Planet of Lana News

Wishfully has provided a release date for its cinematic puzzle adventure game, Planet of Lana.

Published by Thunderful, Planet of Lana will release on May 23 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It is also a day-one release on Game Pass.

One of the most anticipated indie titles of 2023, the game tells the story of Lana and her loyal animal companion, Mui, who are on a mission to rescue Lana's sister.

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Wishfully’s scenic platformer Planet Of Lana has received a fast-approaching release date: May 23rd. Planet Of Lana has been on the RPS Hivemind’s radar since its announcement thanks to its hand-painted art, evocative soundtrack, and comparisons to Ori and Inside - two excellent platformers in their own right. The newest trailer (embedded below) is just an extra treat.

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Heya friends of Lana and Mui,

Happy Planet of Lana Release Date Announcement Day to all of you! ːsteamhappyː

Since the idea of Planet of Lana grew in my head back in 2017, all of us at Wishfully have been working really hard on realising our idea of a unique, captivating, and appealing cinematic puzzle adventure. Here we are today, and we can wholehartedly tell you that we are unbelievably happy and proud to reveal to you that Planet of Lana will release on May 23rd!

[previewyoutube][TRAILER][/previewyoutube]
That's right, from today it's only 20 days until you can set out on your own with Lana and Mui to embark on a rescue mission to save Lana's sister. Hopefully, Planet of Lana will be an unforgetable adventure for you as well - because for us it is already!

There are more issues of "Novo News" coming till the release, telling you more about the language of Novo, Lana's voice actress, the soundtrack, etc. To not miss any further updates please follow Planet of Lana and add it to your wishlist. This would really mean a lot to us! ❤️

We are counting the days until the release, friends!
Adam & the Planet of Lana Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1608230/Planet_of_Lana/

Hi friends,

This is Dan, and I’m the Lead Puzzle Designer for Planet of Lana. In this update, I'll shed some light on the creative process behind designing the puzzles for the game, touching on our inspirations, challenges, and design choices. Our goal has been to captivate players' imaginations while challenging their cognitive abilities in order to create a game that combines an immersive story with engaging puzzles.

Environmental storytelling is something that we are really passionate about at Wishfully, and to enrich our game's narrative and atmosphere, we designed puzzles that serve as opportunities to reveal more about the world, characters, and overarching story. To help us with this, we used visual cues, hidden details, and environmental elements to create a sense of discovery and wonder, encouraging players to explore and understand the world in which Lana lives. For the curious player there is so much to dig into here, with everything from strange creatures and plants to the language and culture that have developed on Novo.



To ensure there is a fun evolution of the puzzles, we crafted them around a core set of mechanics that gradually expand and intertwine throughout the journey of Lana. By layering new elements over existing ones, we create a sense of progression and mastery, keeping players engaged and motivated to overcome each new challenge.

I think one of the most exciting aspects of Planet of Lana is the ability to control animals and robots in fun and imaginative ways. We dedicated ourselves to creating unique interactions and mechanics that not only add depth to the puzzles but also infuse the gameplay with delightful surprises. Our focus here was on designing moments that spark joy and excitement, where expectations get turned on their head. Perhaps something that was once a deadly threat all of a sudden can become something useful and crucial to Lana’s progression in the game…



When designing puzzles, striking the right balance between difficulty and pacing is essential to ensure players feel challenged yet not overwhelmed. One could almost say designing puzzles is a puzzle in itself! Just changing the order in which one element or mechanic is introduced to the player can make a huge difference in how difficult a puzzle is to solve. Keeping this in mind, we carefully crafted our puzzles to maintain a steady difficulty curve, building on previous concepts while adding extra complexity. Our puzzles also balance logical problem-solving, reflex-based challenges and stealth sequences, catering to different player preferences and keeping the gameplay varied.

