Create A Unique Game: Luna’s Wandering Stars Interview

Conducted By – Adam Ames

Climb in the TPG spaceship as Kevin Zhang from Serenity Forge takes us on a journey through the galaxy and speaks about their upcoming title, Luna’s Wandering Stars.

 

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the development of Luna’s Wandering Stars.

I work on a lot of creative decisions behind the presentation of Luna’s Wandering Stars (such as art style and story), miscellaneous design/production, as well as all the marketing duties. Takumi McAllister is the programmer, and David Forman is the lead level designer and musician. We also have Zhenghua Yang (Z), our founder, working on creative design and helping out with textures. Boan Ding is in charge of 2D effects, and Toby Lurio is writing the story. We’re a very young team, but we’re all very passionate about creating video games, and are already starting development on our next game.

 

How did you get started in developing PC games?

Because all of us enjoyed discovering new indie games on computers, we wanted to start off making games on the platform we were all familiar with. I think the PC gaming community is great for this game because the game will feature a level creator/editor that can be freely share community-created levels online with everyone who owns a copy of the game.

 

Where did the idea for Luna’s Wandering Stars come from?

The idea came from Takumi’s desire to create a type of physics based puzzle game that hasn’t done before. While gravity’s been used in physics games, it was never really applied in the form of orbits and planets.  The game’s vision fits that of Serenity Forge’s, which is to change the player’s life by creating experiences that challenge the way they think. Gravity is an amazing force that people usually take for granted in everyday life. We think making the players think about gravity in terms of orbits will give them an interesting perspective on its power.

 

What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Luna’s Wandering Stars?

While the mechanics and design were well received by both testers and people who have seen the game on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight, we realized that the original visual style and narrative for the game detracted and distracted from the interesting gameplay. With the new art style that we’re going for, we’re focusing on making the graphics complement and enhance the gameplay. We’re also taking inspiration from works such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Thomas Was Alone for the reworked story of the game.

 

In its current form, how close is Luna’s Wandering Stars to your initial vision?

Ironically, the current form is significantly closer to the initial vision of the game because of our recent decision to change the visual style and narrative. The gameplay and design hasn’t changed, and we’re still on track to make the level creator a fun and seamless feature in the game.

Some devs admitted their games were too hard upon release because they became experts as they developed the game.  Talk about setting the difficulty levels for Luna’s Wandering Stars and if you faced a similar challenge.

We paid great attention to the difficulty of the game throughout development. In every level, there are both regular and golden asteroids that you can collect. In order to complete 100% of the game, you must collect all golden asteroids. Because the gravitational mechanics of the game is based on real Newtonian gravity, we designed the levels so that those who want to get all the golden asteroids would need to become masters of gravity, but those who just want to get through the game can do so as well. That’s why we’re making sure that the difficulty curve is going to feel just right.

 

Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring Luna’s Wandering Stars would run on the various PC system configurations?

Takumi is actually programming the game on a Mac. Fortunately, we all have various types of PCs that we constantly test new versions of the game on.

 

Please talk about developing the art style, level design and music for Luna’s Wandering Stars.

Each planet introduces the player to a new power, which gives them new ways to play around with the gravity mechanic. That’s why the levels are designed so that each power can be introduced in ways that are intuitive for the player to learn.

For the art style, we decided to go with stylized realism. Specifically, the textures are going to be semi-realistic, but the various visual effects will be very stylized. The style is designed so that the game visually enhances the important interactive elements of the game. We are also in the process of creating dynamic backgrounds in the game, which will look amazing.

Each planet is going to have a different background music that fits the style of play for that planet’s unique power. David has both a physics and music degree, so it’s incredibly fitting for him to be both the lead level designer and composer for this game.

 

Outside of creating the game itself, what is the toughest aspect of being an indie developer?

Because we’re very new, the toughest aspect is definitely making our game known in the gaming community, and financially supporting the development of this game. Because we don’t have the support of a traditional game publisher, we have to handle every business aspect ourselves.

