After over 4 years of testing/learning game dev, and then another 1.5 years of rebuilding it from the ground up, working on it full time with just the two of us... Luminary is FINALLY out in the world! I can't even put into words how that feels... Surreal? Accomplishment? Terrifying? It hasn't really sunk in yet.
This solo or co-op Zelda/Fable/Skyrim Idea I had for a game that my family could play together that we all enjoyed. Dynamic combat for me, forgiving combat for my wife and son. Exploration, leveling by doing, drop in drop out co-op and continued progression across different sessions. Years lead up to this moment, and it actually happened.
While we priced our game at $20, about a month ago I decided to increase our launch day discount per additional wishlist milestone we hit. Well we definitely didn't hit 150k, we didn't even technically hit 100k... we were close enough. I'm going 15% off for the first 2 weeks of launch, because... I feel like it!
Many of you have been with us on this journey for so long, and your continued support over that time honestly means the world to me. While it took forever, I hope you can see the passion that we put into Luminary. And over 600+ of you signed up for our Hall of Heroes, pledging to support us week one! Though the Hall of Heroes has now been closed, follow us on Discord, we will likely do more community stuff like this in the future :)
Now obviously this is our Day 1. Luminary's launch build is focused on our Foundation. There are the basics in place of pretty much all of our important gameplay mechanics and systems including co-op. And from here we can really start to focus on adding content and variety to the game. Here's a glimpse at the rough ideas we have for Luminary going forward:
Through a Public Demo and Playtests with the community, we really focused on making sure all of the game breaking bugs and issues were resolved in our foundation before release. (we hope haha) And while some BIG games recently came out with their Early Access's, Windrose, Subnautica, etc. We may "look" bigger than your typical indie game, but don't expect that level of content Day 1 haha.
There's no way to really know what the future holds. I hope that Luminary does decent enough for us to be able to continue to grow it into the game everyone wants it to be. We have an initial scope that we can tackle with the bare minimum, but to be able to grow that scope with the ability to hire on more people to help, would be a dream come true. The community has big expectations, and I want to be able to reach and surpass them. But honestly, I hope I've made a game, that while early on in development, gives people joy playing it. A relaxing and fun ARPG experience that brings people together. I care more about how we are received by the players than by any accolades or sales.
As I press this big green release button, I hope you see the time, passion, and sacrifice behind what we've made here. And who knows, with a little bit of luck, we may just pull this thing off :) Thank You,
Keith and Matt