Devlog#28 Launch Day!!

We made it!!

After a long four-year journey, exceeding our wildest expectations and imaginations, we're finally here!

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LUNA The Shadow Dust is OUT NOW on various stores!

Delivering the game is the final step along this amazing journey, but that journey itself has been truly unbelievable. During these last four years, we have learned so much more than any other project could have taught us, accomplishing the things we thought only the professionals knew how. Many of the members of our communities have become our dear friends along the way. We know we say thank-you a lot, but truly, without you guys, none of this could have happened!

Now we have just a few final favors to ask:

  • It would really mean a lot to us if you can write a review or rate the game. Your critiques can help other players to find LUNA among the vast sea of games!

  • Please keep spreading the word for us! What a cool thing to tell people that you’re part of the force that made this game possible!!?

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And in case you haven't seen our launch trailer, check it out here

We’ve uploaded a lot of behind-the-scenes development interviews on our YouTube channel too!

Here we’ve got tons of GIFs to use!
https://giphy.com/channel/LanternStudio

And official screenshots on IMGUR
https://imgur.com/user/LanternStudioGames

This will certainly not be the last update, we’ll still have a lot of work to do after the launch! We will keep everyone posted as there will be more exciting news coming along like our merchandise and other fun stuff! But for now, please celebrate and enjoy this wonderful moment with us together.
We made it!!! Yeahhhhh!! o(*≧▽≦)ツ


With all the love from our heart
Beidi, Qian, Guan and Fox

Devlog#27 Launch Date Announcement

Happy New Year, everyone! 🎉
Here we come, at last, to 2020. The year we finally get to launch LUNA The Shadow Dust!

Today, we have the most exciting announcement to make:
The launch date is confirmed!

LUNA The Shadow Dust will be out on February the 13th!

( Available on Steam, gog, Humble Store, Mac App Store )

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Pre-orders are now AVAILABLE!

20% off if you pre-order LUNA The Shadow Dust. This is a treat for all you early birds, out there. Don’t miss out! Pre-order codes can be redeemed for a game key on GOG, Steam or a DRM-free copy when the game goes live on the 13th.

We’ve also got a brand new trailer for you, too, with never-before-seen footage! Check it out!

IGF Awards

LUNA has earned an Honorable Mention in the IGF’s Excellence in Visual Art category 2020! This is a big achievement for a small team like us, we were over the moon when the news was out! Thank you everyone for the support along the way!!

The following month will be the most challenging for us, aside from our testing period.

We sincerely ask for your help in spreading the word.

If you know of any streamers or YouTubers who dig puzzle adventure games, please tell them about us! If you, or someone you know, is working in the press, please get in touch for preview keys or interviews with our team.🙆‍♀️🙆‍♂️📢🌙🎮

Email is the most direct way of contacting us:
info@lantern-studio.com
You can find our presskit on our website.

Also you can reach us through all these platform:
Facebook：https://www.facebook.com/lanternstudiogames
Twitter： https://twitter.com/LanternStudio_
Youtube： https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8NEGsIu4XPotERaZflef8A
Instagram： https://www.instagram.com/lanternstudiogames/
Discord ： https://discordapp.com/invite/y3k58JE
Reddit：https://www.reddit.com/user/LanternStudioGames/

We’ve worked so hard until now and it's finally our chance to unveil LUNA The Shadow Dust to the world! We sincerely hope our game can be played and shared across the world, bring a smile to someone's face.

See you all on February the 13th! ━━━━━━━━=≡Σ((( つ•̀ω•́)つ

Devlog#26 December Update & Merchandise Ideas!

Less than 3 months to go until the release! Isn’t it exciting!? We promised we would be updating more frequently now, so here’s our Holiday Season update!

Kickstarters Exclusive Contribution Page

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We have completed a special page dedicated to everyone who helped us throughout this journey. Your names will forever be shining on our website (as long as the internet exists)! You helped a small team achieve their ambitious dream with the most important first push. We can’t thank you enough!

👉❤ https://www.lantern-studio.com/backerlist  ❤

Merchandise

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We’d love to hear your thoughts on what merchandise we should consider! We have already begun working on some of them, for example; the postcard set, designs for emblem pins and the hardcover art book! Despite this, please vote with your heart. What would you like to see?

Here’s the questionnaire link, please tell us what you think and what other merchandise you’d like to have?

👉 https://forms.gle/pdR1zC5aXYa7eJzq7

Additional Content and Deluxe Version

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During the past few weeks, while continuing to work on polishing the final game build, we have also been finalizing some additional content which will complement the game. In February, not only we will release LUNA itself, but also a Deluxe Version including the game, the digital version of the artbook, and the original soundtrack album. You can also purchase them separately.

The Digital Art Book

A massive 124-page PDF, the digital artbook includes both the full-color HD original game artwork and the artist’s hand-drawn sketches. It is like going ‘backstage’ with the game and serves as a visual record of our journey from the very beginning towards release. We hope leafing through the design notes, concept art and drawings within the book will bring you more delight and understanding about the world of LUNA.

We will also produce a limited physical hardcover art book to grace your coffee tables, which is included in some KS reward tiers. The physical artbook contains an additional 32 high-grade printed pages of exclusive content over the digital version and features some of our most secret game production content, unavailable anywhere else! We will make this available for sale separately at a later date.

Original Game Soundtrack

Without any dialogue, the music in LUNA plays a crucial role in the game’s storytelling. Designed to immerse the player in the emotional highs and lows of the adventure, the LUNA OST kindles goose-bumps along the journey. Inspired by the music from games like Journey and Ori and the Blind Forest, this album features 34 tracks with over 80 minutes of original music by composer, Wang Qian.

Last but not least, we wish you all a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!
2020 is gonna be AMAZING!!


Devlog#25 November Update & Exciting Announcement

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

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