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[Erichermit]

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Luminux is a frantic action puzzle game for Mobile and PC. We have set out to create a game that has extremely simple base mechanics while also giving the game a capacity for depth. The game is meant to reward quick thinking and quick reactions. Slow players will find that their opportunity for a well placed move has already passed if they take too long to act or decide upon it.

The very basic mechanics of the game involve setting up lines of 3 or more blocks ("Lums") of the same color, which will cause them to explode an award points. Points gained is exponential based on the number of blocks, however, so it is best to try to perform combinations of many blocks. It is even possible to explode multiple different colors at the same time through intelligent play.

By pushing for simplicity on the surface but depth behind the scenes, we hope to create a truly unique and interesting action/puzzle game.

Game Demo: http://www.pelagicgames.com/luminux/luminux-demo/
Game Trailer:

Screenshots

 

History

I (Eric Hornby) and my friend Joey Caero went to a Microsoft-sponsored hackathon competition at our university. After cooking up a very rough prototype of Luminux, which we then called "Project Tetra", inside of a 24-hour timespan we were fortunate enough to win first place in the competition. This victory inspired us to take on the monumental task of tackling Luminux for a true commercial release. I quickly grabbed an other friend who was a graphical designer, Cory Kocurek, and we began development.

While we all have a history of hobbyist game development, this is our first project together as a team and for each of us, a return to game design from a lengthy hiatus.

Contact
Please contact either via [email protected] or [email protected]
 

[Erichermit]

Update: Lets talk a little bit more about Block Denying

Thanks to a lot of the good feedback I've been able to get both here and on r/gamedev's FeedbackFriday we've been able to identify a pretty large issue with the game: Block Denying by rolling over a block midspawn until it comes out as the color you want.

First of all, I just updated Luminux with my new change for preventing abuse of Block Denying. If you go play it again, I think it should be pretty clear how it works, but I'll detail it down here anyway.

Just like before, denying a block mid-spawn causes it to go away and a new one immediately starts respawning. Unlike before, this does not delay the NEXT block from spawning. In this case, denying blocks is useful if you want to force a block into a separate location or color, but it cannot be performed endlessly as it does not also stall you.

Because of this change, block denying no long freezes the point timer.



I think this change should also combat the feeling of "slowness" at the start of the game.

Moving Forward

Currently trying to prepare for a Kickstarter we hope to launch soon (next week), analyzing further feedback, and agonizing over a proper monetization scheme for the game.

[FanFan]

I really like the pace of it. Gotta go fast! Music is catchy but a bit repetitive, IMO you should make the loop longer.

Also, i'm semi-colorblind and i find some color blocks are too similar to some others. Perhaps a mode to assist color-blindness? Or make similar-colored blocks has different marking/texture to assist color blind?

Really nice work though :D

[Erichermit]

Thanks FanFan! We're currently exploring a change to the starting music. We really enjoy it the song, but you're right in that it does get repetitive fairly quickly.

Differentiating the textures between the colors sounds like a good idea to help with colorblind people. I know it will be different for everyone, but which which colors do you have trouble with?

Progress Update

We've just modified the

, instead of dividing the game into "Action", "Puzzle", and "Challenge" mode we've consolidated them all in a more sensical manner. This is also in preparation of us adding in a small narrative to the game.

Ideally we're going to be launching the small kickstarter this weekend in order for help pay for licenses.

[eigenbom]

Game looks good! I'm also red-green colour blind, and it means for puzzles like this I get confused between light-green and yellow, and purple and blue, especially when the game is fast and you've got to use your peripheral vision. A general solution is to overlay unique symbols on the blocks, like in puzzle quest, etc..



Also, this is related:

[Erichermit]

One of the mechanics in one of the later star systems was planned to also add symbols to different blocks in which to add a bit of complexity. If we were to pair symbols with color, we'd have to lose that concept. I think that textures are probably the way to go.

Though if we end up deciding the concept isn't worth it, I'd probably go with symbols.

In other news, we recently made an IndieDB and for some reason have just blown all the up to Rank 165. I am pretty bewildered by this as I have no idea what caused this. Honestly, I'd like to hear if somebody has any idea on what just happened. Or perhaps I am simply overestimating the requirement of getting to a high ranking on indieDB?



Edit: Actually we just hit top 8... O_o

[eigenbom]

I think you've hit a high rank because the game looks good. But I don't think these ranks last very long. Back to the colour blind thing: Textures + Symbols sounds quite messy, and if you were planning on adding symbols to the blocks then you'll have to find another way to differentiate colour .. like maybe have the purple blocks have a double outline and the blue blocks a single outline.

[Erichermit]

Just made a series of gifs to use to showcase the creative different ways to achieve combos in Luminux. A lot of people assume that your basic options are either 3,4, or 5 in a row for lining up the blocks, which I think leads them to miss out on the deeper possibilities of the game. We'll be putting in a [VERY] short tutorial at the start of the game that will make these a lot clearer to the user.

[Julien]

That's an awesome game, you should all try it ! 

[Excy]

Ooooh so this is the game you're making, looks pretty good man. Will play the demo over the weekend.

[Erichermit]

Hey guys! We got interviewed by the pair of LPers,

. Give it a watch!

I found the experience surprisingly fun, it's my first time doing something like that. I was rather nervous at the start, but it pretty soon just felt like a fun casual conversation about my game.

Geek Remix is planning on making their Indie Dev interviews a series of theirs and I'm very excited to see their next ones with other devs.

[Erichermit]

Some news.

We were picked up by a publisher (BulkyPix) a little while back, which is very exciting for all of us

We also expanded the web demo to include some of the additional game modes.

[Julien]

Congrats !!

[Erichermit]

We finally finished the game! It's not on the app store / google play store (for about $2). I'm closely tracking the progress. Looks like we're top 100 paid puzzle game at the moment!

[FanFan]

We finally finished the game! It's not on the app store / google play store (for about $2). I'm closely tracking the progress. Looks like we're top 100 paid puzzle game at the moment!

We finally finished the game! It's not on the app store / google play store (for about $2). I'm closely tracking the progress. Looks like we're top 100 paid puzzle game at the moment!

Congrats!! For the Google Playstore, it would help if you provide descriptions and titles in various languages, it helped our game on the store when it was first release