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Lumo - Isometric puzzle platformer, PS4/Vita/XB1/PC, Rising Star Games

S

SpacePirate Ridley

Member
Nozem said:
Wow, Nebulus flashback!

fNTF6ah.jpg
Click to expand...

For me it was Castelian on the Gameboy.
I could never beat the first level

wouwie said:
So this is coming out tomorrow. Gameplay with developer commentary
Click to expand...

Ok that intro is super cute, definetly on my radar.
 
S

STEaMkb

Member
Looking forward to playing this. Need to finish Alienation first. Lots of goodies this year. Big, medium and small.
 
J

jesu

Member
I was never any good at the Spectrum isometric games but I'm getting this when the X1 version is out.
My skill must have improved by now!
 
R

Ranger X

Member
Oh WOW, I am a huge fan of Solstice and Equinox! This looks like a spiritual sequel.
I will look closely on this one.

Equinox_game.png
 
C

Camjo-Z

Member
I've been playing some of this and it's pretty good, I'm just a little bit past the ice world. Only a few problems I have with it so far.

- The platforming occasionally decides not to adhere exactly to the isometric grid leading to weird jumps that are just a little bit off. There are also a few points where I thought "there's no reasonable way I could have figured out exactly where these platforms are in 3D space without trial and error".

- The slippery control in the ice world is challenging, but kind of annoying given the precise movements the game expects from the player.

- I wish the maps showed your location rather than making you keep track of it, but that's just personal preference and I suspect it was an intentional choice.

Other than that though, I like it quite a bit. It's the perfect game for people like me who enjoy the idea of old Knight Lore-esque games more than the act of actually playing them with all their eccentricities and archaic design decisions.
 
M

Menome

Member
Picked this up today and I've been having a blast with it. It's just the right level of frustrating to be a challenge that keeps you retrying because you know it's doable.

Annoyingly, it took me too long to realise you could jump away from the rubber ducks when you land on them, so I've missed a bunch of them as I couldn't backtrack after a certain point.

Loved finding the easter eggs for
Head Over Heels with the room full of deadly toasters, and another stocked full of donuts
as well as
A room with a map for The Crystal Maze
.
 
O

Oneself

Member
JonnyKong said:
This game not have an OT then? Seems a shame to see it being so unloved :( I'm going to get it myself sometime this week.
Click to expand...
It happens quite often now on GAF, sadly. Defenders of old school, originality and condemning big corporations like EA but we only talk about big casual million selling games.
 
amdb00mer

amdb00mer

Member
kadotsu said:
There are some nice touches like the Indiana Jones hat moment but overall the game looks a bit cheap. It's probably the lighting. It could be a nice Solstice-like game with a bit more polish.
Click to expand...

I also thought this was like Solstice from the NES. I really enjoyed that game.
 
J

JonnyKong

Member
Finally! Started playing this tonight. It's fiendishly addictive. I lolled at the reference to
The Prodigy lyrics

Can't believe barely anybody is playing it, shame on you Gaffers!
 
H

HeelPower

Member
Guys this game is free with PS+ now! Currently having a blast with it! Seems very polished,inutitive and fun.Its free with PS+!
 
D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
I bought the retail release last year. It's a pretty fun game, with slightly slippery and loose controls. If you're into those British isometric games you'll love this, it's chock full of nostalgia and references to those games of yore.
 
T

Tele_Viper

Member
Hats off to those of you that make it past the ice world. I was really enjoying the game, but that was my 'fuck this' point.
 
M

Mascot

Member
Wish I had now.

FUCK that slippy-slidey ice world. It's been probably my most annoying gaming experience in forty years of gaming and has rendered Lumo dead to me now.

Sabotaged by its own creator. Such a shame, I was REALLY enjoying it until then.
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
Mascot said:
Man, this game is brutally addictive. Almost deleted it without even trying it. So glad I didn't.
Click to expand...
Agreed! I was browsing Xbox Game Pass with my daughter and she spotted "a kids game" and made me download it, it was Lumo. Two days and many hours later we were finished with the first playthrough and now we started again to find all ducks.

