Introducing Super Lucky’s Tale
The following was adapted from a post we wrote for Xbox Wire
Last year, we had the amazing opportunity to introduce Lucky’s Tale, our character action platforming game, to the world. Since then we’ve heard from so many people how much they adored the game. They all ask us when they’ll get to see more of Lucky. We’re ecstatic to finally have an answer: Super Lucky’s Tale is coming to Xbox One X, Xbox One and Windows 10 PC as a retail and digital title in 2017!
I wanted to walk through a few meaningful moments in bringing Super Lucky’s Tale to life. One of our studio’s guiding principles is to endow the products we create with a feeling of playful delight. With Super Lucky’s Tale, we wanted to both honor the first game while applying what we’ve learned to amplify that delightful, joyous feeling.
A great example of this is deconstructing the experience of guiding Lucky around his world. Sure, he can run, jump, spin, carry things, and grab ledges, but is there something more that we can express here? Something that makes even routine traversal fun and memorable?
This examination lead to Lucky’s new burrowing ability. The burrow move came to life after one of our prototypes evoked the way a dolphin might arc gracefully in and out of the water. We knew we were on to something compelling when we realized that in many situations, we preferred burrowing to running. The challenge then shifted to iterating on that mechanic, giving it even more exploration and traversal potential without losing that simple delight of diving in and out of the soil.
Super Lucky’s Tale is significantly different from the game we thought we were going to make when we started. Not just different -- better, more engaging, more fun. We’ve seen this happen with many of the games we’ve worked on in the past. We’ve found that our team works best when we keep perspective on our initial pitch. It’s great at inspiring the studio at the outset, but the real fun is often found in the twists and turns along the way.
Like our lovable hero, we consider ourselves “lucky” to have such a talented team along for that ride. And I’m speaking both of the team here at Playful and our partners at Microsoft, who helped Super Lucky’s Tale become a reality. I’ve never seen a more dedicated and passionate group of people, and their combined work imbues every frame of Lucky’s next tale with magic.
You can get a taste of what we have in store in the trailer we debuted at E3 2017. We can hardly wait to share more details with you, so stay tuned!
XOXO, Dan Hurd Director of Super Lucky’s Tale