Game City 2019
At the Game City 2019 in Vienna, I had the opportunity to try out several games of different genres, topics, age groups and producers. Despite the vast range of extremely popular games, a small production called “Children of Lumera”, located in the Indie area, caught my attention.
The game was developed by Phantom Fox Interactive, an Indie video games company from Vienna. The team only consists of 3 young but highly motivated members. Founded in 2018, Phantom Fox has always been focused on storytelling. Their first project, Children of Lumera, was in fact intended to be a children's book at first but became an interactive adventure game for people of all age groups. At the moment, there´s only a demo version available but they intend to release the final game in early 2021. The game will be available in German and English.
I played the demo version on PC, but after the official release it will also be available for Switch, Mac, IOS and Linux.
Children of Lumera is a single player fantasy adventure game. It was originally designed for children but the final game should attract young as well as older players. It could be classified as 8+. (PEGI 7+, ESRB Everyone, no descriptors)
Since the game is based on a children's fantasy novel, the genre could be defined as Action/Adventure, but due to its point & click structure it also has some puzzle elements.
The game also provides some educational benefit, such as motor skills, decision making and most importantly: social and cultural values and skills.
Talking about the gameplay itself, it should be noted that I would classify myself as an intermediate gamer who occasionally plays games. But now let's take a deeper look at the story behind the game.
Children of Lumera tells a tale about the so called Alven children, who had the power to form reality with their dreams. But some day, one of them destroyed the balance and now the folk and their magic is nearly forgotten. The main character of the game is a girl named Elo who lives in a small village called Slumber Deep. Throughout the game, you have to guide Elo through her fantastic and magical world by pointing and clicking objects and fulfilling tasks.
You start your journey at Elo´s little hometown and explore her universe by clicking where you want to go and who you want to talk to. The graphics and the atmosphere of the game are extremely beautiful and nicely done. The sound design matches the magical playing environment and gives you a nice gaming experience.
Since I only played the demo version, I can't talk about all the features and the goals of the game in detail, but it already seemed quite promising. I didn't come across any great issues, but I could imagine that the rather slow walking pace of the main character could hinder a smooth gameplay. Additionally, I didn't understand the decision making feature at first. But once your into the game, that shouldn't bother you anymore and after a few minutes, you are able to play the whole game with all its features. Children of Lumera is designed as a completed story but can be paused at the different stages of the game. The learning process can be achieved in small periods of time.
The game can be used for educational purposes in elementary school but also at home to teach children cultural, creative, cognitive and motoric skills as well as encourage their fantasy and strengthen their social interaction.
The producers of the game said that they want to release several episodes of the tales but also print a children's book. The final version will be available in early 2021.
- Valerie