What a lovely little gem of a game! I would never have guessed what it was like by looking at the cover art, it completely took me by surprise when I started playing it. It's flirting with the retro lover within me like few other games had done before, in this game I see small bits of Head over Heals, Pac Man, Qbert, Donkey Kong Country, Cadaver and sound clips from C64 games including the load code and sound. I just love it! =)

And it looks great too and runs at 60fps and if I'm not mistaken it's pretty much made by one guy!? Just incredible!

I bow and take my hat off for this wonderful guy Gareth Noyce! Thank you Gareth! :)
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
Mascot said:
Wish I had now.

FUCK that slippy-slidey ice world. It's been probably my most annoying gaming experience in forty years of gaming and has rendered Lumo dead to me now.

Sabotaged by its own creator. Such a shame, I was REALLY enjoying it until then.
Click to expand...
Don't give up! It's tricky but totally worth it to stick til the end, you have so much left to play after the ice world, some of the best parts is after the ice world. There was an ice block puzzle which I had to look up on youtube to complete though, super-easy when you know how to place the blocks but it's easy to keep doing it wrong for far too long and get frustrated. Luckily it's easy and fast to start over so I never got frustrated enough to stop playing.
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
Maybe I should've made a LTTP thread instead, didn't know it's been out for a year. But GAF, do NOT miss this game and if you're an Xbox Game Pass user, download now!
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
CopperPuppy said:
I think you convinced me - this looks great.
Click to expand...
Great to hear! I really just want more people to experience this :)

A tip, use the middle control option, regular directions, I think the diagonal ones are far too old school.
And go with the easier adventure difficulty! There is an old school mode available with finite lives. Hats off to anyone that finish the game that way! I got a Kamikaze achievement for dying 250 times in one playthrough loool ;D

It starts off slow though and the pacing is quite clever since it'll get devilishly hard at the end, by starting slow it'll slowly get you to do more daring stuff. Many rooms will still get you to "Nope." and turn around at the doorway at first glance, at least that was my reaction, but the quick restart and slowly build up to trickier platforming will eventually get you to finish it if you have that old school stubborness left inside.

Going for a 100% duck run now, 22 ducks so far!
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
I don't get it...
I'm looking at Gareth Noyce history:

HISTORY

Gareth started his career in 2003 with Climax Studios Solent, first as QA and then as a Designer on the Xbox RPG: Sudeki. He moved to Climax Group the following year, taking on responsibility for the tracking of production performance on all Climax developed games, before finally heading to Climax Studios London as Producer on W.I.T.C.H. [GBA] and Black Hawk Down [Xbox].

From there he partnered with Gary Liddon (yes, Zzap64) as a co-founder of Xen Services and spent several years as a contracted producer, working on: Crackdown, Too Human, PGR3, Fable 2, Space Giraffe and the Xbox 360 visualiser, Neon. In April 2008, Gareth, Gaz Liddon and Billy Thomson [ex DMA Design & Realtime Worlds] formed Ruffian Games in Dundee [Scotland] where Gareth worked as Development Director. Over the course of the next five years Ruffian would ship another 5 titles for MS: Crackdown 2, Nike+ Kinect Fitness, Kinect Sesame Street, Season 2, Kinect Star Wars & Kinect Playfit and were heavily involved in Crytek's Ryse during pre-production, as well as several unannounced and canned projects.



NOW

In April 2013 Gareth moved to Finland and began teaching Game Design, Programming and Business & Production courses at TAMK Univeristy [Tampere]. He has mentored several first stage start-ups on a consultancy basis, as well as continued work developing his own games. The first of these, Lumo, was released in 2016.

In addition he has provided music for Llamasoft's TxK and Polybius.
Click to expand...

