State of Play

Lume comes to iOS. Launch date 23rd February 2012

kath — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:57:00 +0000

We’re very excited to announce that Lume will be launching on iPhone, iPod, iPad and the Mac App Store this Thursday 23rd February.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Following on from its Independent Games Festival 2012 Finalist nomination in Excellence in Visual Arts, and its huge success on the PC, Lume brings a fresh and beautiful approach to games and has a tactility and charm perfect for the iOS devices. The iPhone4 and iPad versions now have a higher resolution than the original and look gorgeous on the devices

Luke Whittaker, Director of State of Play Games says,

“We are extremely excited about launching Lume to the iOS market. We have had fantastic feedback from fans of the PC game, it’s been great to be able to bring it to a new audience. In fact we’d designed the original with iOS devices in mind and really delighted we can finally bring it to the handheld market, it feels like a perfect home for the game.

We really went to town with the style of Lume, building a model rigged with miniature lighting and placing the character in a real setting that just feels more tactile than any we could have created with 3D software. All this shines on on these devices.

We’ve also added plenty of additional detail for iOS, new sound effects and an improved interface for touch devices. To cap it all, the iPhone4 and iPad versions are now in a higher resolution than the original PC release, and look particularly spectacular.”

Great deal on Lume in IndieRoyale!

luke — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:54:44 +0000

Lume is included in Indie Royale’s Valentine’s Bundle!

For the next four days, you can purchase Lume along with four other games:

Zeno Clash for: steam (pc)
Hoard for: steam (pc and mac)
*BONUS* Includes individual keys for two DLC packs.
Lume for: windows, mac, linux, desura, steam (pc and mac)
Soulcaster for: windows, desura
BONUS: Soulcaster II

The Indie Royale Bundle is a fluctuating minimum price bundle, meaning that the minimum price goes up the more people that buy it! And if people pay more than the minimum price, it reduces the price for other buyers!

So grab the Love bundle at Indie Royale quick smart, and get a piece of the action! And a piece of the Hoarding. And Soulcasting. And Luming, if that’s a word.

Secretive sketches for the sequel to Lume

luke — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:33:23 +0000

Work on the sequel to Lume is afoot. And what a foot it is. This is like the Yeti of feet. I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a project. Thanks to the success of Lume and everyone’s fantastic support, we think we might be able to make the sequel the game we dream of, it’s going to be bigger, more beautiful and be more puzzling – in a good way *nods apologetically at those who tried for hours to solve Lume’s cupboard lock puzzle*.

There has been a lot of sketchbook work on the game so far, and one of the reasons I haven’t uploaded anything is that you don’t want to see scratchy doodles from the inside of my brain do you? You do? Well, okay here’s a little something.

I went to see the Russian Constructivism show at the Royal Academy in London – a fantastic exhibition full of wall-high photographs of powerful, sometimes almost abstract architecture, as well as small photos and drawings of little models. After a few minutes of awestruck wandering I realised I had no way of recording what I was seeing, no cameras allowed in there, and no sketchbook on me. So I raced out of there, checking first that they’d let me back in, and got my hands on a sketchbook and pencil from the gallery shop (it was difficult to find one that wasn’t a novelty bendy one, or oversized, or, bizarrely, covered in purple fur), then spent a happy few hours making sketches of things which interested me.

Hopefully you can see how we’re thinking of interesting shapes and dramatic camera angles – I seem to have scribbled ‘Imagine balancing here’ on one of them. So it’s been a lot of imagining, but we’ve also been translating these things into reality recently – we’ve been making some real models. I’ll post some pictures of them next.

Lume Nominated for Best of 2011 by Jay Is Games. We need your votes!

luke — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:02:09 +0000

Sometimes you get weeks where everything seems to be happening at once, and, in this particular instance, that’s fantastic. Right after our recent nomination at IGF, we’re delighted to discover that the highly respected folks at JayIsGames.com have nominated Lume for their Best Games of 2011. And we need your help! If you can head over to the site and vote for it that would be very kind of you! And if you think it deserves the title ‘Game of the Year’ make sure to tick the box at the top of the page. Apparently you can vote every day. If you can do that that, and some might say that’s above and beyond the call of duty, we would furnish you wish something lavish. A bit of early Lume concept art? Bits of the model we mangled with glue before we stuck it together? We would rummage round the studio for you and see what we can find.

Thanks again you all for all your support for Lume!

Luke

Lume Independent Games Festival finalist

kath — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:44:25 +0000

We are chuffed to bits and a little bit elated to discover that Lume has been nominated for Excellence in Visual Art at the Independent Games Festival in San Francisco, we have been mostly jumping around our studio with a massive smile on our faces since we found out. There was such huge competition with nearly 600 fantastic games submitted for consideration. We were so pleased the Lume has been recognized for it’s achievements. After working hard on something it’s great to see the Indie community enjoy it too. Here is one of the the jurors comments about the game.

“Lume is beautiful and fascinating and it’s like playing a game in a children’s book. Technically, there is some pretty interesting things happening here that you have to see for yourself.”

“Lume is such a handsome feast… overall, very lush and touching. The rich contrast, lighting and depth of field made me feel cozy.”

We are really looking forward to taking part in the event, and meeting all the other nominated people at GDC and IGF. It’s great to see many other Brits nominated as well, it just goes to show the Indie community is thriving over here. The award ceremony is 7th March, so look out for more updates in the run up to it.

75% Holiday Discount on Lume now until 2nd January.

kath — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:33:02 +0000

As part of Steam’s Holiday promotion there is now for a limited time an incredible 75% off Lume.

Grab yourself a copy or maybe a fantastic Christmas present for your nearest and dearest on offer until 2nd January.

Buy Now

Travels = Architectural inspiration

kath — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:56:00 +0000

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

kath — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:11:00 +0000

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

kath — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:44:00 +0000

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

kath — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:46:00 +0000

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

kath — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:30:00 +0000

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!

kath — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:34:00 +0000

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!