

[erichermit 9]

Good question!

 

First of all, a developer's license for Windows Phone and iOS are actually $100/year. But this is easily dealt with, and I wouldn't launch a kickstarter for just $200!

 

The real reason is the expensive "Unity Pro" License we want. First of all, Luminux uses some graphical features only found in Unity Pro. Second of all, Unity Pro is required for us to be able to not display the Unity splash screen at the start. This makes the game appear unprofessional, and it really hangs around for a long time. Not at all something we want for a quick "Pick up and play" game best suited to waiting in a line or sitting on a bus. 

 

A final reason is that we do not only need Unity Pro for this project, but for the myriad of other games we have planned for the future. The free version just doesn't cut it for the things we want to make. We'll be able to use the trial version for our in-web-player demo that will be released shortly, but not for our full commercial release. (Which by the way, will have no in-game monetization. This is something that generally puts us off in mobile games and nobody at Pelagic Games is interested in making something we aren't personally proud of or wouldn't personally want to play. The game will cost a cheap amount, probably no more than 99 cents, and then it will fully owned. We'll keep a free web-player version up on our website.) The money from the kickstarter is not just about funding the full-quality creation of this game, but also the creation of us as an effective game-design group.

 

While normally, the licenses we would need would either be $4500 to own for good or $2750 to rent for a year (preferably we wouldn't want to rent, as we would like to plan on being in business for longer than a year!) , I am in the lucky position of currently taking my last semester of school (Texas A&M - Computer Science.)  Since I can acquire the license on a student discount, we'll be able to ask for much less, probably $2500, though no promises. This is very reasonable for a crowd-funding goal, we think. (Unity Pro is $1500 or $750/year to rent, but you need an additional license, costing the same, for both iOS and Android! Windows Phone, being apparently the coolest phone around from my new perspective, doesn't require such a thing!)
 

If the kickstarter fails, I'll be forced to front all this money. This is a bit of a painful thing to do as someone who is just about to finish college, especially when there is no guarantee for returns. We could, of course, release Luminux without the Pro licenses. However, we want the game to be full quality and we'll need the licenses for future projects anyway.

 

As a little bonus, a Kickstarter is also good at broadcasting knowledge of the game and developing a community. That is not our purpose for using it, however.

Edited December 30, 2013 by erichermit

[The Yank 10]

Unity engine o.O

I thought only rpg maker games were allowed here...

 

In terms of the game though, I think it's a wise choice to be looking at mobile platforms. Much of the gaming industry is moving in that direction anyway.

 

I like the concept of the game, puzzle games make for good casual gaming experiences. Who knows, this could be the next candy crush!

 

Also, I like shiny things

[erichermit 9]

I was a little unsure if it was going to be allowed at first (due to the different engine) but I am glad it is. 

 

I'm not necessarily looking to stick to the mobile industry. Luminux will be available via web player for free (probably full game, but might have Challenge mode missing) so technically it'll be a PC game too. However, the controls are definitely built with a touch screen in mind, so while the mouse will work, you'll lose a lot of the intuitive feeling that is the swiping of your finger to move a block around. I wanted to ensure that people had an easy way to try it out before making a purchase, however.

 

Since it is being based around mobile, the idea was indeed to make it a pretty casual game. It can be very rough and skill-challenging if you're aiming for a high score or the earn the final titles (essentially our version of levels, achieved only by meeting certain high-scores.) What are people looking for in a game on their phone? To me, answer to this question is something to play when I'm sitting on a bus, waiting in a line, or generally just stuck somewhere for 5 minutes or so. Or maybe I just need a quick break for a second. Luminux is designed to take around 3 minutes or so to play a game (in normal mode, at least) and be very intuitive.

 

Just because it's casual, though, doesn't mean there is a lot of room for challenge though! You'll see what I mean when we finish our website and stick the in-web  player game up for you guys.

 

Certainly we have no chance of overcoming Candy Crush and Angry Birds etc XD, but we do hope to be moderately popular! I truly believe that the product is fun enough to make it pretty big, but there is a lot of marketing skill and luck involved and this is our first commercial release. I'm sure we still have much to learn.

[erichermit 9]

Hello!

 

We've just finished a demo available in web player! You can try it out here: http://www.pelagicgames.com/luminux/luminux-demo/

 

Edit: We've also just finished adding in High Score support to the demo, so please come and compete!

Edited January 22, 2014 by erichermit

[erichermit 9]

It seems that we recently had an unexpected big boom of popularity on IndieDB

 

 

For a while there, we were top 8 on the entire site. I think at the time of posting, we're something like top 10. It's pretty much nuts and net us over 800 views on our game. 

 

 

In any case, today has been VERY exciting.