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Luma: I made a new citybuilder!

thomasmahler

thomasmahler

Moon Studios
Hey folks,

I've been thinking about this idea for the better part of a decade now and it always bugged me that I had prototypes of this game, but never finished it... Well, recently I jumped in and finally cleaned everything up and it came together really nicely I think!

Luma is basically what'd happen if Minecraft and Sim City had a baby. I think it's fair to say that it's probably gonna be a new sub-genre within the citybulider genre since it's the first citybuilder where you have control over literally every single tile. If you wanna build a house, you don't just click on a house icon and place it - Nope, you just make one yourself! And the crazy thing is that it really matters what block is next to another, so you get all these nice chain reactions, almost like in a puzzle game!

I recorded a little gameplay video that shows what Luma is all about:



Would love to hear your folks' thoughts since I'm actually thinking about releasing this soon since to me this is already more fun to play than Minecraft or any Sim City I've ever played!

Luma is quite the crazy project, it also has online AND split-screen multiplayer (mostly because I play games with my 8 year old boy, so I really wanted to play together with him on the big screen like in the good old days :D).

Would appreciate if you folks could look at this and post some feedback!
 
That is one great idea.

A fully customizable sim city will be interesting to lots of people, IF you manage to make it intuitive.
 
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Toots said:
That is one great idea.

A fully customizable sim city will be interesting to lots of people, IF you manage to make it intuitive.
Click to expand...
Yup, that's exactly what I thought :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I never got why nobody ever did this before, so... there it is now.

And yeah, it's very intuitive, I'm testing it with my boy. So if he gets it all, I'm guessing that most people out there shouldn't have much of an issue. There's tutorials, proper onboarding, quests that guide you through building your cities, etc.
 
I like it and encourage you to keep going.

The Dragon Quest Builders and Pokopia games somewhat capitalize on the same core idea, just at a smaller scale than a full blown city builder. You're right that it's a fantastic marriage of concepts. Simulation games that give the player demands/tasks to meet, but then gives complete freedom to build out those tasks in a sandbox.

I'm a dad too, and it seems like you also understand that todays upcoming youth wants all games to be multiplayer/co-op in some shape or form. Even most of the Roblox games my kids and all their friends are into are largley single-player genres, but are "multiplayer" in the sense that they can work on them together. It's become their default expectaiton and it's rare that I see a game catch on if it isolates them from their friends.
 
I fully respect the effort to make this but this is not something I would enjoy playing personally

I prefer if your company focuses more in making games like No Rest for The Wicked, which I think its brilliant
 
Gonzito said:
I fully respect the effort to make this but this is not something I would enjoy playing personally

I prefer if your company focuses more in making games like No Rest for The Wicked, which I think its brilliant
Click to expand...
Of course! We're Moon Studios after all - but this has just been a side project of mine and I think it's already so good that people should get their hands on it! (y)
 
thomasmahler said:
I never got why nobody ever did this before, so... there it is now.
Click to expand...
Maybe because as "simple" the idea is, it seems very hard to implement :messenger_grinning_sweat:
Anyway having your kid as a playtester will be of tremendous help for accessibility !

Also i goddam love how you try to add couch co-op to it because you liked the feature that was a staple of older games.

Here we often lament about the direction gaming takes and how corporations strip gaming of its essence and that is true, but as long as there are talented and passioned people that make the product they want to have there is a hope. You'll never make a tremendous game with a board of executives (even tho a broken clock is right twice a day), but one dude with passion and an idea can move mountains :messenger_bicep:
 
Looks excellent

You mention split-screen play, does this mean it has some form of controller support? Any way to wishlist it yet?
 
Toots said:
Maybe because as "simple" the idea is, it seems very hard to implement :messenger_grinning_sweat:
Anyway having your kid as a playtester will be of tremendous help for accessibility !

Also i goddam love how you try to add couch co-op to it because you liked the feature that was a staple of older games.

Here we often lament about the direction gaming takes and how corporations strip gaming of its essence and that is true, but as long as there are talented and passioned people that make the product they want to have there is a hope. You'll never make a tremendous game with a board of executives (even tho a broken clock is right twice a day), but one dude with passion and an idea can move mountains :messenger_bicep:
Click to expand...
Yeah, exactly!

I've never seen a Citybuilder that lets me play in Couch Co-Op.