To what do you attribute the successful Kickstarter campaign and did you receive financial or emotional support from friends and family?

There were many aspects that made the Kickstarter campaign successful. When we set up the funding goal, we had to balance how much money we needed to finish the game versus how much we thought we could raise. Support from friends and family were incredibly important for both initial financial support and for helping us get the word out. It was also very important for us to keep the backers updated on what was going on with the project.

Tell us about the process of submitting Luna’s Wandering Stars to the various digital distribution platforms and if you encountered resistance in doing so.

We have established distribution deals with platforms such as Desura, ShinyLoot, and GamersGate. These platforms have all been very helpful in terms of submission process. We’ve submitted the game to Steam Greenlight as well.

 

Did you research similar titles when trying to come up with the launch price?

We did, and we’re still in the process of determining what the launch price is going to be. We were lucky enough to discover that there weren’t any titles that were very similar to our game, but in terms of scope, we have a pretty good idea of what the price will be around.

 

Can you tell us why you chose to release a demo for Luna’s Wandering Stars?

We wanted to give the press a sense of the game so that it would be easier for them to write about it. After we implement the new art style, we’re hoping to create another, more near-final demo that we can present to everyone.

 

How important is it to get instant feedback about Luna’s Wandering Stars from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?

It’s been incredibly important and useful for us to get feedback, especially when it comes to the community’s first impressions of the game. Impressions about our original art style were what prompted us to think about what we really wanted to achieve with the visuals, and promptly decide to change it in order to create an even better game. Steam Greenlight has been very helpful in particular when it came to initial impressions.

How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review Luna’s Wandering Stars professionally?

As an indie developer, it’s incredibly important for us to hear feedback from everyone, and that includes professional reviewers. A lot of gamers (particularly PC and home console) look to professional reviews to judge whether they might like a game or not, so there’s certainly great value in having them review Luna’s Wandering Stars.

 

How do you feel about the various indie bundle promotions and the “Pay What You Want” pricing methodology? Would you be interested in contributing to a project like that in the future?

These bundles are an amazing way to display the spirit of indie game developers. Not only is it a great way to get the name of indie games out to those who might not have heard about it before, but having a part of the money going to charities is wonderful as well. We actually tried the “pay what you want” model with our first product released under the Serenity Forge brand, Loving Life. I think this model has worked out great for indie bundles so far, and it continues to reflect the independent spirit of the PC gaming community.

 

What are your thoughts on how the PC gaming industry as a whole are dealing with the problem of intrusive DRM and piracy?

Though most independent games won’t (or can’t) implement DRM policies for PC games, it’s interesting to see what will happen in the next few years as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo consoles become increasingly indie-friendly.

 

How do you feel about individuals posting videos and receiving monetization of Luna’s Wandering Stars?

I think walkthroughs and let’s-plays of Luna’s Wandering Stars would do nothing but good for the game!

How do you feel about DLC and its current implementation in the PC gaming industry?

DLCs should definitely be encouraged when it’s implemented the right way, such as how Binding of Isaac did it. While it’s unfortunate to see some AAA publishers out there currently abusing DLC, it’s ultimately a healthy process that the industry needs to go through in order to see what the ultimate “right” way to implement DLC is. I’m optimistic about the future of DLC.

 

How do you feel about the online modding community in general and specifically if mods were created for Luna’s Wandering Stars?

The modding community is amazing. Without them, games like DOTA and Team Fortress would have never existed! I’d love to see mods created for Luna’s Wandering Stars.

 

What advice would you give up-and-coming indie PC developers who are trying to break into the business?

If you want people to pay attention to your game, don’t create a game because you want to “make a game that’s like ______”. We all have our favorite games, and you can take inspiration from these games, but try to create a unique game that you don’t see other people making. When Takumi came up with the idea of Luna’s Wandering Stars, he didn’t discover any that involved orbits as a fundamental game element.

_____________________________________________________________________________