By John Walker on October 7th, 2009 at 7:20 pm.
LucasArts Workshop’s first game, Lucidity, is now available. It’s on Steam for £7, and we’re told it will be elsewhere (such as Direct2Drive) soon enough. It’s a platformer crossed with Tetris, where you guide the young girl, Sofi, through a dream-like world by placing objects for her to run across. The old trailer is below, along with LucasArts’ blurb for the release.
We’ll take a look at the game pretty soon and let you know our thoughts. Meanwhile, if you’ve picked it up on impulse, let us know your opinion below. Here’s the trailer:
And here’s LucasArts’ deja vu inducing launch details:
“From the team that re-imagined The Secret of Monkey Island, comes Lucidity, an addictive puzzle platformer set in the surreal childlike dreamscapes of the little girl Sofi. In this challenging puzzler, it’s your task to keep Sofi safe as she drifts deeper into the strange new world of her dreams. Featuring stunning hand-illustrated visuals, a spell-binding original score and unique puzzle platformer gameplay, Lucidity will challenge your wits, test your reflexes and mesmerize your senses.”
For some reason they then take another stab at this, saying,
“Take a trip into the surreal childlike dreamscapes of Sofi, a little girl filled with a persistent desire to explore new worlds and overcome all obstacles in her way. Test your skills in this addictive puzzle platformer where through quick reactions and placement of unique puzzle pieces, you create a path to help Sofi traverse safely through 27 visually stunning, hand-illustrated dreamscapes.”
07/10/2009 at 21:17 Senethro says:
Isn’t this somewhat similar to that flash game from a year back on DoubleFines website…?
07/10/2009 at 23:27 Persus-9 says:
Tasha’s game? Yeah I guess it is a bit except you don’t have control of Sofi like you had control of Tasha and the challenges they face are quite different.
07/10/2009 at 21:25 Sparvy says:
Wow, I havent heard that in a while. The song closing out is a pretty classic swedish children’s song called Byssan Lull, thought I was mistaken first but googling proves Im hearing right.
07/10/2009 at 22:50 Doctor Doc says:
I thought it sounded like Swedish and you’re right, that’s Byssan Lull, or at least the first sentence is. I can’t hear the rest, did they just throw words together?
07/10/2009 at 23:16 Sparvy says:
http://lucasartsworkshop.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/say-what/
Goes into how the song ended up in the game, the english translation posted there is a bit incorrect though.
07/10/2009 at 21:27 TimRandall says:
A “platformer crossed with Tetris”?
More like Lemmings crossed with Pipemania, I think :-)
07/10/2009 at 21:30 jsutcliffe says:
Are we going to get a Wot I Think, or any other opinion from the RPS Four? Tell me what to think, overlords!
07/10/2009 at 22:10 skalpadda says:
I’ll second the request for RPS opinions on this, it looks very lovely :)
07/10/2009 at 21:35 Cedge says:
Been looking forward to this one since the art leak a few months back.
Think I’ll hold off until tomorrow, though. If there is some really spectacular Weekend Deal on Steam, I might have to pass on Lucidity for now. Hope I don’t have to choose, though, as I really want to play this.
07/10/2009 at 22:18 Smurfy says:
Where the fuck is my Monkey Island 2: Special Edition?
07/10/2009 at 23:20 Persus-9 says:
Glory be! We wait ten years for LucasArts to get back to making good new games like they used to and now you want them to stop and consentrate on churning out updated version of the old stuff? You’re mad! I’m quite sure MI2SE will be along soon enough so quit your bitching and don’t ruin this for the rest of us.
07/10/2009 at 23:44 Ben L. says:
Heck with that, where’s my MI2: Non Manhandled Edition?
08/10/2009 at 01:18 Jad says:
I couldn’t agree with Persus-9 more. It was really annoying when Lucasarts began to tease this game, saying that they were doing “new IP, no Star Wars or old franchises”, and everyone just started shouting about X-Wing.
Hooray for new stuff!
If Lucasarts stated tomorrow that they were going to do five new adventure games, and further announced that not a single one was based off of Monkey Island, DoTT, Full Throttle, etc, — if you didn’t jump for joy shouting “Yay! New LucasArts adventure games!”, then you would be what is wrong with the gaming industry.
07/10/2009 at 22:19 Smurfy says:
Holy jizz LucasArts is bigger than Valve.
07/10/2009 at 22:29 Zerimski says:
There’s a problem with the game running on some Vista machines, but there isan easy fix. Serves me right for running Vista I suppose.