Growing up, I always LOVED Sim City on the SNES, but it was always a single player affair... so imagine how much fun it would've been to play that in splitscreen back then. That's why I added it, so my boy and me can happily build our own little cities... until papa builds a nuke silo and nukes half of the boy's town cause he didn't do his homework :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
RCX said:
Looks excellent

You mention split-screen play, does this mean it has some form of controller support? Any way to wishlist it yet?
Click to expand...
Yeah, has full controller support!

Obviously also makes sense to port it to iOS at some point I think (y)
 
It's not my type of game, but I like the idea of an isometric Minecraft. If you add a creative mode with unlimited resources, that would be interesting. If players could hop onto the island and explore it in a first person view, it would be even better.
 
thomasmahler said:
Yeah, exactly!

I've never seen a Citybuilder that lets me play in Couch Co-Op.

Growing up, I always LOVED Sim City on the SNES, but it was always a single player affair... so imagine how much fun it would've been to play that in splitscreen back then. That's why I added it, so my boy and me can happily build our own little cities... until papa builds a nuke silo and nukes half of the boy's town cause he didn't do his homework :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Click to expand...

I wonder if one day the principle of coop city builder on a super large map would not add a ton of fun to include warfare strategy on top of it with voxel destruction. Management of ressources, etc. You would need to build the infrastructures to even have a legit army / defense so it would not just be zerg'ing. Just thinking out loud.
 
Looks very promising. I've always slanted more towards the management side of city builders, but seeing that there's a large crowd of people who loves nothing more then crafting & building I think you might be onto something here.

But most of all you seem very passionate and motivated about the game and that shines through, you love to see it. Good luck. 😃
 
That looks pretty good for just a quick prototype. Check out Timberborn for some inspiration about the voxel city builder aesthetic.
 
thomasmahler said:
Would appreciate if you folks could look at this and post some feedback!
Click to expand...

I think you know how polished this looks as a "game jam game" so blowing smoke up your ass about it won't really serve any purpose but here are a few:

1) Great consistency across visual representation in the VS/GJ. The widgets, icons, and on screen feedback for actions all fits.
2) Movement transitions look smooth, fluid, and have a polished ramp up/down movement to them. Lots of people miss the need for this in fully released strat games so nice to see how good it looks here.
3) Enough systems seem to be intact it would make a nice sandbox for early backers to play around in if you all decide to go that route.

Just pop this on the pile of stuff that doesn't need to be looked at any time soon BUT...would really like to see your teams take on some UI/UX shake ups for this genre.

As someone who likes construction games in similar veins I loose steam really quickly from having "too much shit" to do. Valheim for example, the game gives you so much freedom that its very overwhelming when you are creating with the tools offered by the game.

Would be great to have a deep "context" based UI system that can be used as a crutch for people like me who like the game systems but lack "vision" when it comes to crafting in the environment.

Almost something like Diablo 3 did with their "elective" skill system, when you are building water ways for example blank out the tool bar to only show the tools you need for environment decimation and water source generation. Or when I am building a house give me a few pre made options that just allow me to "drop house" if I have all the correct materials.
 
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Looks impressive. What engine did you make this in?

Also: could your next project be a Minecraft / Civilization crossover? Or are you not taking requests?
 
The art style gave me flashbacks to Mega Lo Mania. I loved that game when I was young.

images
 
There'll be a 10 hour long demo that you folks can play soon (just have to get new music, I know someone who can write music! :messenger_tears_of_joy: ) and replace some of the Minecraft soundeffect placeholders I put in there at the start to test things!

Lots of people are asking to see little people or animals, but I really don't like the idea to bring in more noise. Once you get to a Metropolis, etc., just keeping up with the city is already a lot!
 
Johnny Concrete said:
Looks impressive. What engine did you make this in?

Also: could your next project be a Minecraft / Civilization crossover? Or are you not taking requests?
Click to expand...
Well, there's already a bit of Civilization in there!

Once you guys play it, you can tell me what other elements you enjoy in Civ that might fit here (y)
 
I like what I see a lot. Would be cool if animals were in the game. Like you build a water source and animals start appearing and you could make it into a park/reserve in your city so you aren't just changing the environment to suit your cities needs but can also preserve nature and make habits. That is probably asking way to much but I like what I see and think you're doing a great job
 
Really dig seeing some cross genre experimentation. That's sorely lacking in the current gaming landscape.

