Lumicon

"I don’t like playing Lumicon. It’s too good at creating a frantic experience."ZTGD (7.8 out of 10)

This was my favourite Lumicon review and hit exactly what we were aiming for :D

We wanted to create a game built on a somewhat simple premise, yet give it depth, and make it stand out from its competitors - a game that could be thrilling by being "masterable", but could also be brutally unforgiving if you're unlucky enough to muck something up.

Designed and built by both me (videogame design, visual & audio design, music) and Nial Giacomelli (videogame design, programming), Lumicon is a tactical word game for iOS, in which players must battle time to form words, trigger combos, gain powerups and score points.

I learned a ton from this project. A lot of the work was in making animation mock-ups in Flash that Nial would then animate with code. This was a bit of a MacGuyvered workflow that proved very effective in the absence of an engine that I could directly animate within.

We also built a musical system based on loops that, when you enter different parts of the game's UI, certain elements would be brought in whilst others would be removed, creating a continuous musical bedding that sounds distinct per each UI view.

We were rather chuffed with our reviews:

"...that Lumicon is unforgivingly difficult right off the bat was like a smack into a refreshing brick wall."Kotaku (Gaming App of the Day Award)

"If you like word games, this is definitely one of the best looking ones on the App Store."Beautiful Pixels

"...a tilt-a-whirl of tossing, screaming, stomach-flipping nostalgia."148 Apps (4/5 stars)

"If you’re a word game lover, you will want to give Lumicon a try."App Advice