SALE! Steam Autumn Sale 50% off Lume now!

If you havn't got round to it yet, Grab yourself a bargain and purchase the fantastic Lume now in the Steam Autumn Sale. With a huge 50% discount on the game until Sunday, it's never been a better time to immerse yourself in Lume's charm. Snuggle up on these chilly nights and enjoy this illuminating puzzle adventure game. Or if you already have the game, why not buy one for your nearest and dearest as a Christmas present. Go on you know you want to! 

Kath x

Travels = Architectural inspiration

We have been extremely fortunate recently that in the passed few months we have managed to squeezed in visiting some amazing places, Japan, Najac, South of France and Marrakech, Morocco. 

As Lume and the upcoming Lume 2  development are never too far from minds consciously  or unconsciously we seem to relish the chance to photograph different and interesting architecture features from our travels. These will I'm sure all act as fantastic inspiration for our ongoing game projects. It will be interesting to see what seeps into our Lume 2 fantastical constructions.

Neon's, Skyscrapers, Shrines and Temples :  Japan September 2011

Medieval Chateaus, hilltop towns, stonework and arches :  Najac August 2011

Mosaics, courtyards, city walls, and colour:  Marrakech October 2011

Kath

Behind the scenes - Camera perfection

It feels strange to think back to a cold December 2010 and the day filming we had, to create the look of Lume, but I will try. First off here is a great picture I took of Luke with the finished 'Lume' set, just as we finished. As you can see by the shabby beard and the tired but happy eyes, It had been many hours work and long nights.

Day Filming commences...

We had abit of luck with a close friend of State of Play is the a fantastic lightening and cameraman Tom Hooker. He is currently filming wildlife for the BBC, so we were sure we would be in safe hands. 

Firstly, we set about lighting the set beautifully. We knew that the house would look perfect filmed with the addition of some great lighting tricks which Tom had up his sleeve. The shot list was then drawn up, and we set about getting each shot as perfect as we could. The end results were fantastic and after a long day, we couldn't be happier. Take a look at our behind the scenes photographs and the finished result with a look at the trailer. 

Kath 

Tokyo Game Show: Game-dancing your heart

We have recently got back from a fantastic trip to the Tokyo Game Show. We had a great time and the guys from Playism did a fantastic job of promoting their site and the games they have to offer. Lumi and the Lume set made it across to Japan in the luggage hold, and was successfully reassembled for everyone to take a look at.  It was a joy to watch people playing and enjoying the game. It was also fun watching them realise that what they were playing was actually the paper crafted model next to them! Here are a few pictures we took from the show.

Lume hits Japan

During the Summer we have been developing a Japanese version of Lume. Working together with PLAYISM we have produced a lovely new version of the game for the Japanese market.






It's great to see the game with beautiful Japanese characters replacing the speech bubbles and the puzzle's English words.

One big challenge with translating the game has been how to translate those puzzles which used English text (the clues in the books for example). So we've developed a whole new puzzle in one case, which we think you might like. I think we prefer it to the old one now!



We are also pleased to say that Luke and I will be travelling to the Tokyo Game Show alongside PLAYISM to showcase Lume. Not only will you be able to play the game, we are also bringing along the original model set over from the UK, and will be displaying it, miniture lights and all, so you can see the Lume world up close! If you are heading to the event be sure to come along and say Hi, it will be great to meet you.

Kath

A review round up and a spruce up

It's been a couple of months now since Lume was launched to the world. We have been so pleased with the majority of positive comments about the game, from people we really respect, here is a quick round up of a few:

" Lume takes the best of point and click gaming, sprinkles on a dash of room escape-style puzzles, and layers on that amazing visual presentation that must be seen in motion to truly appreciate." Jay is Games

"wow!...... the effect is breathtaking" Rock, Paper Shotgun

"Unfurl the bunting in celebration of State Of Play's charming addition to the scene.....what is undoubtedly one of the most unique-looking games around" Eurogamer

"a beautiful, funny and entirely charming little adventure" Games TM

"The style is beautiful and captures the world magnificently" The Indie Game Magazine

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the game, and who have let us know. Thanks as well for the feedback, it's going to be a great resource when we come to develop the next installment of the game.

