It’s update time! So much has been going on over the past few months, we really appreciate everyone's incredible patience (all these years). Thanks for sticking with us! Now that the dust has finally settled, we’ve got some very exciting news we’d like to share with y’all.
February is a Real Month
February is real. Yes it is. February is a real solid month on the 2020 calendar which is less than 4 months away from now. And most importantly - it’s the month we can finally confirm for the release of LUNA The Shadow Dust!!
We were really disappointed to miss our previous release forecast (this Winter), and firstly, it’s important to apologise for the delay here. We know you are eager to play LUNA! Sorry!
We wanted to share the full story behind the delay, and the real struggles that faced our small indie team in the wide world of game development. Hopefully, our supporters can understand the difficult situations detailed below. Thankfully, it’s now coming to an end and we can finally feel a bit more relaxed, free to share these stories with you.
Challenge One: The Unexpected.
We never thought this would become a serious issue, but it did. During September, the collaboration with our previous sound FX co-worker suddenly ended. We’re not going to go into the details, but the fact that we were now suddenly lacking 50% of the required cutscene sounds at the very end of development, put us in a sticky situation.
Do we have the time and money to try and find someone to create that 50%?, we asked ourselves,
Or should we try free SFX libraries so at least there will be something in those scenes??
Either seemed like a grim solution. It would be a shame to compromise on the quality of the sound FX, so we decided to find a new sound professional instead of using free resources.
FatBard, a two-man audio team from St.Louis, Missouri, came to the rescue. We’re so thankful for Zach and Patrick’s quick production speed and professional work which really helped us against the clock, with no time to spare! We’re also super thankful to Fred, our composer Susie's husband, who helped us financially when the SFX budget was next to nothing. With the determination and the hard work of everyone on the team, we managed to produce a full set of SFX created for LUNA by October, with no compromise in quality.
Challenge Two: The Narrow Release Window
When a game developer or publisher looks at the calendar, debating the best time to release their game, there are usually only a few months to consider - especially if you’re an indie team.
One of the key survival (not even ‘big sell’) rules for an indie launch is simply, “do not clash with AAAs titles”. Secondly, landing in a key sales season would also be a bad option, and there are many! From Winter sales to Summer sales, the calendar is dotted with distracting discounts for every public holiday and festival. Thirdly, as a small team, we really need word of mouth. From the media, press and our fans, it’s vital that the news spreads as far as it can, given our limited resources. This means we also need to consider launching the game when people are not on holiday.
If you’re still with me, then you’ll notice the window of opportunity has been getting narrower and narrower. Lastly, and most importantly, we have to consider the quality of the latest build. We cannot and will not rush out a game that may still have bugs. We are determined to deliver the best experience to people. As a result, if we miss one release window, we will have to wait until the next one.
Challenge Three: The Global Release
LUNA The Shadow Dust’s Chinese title : 月影之塔
As you may know, Lantern Studio is an all-Chinese dev team, with members scattered across three continents. Since our initial Kickstarter campaign, our global support has been matched with high expectations and support from our Chinese fans. Throughout this whole process, we’ve been really keen to bring LUNA to both the Western audience and our Chinese fans at the same time.
During recent years, however, publishing games in China has become increasingly challenging due to drastic rules surrounding game development. All game studios need to apply for official licenses. Considering the sheer number of game companies/studios across China (and the world), the queue is enormously long.
Trying to get ahead of the curve, we started the relevant procedures almost a year ago, with the help of our Chinese publisher, Coconut Island. It took us a lot of time to prepare the game for review while simultaneously managing development. Nearly eight months later, with a number of modifications and a lot of back-and-forth, we finally have the document that allows us to publish LUNA in China!
All this time, we’ve been facing one of the toughest decisions of the project:
Should we wait - with no update on the licence’s progress and no more budget left to burn - or should we release LUNA globally, with China to follow at a later date?
It killed us to think that as a Chinese team, we couldn’t release LUNA in China at the same time as the rest of the world. There was a point at which we felt so hopeless about the situation, the spirit of the team dropped to an all-time low. Now with the biggest unknown out of the way, we can’t help but feel the enormous relief that we no longer need to make this tough decision.
Combining all of these challenges together, we’ve been able to mark a clear time for launch. Unfortunately, this has pushed us into 2020. February will be the earliest available window. We sincerely apologize for the long wait, but it is now over - for us as well. For the exact launch day, we will announce once we are 100% ready, and it will come very soon. ;)
How’s The Game Going BTW? xD
All milestones for development have been met!!!
Heading towards the release, we’re continually testing and fine-tuning tiny details. Most players might miss these, but we believe some eagle-eyed players will spot them. So for those gamers, we will not let you down!
With some black magic, we also managed to shrink down the game build size from 1GB to 500MB without losing quality. Meanwhile, we’re working on making sure all PC/Mac/Linux and DRM-free builds are compatible with the platforms.
Marketing materials, a brand new trailer, and merchandise have now become our next priorities. Hopefully, we can have some of these goodies ready when LUNA launches!
Last but not least, we would sincerely like to ask everyone a big favor...
Please help us spread the word - tell your friends, family and the neighbor’s pet that LUNA is gonna be out in February 2020. We’ve put everything we have into this game and we’d really like it to reach gamers who will enjoy playing it! This is something we can’t do just by ourselves, but with your help, we can.
We can’t thank you guys enough.
That’s all for now, we will be back with a new update very soon, before the end of the year!
━━━━=≡Σ((( つ•̀ω•́)つ
with Love X
Lantern Studio Team