Developer State of Play Games offers a look at the sequel to its paper and cardboard-riddled adventure title Lume, in a behind-the-scenes video that describes the process of creating a game using real-world materials such as motors.
Like the original Lume, Lumino City features a papercraft-like aesthetic as models are designed using cardboard and paper which are filmed in high definition. The developers then create small sets with characters later added in using flash animation; however, Lumino City will differ from the original game in that it will be many times the size of its predecessor and is said to feature motors to create movement in certain environments in the game.
"For example, there's a windmill in the city, which we could have filmed with stop motion but we wanted a very natural, realistic and smooth rotation," developer Luke Whittaker told IndieGames.com. "Using a motor and then filming it, with the associated slight blur and perfect rotation creates that subtlety we were after."
The introduction of motors to these hand-made sets isn't the only new feature, says Whittaker. The developers also experimented with laser cutting to provide more detail to the architectural models used throughout the environments. In comparison to the previous Lume, all aspects of Lumino City will include "a massive leap in fidelity, image quality-wise and also in the quality of the models, where we've been working with some fantastic model makers [including Sarah Bridgland]," he said.
In addition, the designers are taking what they learned from the original game and applying those lessons to the puzzles of this upcoming game. "We've tried to give ourselves the space to be far more ambitious in almost every way here," says Whittaker. "We've looked at making the puzzles a more integrated part of the scenes around you, inseparable to where they are, so that helps everything makes intuitive sense. They're also very varied. Sometimes the puzzles are actually physically part of the buildings themselves, and for exactly what that means you'll have to wait and see."
Lumino City is slated for release this spring on Mac, PC and Linux. An iOS version will follow later on.