Its a nice pitch. Might be cool to see some kind of visible economy that flows, intertwines and co-depends into individual objects you can build (sort of like Opus magnus, if you catch my drift). Like, objects coupling together to form new kind of elements, growths or combined/evolved objects/structures. Would be also neat to see inhabitants walk around to bring some life into the landscape. I understand that its still somewhat in the prototyping phase.

Maybe the visual presentation could use something to differentiate itself in contrast to Minecraft. Not sure how that could be achievable.
 
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CCan you not view t
thomasmahler said:
Hey folks,

I've been thinking about this idea for the better part of a decade now and it always bugged me that I had prototypes of this game, but never finished it... Well, recently I jumped in and finally cleaned everything up and it came together really nicely I think!

Luma is basically what'd happen if Minecraft and Sim City had a baby. I think it's fair to say that it's probably gonna be a new sub-genre within the citybulider genre since it's the first citybuilder where you have control over literally every single tile. If you wanna build a house, you don't just click on a house icon and place it - Nope, you just make one yourself! And the crazy thing is that it really matters what block is next to another, so you get all these nice chain reactions, almost like in a puzzle game!

I recorded a little gameplay video that shows what Luma is all about:



Would love to hear your folks' thoughts since I'm actually thinking about releasing this soon since to me this is already more fun to play than Minecraft or any Sim City I've ever played!

Luma is quite the crazy project, it also has online AND split-screen multiplayer (mostly because I play games with my 8 year old boy, so I really wanted to play together with him on the big screen like in the good old days :D).

Would appreciate if you folks could look at this and post some feedback!
Click to expand...

Can you not view this without the app?! Going to the link just says I need the app to watch this.... :messenger_sleeping::messenger_pouting:
 
Some Terra Nil in here too I think.

Really nice visually. I agree with the sentiment it could use some bringing to life, but used sparingly and something like playful wisps/fireflies rather than people. More in the 'visual indicator / visual pat on the head' sense than in the simulated agent sense.
 
It seems intuitive enough, the dude playing doesn't get stuck too long on any action (i only skimmed the video tho).
Tutorials and intuitivity are make or break for those type of games if you want more than hardcore aficionados to be attracted by it. So the more you work on that the larger public will be interested is my bet.
 
Toots said:
It seems intuitive enough, the dude playing doesn't get stuck too long on any action (i only skimmed the video tho).
Tutorials and intuitivity are make or break for those type of games if you want more than hardcore aficionados to be attracted by it. So the more you work on that the larger public will be interested is my bet.
Click to expand...
Yup, for sure, that's why there's a lot of clever design in there that makes it all pretty straight forward and deceptively simple. I have lots of people playtesting now and will quickly polish all the hooplas they run into.

But the good thing is that it's already incredibly addictive and fun! I think people will really like this one (y) :messenger_grinning:
 
It's not fully truly launched yet, but if you folks wanna give it a spin already, 10 hours can be played directly online here now:

lumathegame.com

Luma - little isles, endless light

Raise floating islands from a bottomless sea and grow them into a glowing megalopolis - right in your browser, or on iPhone & iPad.
lumathegame.com lumathegame.com
 
I just played it quickly for 5 so some feedback:

- slow onboarding for single player -> too many clicks, I just want to play, don't care about names or companies on the sea, I was actually about to bail if it wasn't for a fellow Gaffer and dev
- lots of text to explain the game -> the mechanics, visuals and gameplay should explain itself just like Warcraft, C&C, Minecraft, etc. in fact I don't even know what the goal is
- controls must be reversed -> I pan more than orbit (80%vs 20%) so why is orbit on LMB?
- sudden control change -> a near zoom level suddenly locks orbit which is the scenario when I actually like to orbit and besides that controls should never be changed midway
- hold LMB to mine blocks -> took me a while to figure it out since it's not an action game and it slows down the experience, make it single click
- collecting luma via cursor -> ain't into tedious work and again, it's not an action game, just auto grant them with a satisfying animation
- UI -> it looks made for an app but not a game and the colors are boring/Claude-like
- UI -> Some layout stuff is also weird, left I have the quest overview but on the right the quest details, related context should be near each other. Same with the block details, I get them where the mouse cursors is AND at the bottom left and the importance of the information is reversed, I like to know what material I get when mining where the cursor is not at the bottom left. Generally virtually all the information can be condensed and simplified displayed at the top middle.

The world presentation itself is great but if you make the color palette a bit more colorful it becomes perfect.
 
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