Game design is an iterative process involving constant testing, refining, and retesting. We used playtesting as a crucial tool early in the process. Using a very rough and simplified version of the game with rudimentary graphics early on in the process, we could gather feedback on puzzle design and difficulty before the real game environment was even developed. Since we built the puzzles in this more basic environment, we could also prototype more puzzles in a shorter timeframe and have a quicker turnaround between playtests. And by watching carefully how people were playing and incorporating the feedback during multiple iterations, it allowed us to fine-tune our puzzles to strike the perfect balance between challenge and enjoyment.



For me, seeing how players interact with our game has been one of the most interesting and fun aspects of the puzzle process. Everyone’s mind and experience is truly unique, and this is something I’m constantly reminded of every time I see someone play our game. And as the release for Planet of Lana is coming closer and we are about to share the game with the rest of the world, I’m eager to see even more players experience our epic adventure!

And a tiny spoiler: next weeks "Novo News" will address the language of Novo as well as the voice actor who lends her voice to Lana.

All the best!
Dan

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1608230/Planet_of_Lana/

Hi everyone!

Klas here, co-director and writer of Planet of Lana. While you patiently wait to get your hands on our off-earth odyssey, I thought I’d share some details on the story of the game in general, and Lana and Mui’s relationship in particular.

If you’ve been following the Planet of Lana journey so far, you might know that the game kicks off with Lana’s home planet Novo getting invaded by a strange robot army, and in the ensuing commotion Lana narrowly manages to escape capture. Unfortunately, her big sister and fierce protector Elo, along with the rest of her village, are not so lucky. Scared and alone, Lana is left with no choice but to venture into the hostile Novo landscape in search of her sister. This marks the beginning of a perilous journey through lush forests, dingy swamplands, dark caves, pristine archipelagos, and bone-dry deserts full of native predators and alien machines.



Luckily, it doesn’t take long for Lana to enlist some help on her rescue mission. Enter Mui; Our tiny, furry, but mighty resourceful companion. When Lana finds Mui, the robots have put her in a bit of a rough spot as well, capturing her in a cunning trap. Sympathizing with this predicament, Lana decides to risk her own life to rescue Mui and after a very close call the pair narrowly escape and become inseparable from that point on.



In designing the narrative of Planet of Lana we wanted to tell a simple, but multi-layered story to which players can pay as much or little attention as they please. We didn’t want to spell things out, but rather let the player explore the planet and draw their own conclusions about some key questions that arise during Lana and Mui’s journey; Like who are these strange alien machines that fell from the sky? What do they want? What kind of a place is Novo? How did humans end up in this colorful world?

With this minimalist mindset as our guiding star, we decided early on to not use any intelligible dialogue, but rather invent our own simple language for the inhabitants of Novo, presented without subtitles. Meaning is instead inferred from context, action, and tone of voice, while observant players might slowly learn some key phrases through Lana and Mui’s interactions to fill in the gaps as the game unfolds (much more on this in a future blog post, so stay tuned for that!).



One of the key aspects where narrative and game design intersected early on in production was in building the relationship between Lana and Mui. From a game design perspective, lots of time and energy was spent on building a give and take relationship between them where one feels like the natural extension of the other. While both characters have their own limitations and strengths, together they complete each other.

On a narrative level, Lana and Mui coming together is a turning point where Lana starts her journey from helpless victim to active participant and protector. An important aspect of establishing this relationship of course is their communication. Since Lana controls Mui by issuing verbal commands (essentially bossing her around), lots of care was taken in the voice over recording process to make sure that Lana’s tone towards her companion remained loving and respectful, while at the same time ensuring we built a dynamic system that allows for their communication to adjust based on their current predicaments; Trying to sneak past a cunning robot or human-hungry dragon pig? Better whisper! Getting chased by a giant machine marauder? Time to yell at the top of your lungs to make sure Mui knows what to do!



While there is so much more that could be said for the work that we put in to bring Lana and Mui’s journey to life, I’m a firm believer in the “Leave-them-wanting-more-philosophy”, so instead of blabbering on further let me finish by saying how extremely excited we are to share the final result with you very soon!

I’ll check back soon with another post where we deep dive into the language of Novo and introduce the talented young voice actress who helped us bring Lana to life.

Stay tuned!
Klas


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1608230/Planet_of_Lana/