In other news, we spent the weekend giving our studio the proper spruce up it deserved, an even better place to work now. Look closely and you can spy part of the Lume set in this picture.

Lume on Sale, 66% off!

It's been a while since our blog posts at late. We have been knee deep in finishing ongoing client projects, contemplating the future of Lume 2, and generally being very busy, as is the way for a small indie team.
Good news to tell. For a limited time only Lume is part of The Steam Summer Camp Sale, you can grap a copy here and save 66% off the price. Go get it!

The Lume Soundtrack now available to download free

Thanks to everyone who's been in touch with comments on the game, it's great to hear feedback and it'll all help to improve future instalments!

We've had a fantastic response to the music too, and there have been people wondering how they can get hold of it. So we've decided to offer the Lume Soundtrack as a free mp3 download.

Good for chilling out, working on your computer, or aiding in any puzzle solving activities you might encounter in day to day life.

You can get hold of it by heading to the official site or by clicking here.

Luke

Lume love and no more power!

Wow, so it's been abit of a whirlwind since launching Lume everywhere this week, and we are so pleased with everyone's positive responses. It's all abit overwhelming. People seem to completely get where we are coming from with the concept, art and gameplay of the game, and we couldn't be more chuffed. The guys at Rock, Paper Shotgun have given has a lovely review, as well as many others.

At the height of promoting the game yesterday and us beavering away at State of Play towers. We had a power cut across the entire row of studios. Now, I find that quite strange that we make a game about turning the power on, and we are plunged into darkness! It looks set to continue for a few days while the electricity company digs up the road....Now if only there was a simple solution........!

In other news, Lume now has it's own facebook page that you can find here.

Kath

Lume is Live!

It's the moment we've all been waiting for. You can now buy Lume on Steam, Direct2Drive and GamersGate.

Steam has a 10% discount for one week only, so get on over and fetch yourself a Lume-shaped bargain while it lasts.

We really would love to hear what you think of it, so let us know any comments here or via our website.

There will be more posts here very soon, with reviews, interviews, walkthroughs and feedback. In the meantime, happy puzzling!

Lume is Looming

We're nearly there, just a few more publishing details to thrash out and you can get your hands on it.

The trailer's now up on Vimeo too http://vimeo.com/23154447

Watch this space, will give you all a shout soon with details of where you can download it.

The making of Lume - Part 1

We've had quite a few people asking about how the game has been made and, well, we'd be delighted to let you in on all the details. Over the next few posts we'll take you through the processes we went through, the trails, tribulations and nervous cuts with a craft knife.

Way back, before the game even had a name and the plot wasn't written, we developed a little test to see if our little character would sit nicely in a model scene. We made this little video to make sure the idea was workable...



We also created a few other miniature sets which we photographed and filmed:





Once we were happy that the style was going to work, and we'd developed the plot outline, we set about the design of the house. This developed alongside the game design, as all the puzzles had to neatly fit into this space. You can see how we went from something more traditionally house-like, to the more intersting wedge shape, which made the roof a logical place for solar panels, and would also make it easier to make in one section. At least, that's what we thought. After some hefty measurement work and many checks to make sure the angles were right when cutting, we discovered that perhaps there's a reason most houses are squarer.






Next post we'll look at how we went from this to a proper model, with lights and all that jazz.

And for those who are eager to start playing, rest assured we're working hard to get the best publishing and distribution system in place, and we're nearly there.

Is this thing on?

We've been interviewed about Lume by John Polson for GameSetWatch and Gamasutra, check out the insider information here.

Lume: The Official Trailer

Below is the new trailer for Lume which shows you the game in action. Let us know if you like what you see!

Teasing

We did promise you some video, and here it is!

Just a glimpse of what's to come.

An HD look at the model

As the beady eyes will have noticed, the Lume world is a real-life model you can walk around, created entirely out of bits of card. It's also wired up with all sorts of miniature lights, which, as you'll eventually see, is an important element to the story and the puzzles. Each light is a dolls-house light, adapted and fitted to the model so that (hopefully) you can't see the wires when it's all lit properly. We'll post some more making-of bits and bobs soon, there's video of us testing the lighting in the dark for the first time, as well as lots of early sketches and the like.