After about 40 minutes or so with it, I think I like it. It’s a shame I’m rubbish at it though.
07/10/2009 at 22:29 Optimaximal says:
The question is, is it more style or substance?
The graphic style is great, but when a game can be boiled down to ‘Lemmings crossed with Tetris’, i’ve got better things to spend my money on, such as Machinarium, Resonance and funding Dan Marshall’s crack habit.
07/10/2009 at 23:11 Persus-9 says:
From what I’ve played I would say it’s definitely leaning more towards style than substance. Mechanicially there’s nothing that special about it but it’s pretty and atmospheric which makes up for a lot in my book.
07/10/2009 at 22:36 pHonta says:
Agreeed!!!
07/10/2009 at 22:37 pHonta says:
F**k, that was supposed to go after the request for MI 2!
07/10/2009 at 23:07 Persus-9 says:
I picked it up. I haven’t finished it yet but so far I think it’s a lovely game, beautiful, atmospheric, tense and involving. I’ve just got to the start of the second of the three chapters and Sofi is now being chased by a wall of stars and I’m finding it’s pushing all the right buttons to make me desperate to save her from the void.
It seems quite a reasonable length as well. I’m just about a third of the way through in terms of levels and I think I’ve been playing over an hour. There’s also a collection metagame where you have to collect all the fireflies, I suspect will probably make the levels work as straight puzzles once the story mode is out the way. Importantly it doesn’t get in the way on the first play through since there is a reason to collect some of them since they double as health packs in story mode and it’s explained in the narrative that Sofi has a dream of collecting all the fireflies in the world.
The only problem I’ve had with it so far is it can be quite annoying, there have been a couple of times it’s made me almost scream in frustration which is odd because I’ve never come close to get stuck it just somehow manages to make every one of the very few deaths I’ve experienced feel really unfair.
The main problem is you can see so little of the world around you. There are times when you need to make a leap of faith because you need to go down but can’t see what’s below you. When that leap of faith lands you on instant death barb wire one damn square from the end of the level it results in RAGE. I think the game would have been improved by having a braid like rewind button rather than forcing you to replay the level from the start. It’s instant deaths just feel a little too punishing in what is generally a pretty casual game. The lack of being able to see ahead also means there’s little or no planning involved because you can only hold on to one piece and you can’t put blocks much further along Sofi’s path because there is so little of the level on the screen at any one time.
The invisible grid on which you place the bits can also be a bit annoying when using the mouse controls as there are times when I’ve moved that one pixel to the right and puts it in the other grid slot just as I’ve clicked but in general it feels pretty good. I think the keyboard controls would be better and they are available but I’ve been put off by the fact I’m naturally so much better at it with the mouse.
Anyway in spite of these couple of nitpicking niggles so far I’d definitely give it the thumbs up.
07/10/2009 at 23:09 SH4RKY says:
Looks b-e-autiful…
07/10/2009 at 23:34 leederkrenon says:
shit me, the cut scenes look gorgeous but the game itself looks really frustrating. heyho.
07/10/2009 at 23:51 Anthony says:
Played the demo for this on XBLA – very atmospheric, pretty graphics and bloody frustrating. Not being a huge platformer fan I don’t know how far into it I’d get before the rage set in, but in terms of sheer artistic style the game is a winner.
07/10/2009 at 23:51 Simon says:
Purchased this based on the previous RPS post about it and the trailer.
Result? DISAPPOINTMENT!
The game has lovely art/design, but it’s a tad boring – but the major problem is that it’s frustrating! The instances when I die are completely stupid: Not only is it easy to misjudge distances, but as mentioned above the limited fov is, well, limiting. Oh, and that your mouse/item moves when the screen moves is really annoying as well.
Lovely idea, lovely art/story/music, terrible gameplay.
07/10/2009 at 23:59 Mike says:
This is entirely worth the money. Gameplay is richer than it looks, it just needs slightly more responsive mouse controls. Entirely reminds me of Sleepwalker – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ-Ze2pdX9c, but just very beautiful, very thoughtful, very…. nice. If this is a return to form for LucasArts, I’m so happy.
08/10/2009 at 00:00 Simon says:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/37400
Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Double Pack
Just $4.99
08/10/2009 at 00:22 Lambchops says:
I’ve been looking forward to this one so bought it tonight and have been playing for the last couple of hours or so.
I’ve got to the start of the third chapter; havne’t tried any of the bonus levels I’ve unlocked yet.
Pros:
The game is really pretty and stylish, the music fits it perfectly and the atmosphere in general is very good.with a bleakness that fits into the concept rather nicely.