So it looks like he's been around a long time for AAA studios but he hasn't made any game even a tiny bit similar to this.
How do one person make something awesome and retro styled like this without a background from those early 80's days? Looking at the credits he had help with the character art and music but the rest is all him. Amazing really.
 
M

maxcriden

Member
Fredrik said:
Agreed! I was browsing Xbox Game Pass with my daughter and she spotted "a kids game" and made me download it, it was Lumo. Two days and many hours later we were finished with the first playthrough and now we started again to find all ducks.

What a lovely little gem of a game! I would never have guessed what it was like by looking at the cover art, it completely took me by surprise when I started playing it. It's flirting with the retro lover within me like few other games had done before, in this game I see small bits of Head over Heals, Pac Man, Qbert, Donkey Kong Country, Cadaver and sound clips from C64 games including the load code and sound. I just love it! =)

And it looks great too and runs at 60fps and if I'm not mistaken it's pretty much made by one guy!? Just incredible!

I bow and take my hat off for this wonderful guy Gareth Noyce! Thank you Gareth! :)
Click to expand...

Your praise man is eagerly getting me to want to play the game. It's shooting to the top of my list. I feel bad getting it through a gamepass trial though. I really want to play it. How long is it? I've had my eye on it for a while so I'm pleased to see such glowing words about it.
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
maxcriden said:
Your praise man is eagerly getting me to want to play the game. It's shooting to the top of my list. I feel bad getting it through a gamepass trial though. I really want to play it. How long is it? I've had my eye on it for a while so I'm pleased to see such glowing words about it.
Click to expand...
Nice to hear! I probably should've started a LTTP thread instead of waking up this old thread but oh well it's too late now :/

Not sure how long it was, I'd guess that it took me maybe 5-6 hours to finish my first playthrough. And I have lots of stuff left to do. The ducks I've talked about are bonus collectives, there are bonus stages that I didn't finish too. It'll take some time to do a 100% I'd imagine. Totally worth it though! As a retro gaming fan I was just grinning at some parts when the nostalgia kicked in, it's not blatant ripoffs it's just cleverly made with a ton of inspiration and love for the old classics.

It's very very playable if you have kids too, my kids just loved watching me play it even though some room are freakishly hard and you die a lot, it's all made in a somewhat kid friendly way even though there are spikes and fire traps etc. There is an adorable crate character which kind of fall in love with you and follow you around the room, which you can then jump on to reach things, which my daughter was just crazy about, and the main character is really goofy in a cute way too with the big hat and head. It's just a really lovely game all around. Can't recommend it enough tbh. :)

I do think that you need to have played some of the old classics to "get it" though, the nostalgia goes deep in certain segements, and the difficulty is far above most modern games. The difficulty is almost up to modern Mario bonus worlds standards but the rooms are quite small and you always get to start over at the last doorway you entered, so just keep going and you'll eventually finish it.
 
G

GoldenHelmet

Member
Hello people of The Gaf! :)

So, we at JAW did the console versions (PS4/XB1 & VITA), although VITA isn't the greatest version due to Unity being a bit shit on VITA...

Glad you like the game ;)

Stewart
 
Calm Mind

Calm Mind

Member
GoldenHelmet said:
Hello people of The Gaf! :)

So, we at JAW did the console versions (PS4/XB1 & VITA), although VITA isn't the greatest version due to Unity being a bit shit on VITA...

Glad you like the game ;)

Stewart
Click to expand...

Bring it to the Switch then if the Vita is causing you so much trouble.
 
S

Shizuka

Member
GoldenHelmet said:
Hello people of The Gaf! :)

So, we at JAW did the console versions (PS4/XB1 & VITA), although VITA isn't the greatest version due to Unity being a bit shit on VITA...

Glad you like the game ;)

Stewart
Click to expand...

Thank you for bringing the game to the Vita, the physical release is pretty neat!
 
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