For now, here's a photo of how one of the rooms we've built looked soon after the lights went onto the ceiling. This shot isn't particularly well lit, but what you lose in atmosphere you gain in detail (as fine an excuse for poor lighting as you'll ever hear). To give you an idea of scale, the sofa is about 4cm high.

We're doing an interview with a games site about Lume very soon, so there's more exclusive news on its way.

Luke

Lume is now in Beta, if you can call ‘Beta’ a state where it needs a good bit of spit and polish. The important thing is that the gameplay is pretty settled, the graphics are in, sound is there, as well as cutscenes.

The music was the final thing we sorted out. It’s always left until last, which is a pain but just a necessary evil, when there’s always more pressing things like bugs to fix. The music was always going to be a bit tricky for this, as it is in all adventure games – you want it to have some character, but also to be in the background and not intrude on the player’s consciousness too much – they’re trying to solve puzzles fer pete’s sake. The end result is a sparse-ish loop with some tinkly guitars and piano, hopefully matching the twinkling lights you’ll see in the game.

Ideally I’d love to make this music interactive, so each scene in the game has its own character, but that might be something for the future. It might not even be necessary, we’ll see once we look at it and hear it afresh.

We’re pretty excited about it now, the next stage is of course to start getting this out there for people to play. We’ve a few strategies in mind, and we’ll keep you updated with how you’ll be able to get hold of it.

The screenshot above is how it’s looking at the moment. We'd love to show more so I’ll upload a preview video soon, keep a beady eye out.

Luke

Lume: the roots

When you are knee deep in a project, it’s tricky to look back and work out where the seed of the idea has come from. However, I will give it a go. There will be lots of more posts chatting about the different aspects of the design and built of Lume, this one is about our love of the Puzzle Adventure genre.

At State of Play we've wanted to make a Puzzle Adventure game for a while, since we started out in fact. The roots can be traced back to my own love of 80s and 90s Puzzle Adventure games, and with Usbourne Puzzle adventure books.

The combination of a story, lovely illustrations and great puzzles, kept me amused for hours. If you are unfamiliar with these books, the general vibe was two children going to visit a relative and then realising that the nearby village/house/lighthouse/jungle was haunted/had vanished/had been taken over by pirates etc, you get the idea. This was combined with intriguing puzzles on each page, usually involving visual clues, code breaking or maps. The puzzles always seemed the right side of difficult which you had to solve before turning the page.

This had a natural progression on to Puzzle Adventure computer games. My first dip into this I guess was the Dizzy Series, although maybe more of a platform game, but it still had the magic of collecting items and puzzle solving in an exciting landscape.

Day of the Tentacle was another amazingly addictive puzzle adventure game. It got my brother and I completely hooked, and if I remember it clearly it was so difficult, but in a good way, every little bit of a story we managed to figure out was so rewarding. It also had historic elements, and how things were resolved were so random, things like having to freeze a hamster and then warming him up with a jumper you made small by washing it! Someone has uploaded a Day of the Tentacle Speedrun on You Tube - 21 minutes is very impressive.

I think there is a lot of criticism that stories and games don’t mix. But I remember being so involved in these stories, and no book managed to get me as excited as these games did.

More recently, The Professor Layton series on the DS was another huge surprise for me. The stories were great and the effortless way the puzzles were integrated with it really was inspiring. The twists and turns of the narrative made for a real sense of anticipation, a “What’s going to happen next?” factor.

This is where my love of the puzzle adventure has come from, and where the seed was planted, which has led to the tree of ‘Lume’.

Kath

What's in a name?

Well, as you can see from our previous post and title of the blog, the name of the game has changed. 'Switch' was our working title, but it was time to settle on something before we launch. Switch has, ahem, switched.

The new name is 'Lume'. Derived from luminescent, or illuminate, and you'll see why once we get some more details up.

Other reasons? Well, there are a couple of other games called Switch out there, and we didn't fancy any contrived suffixes like 'Switch: Contrived Suffix'. And Lume just sounds friendlier to us. Less like the word 'itch' anyway, and that has to be a good thing.

Luke

Switch The Game - where to start?

Throughout this chilly winter, State of Play has been working on a brand new puzzle adventure game, Switch. We are very keen to tell you all about it. for now are some screenshots.