Gameplay is pretty good and it’s damn satisfying to pull of a tricky sequence. Figuring out how to use your tools effectively and which ones to hold adds a nice wee bit of strategy to what could have become repetitive.
I’m not so irritated with the limited field of view as others – on most occassions you have the tools to extricate yourself from any sticky situations that come about after a leap of faith and figuring out the different routes round a levle saves replaying it from being tedious.
Cons;
The invisible grid. The amount of times I’ve died because an object has snapped to the wrong place is a source of a few frustrating moments (particularly if I’m in the middle of a good run where I’ve collected lots of fireflies). Whether accidentally trapping myself or being unable to save myself from an avoidable death this problem is the most glaring flaw in the game. Using the keyboard helps accuracy of placement but becomes useless after all but the earliest levels as you can’t move your items as quickly as is necessary to avoid death and do some of the trickier sections (as soon as the catapult is in use it’s game over for the keyboard as far as I’m concerned).
As one of the earlier posters mentioned the game would have benifited from a rewind button (it would have to be limited to a certain number of times per level to keep the game challenging but would alleviate the frustration caused by some of the more ‘unfair’ deaths)..
Replayability wise this will depend on how obsessive you are about collecting things. There’s certainly a lot to do in terms of firefly collection – i can see myself attempting to unlock most of the bonus levels – but getting them all would be an excercise in frustration and I reckon I’d get bored of it after a few hours.
Verdict: An very stylish, enjoyable game if a bit frustrating at times. Well worth picking up at the price. More of this sort of thing please Lucas Arts.
08/10/2009 at 00:22 Howl says:
Random, random, random, for the lose.
It’s a shame as it has a nice atmosphere. The cynic in me just felt like some marketing person fused commercially successful games of yore and hoped to ride the wave of indie puzzlers that have been acclaimed recently. It says, “hai, i r this years Goo/Braid, maek meh moneyz” and it’s just.. not. It fails as a puzzle game and it fails as a platformer.
Also, the ‘piece’ control is very bad at times, especially when the screen scrolls suddenly (i.e. you drop quite a distance) or when you go anywhere near the edges of the screen with your cursor. The pieces have a sticky feeling, which is not something you want when the timing is so harsh.
I have no desire to even carry on through the rest of Act II, let alone go back through Act I in the hopes that random combinations of pieces might appear, random insects won’t randomly patrol at the wrong times and all the planets align, to enable me to collect other fireflies.
08/10/2009 at 00:53 Duffin says:
I’m a little tempted by this… but I just bought Arkum Asylum and you know it will be less than a £5 pretty soon.
08/10/2009 at 02:24 notlimahc says:
Lucidity is just a clone of an old Amiga/Atari ST game called Builderland: The Story Of Melba.
08/10/2009 at 04:24 Vinraith says:
2D platformers and I are kind of done, I’m finding. I just can’t play them anymore. I have no patience for the constant dying and repeating, and any skill I had with them as a kid seems to have evaporated. I keep buying them out of habit, but I haven’t played one I’ve enjoyed in years, so I’m finally learning my lesson. Puzzle platformers, as Braid amply demonstrated, are no exception.
08/10/2009 at 08:25 Innokenti says:
Would be nice to have a demo… in any case, I’m not likely to pick this up until the inevitable Steam sale.
08/10/2009 at 12:41 Owen says:
Played the demo on 360 this morning and….although was quite looking forward to it….I’m pretty disappointed.
The grid’s quite annoying. Only a small annoyance BUT when it’s so integral to the game, it’s a bit of a deal breaker. It’s quite fiddly to get your pieces down in time I found and because Sofi is constantly skipping along, it almost made me feel that I was helping, rather than playing a game myself. If that makes any sense.
I found it quite frustrating and difficult. Sometimes I’d be merrily placing pieces, gathering stars and whot-not. Then I’d come across a few enemies at different levels, try to avoid them but fail. It’s not clear whether ANY contact harms you (ie. can you drop on them to kill?) either.
It’s an odd one really. As I said, I was looking forard to it and from the vids it looks interestingly different. I personally don’t think it quite comes together though. It’s certainly got no ‘wow’ factor or ‘ooh now THAT’S cool’ elements to it, which is surprising.
Shame.
08/10/2009 at 18:36 Brass Gerbil says:
::sniff-sniff::
Hrm. No TIE Fighter.
/leaves
08/10/2009 at 19:32 Carra says:
That clip reminds me of the movie Coraline. Cute girls in fantasy worlds!