By Dylan Russell
The caretaker of the great Lumino City, also known as your grandfather, was kidnapped. An adventure awaits as you enter through the radiant gates of the city in search of him. Lumino City is an award-winning game made by State of Play Games that explores the ins and outs of a beautifully hand-built world. To succeed in the game, the player must use investigative skills to work their way through the different machines and processes that structure the city. Through its handcrafted design, the game stimulates the player’s creative side and strives to promote the creation of sustainable energy through the use of reusable objects.
Lumino City is not like any other city. It is a hand-crafted world made entirely from reused materials. The developers of the game used anything from paper, plastic, and even hollowed-out batteries and old motors to create the charming appearance of the city. As such, the unique workings of the city run on renewable energy, while repairing and navigating its infrastructure requires the use of a manual, a book that includes hundreds of ideas for generating energy from renewable sources. To solve the mystery of grandfather's disappearance, the player must first solve the mystery of the workings of the city. From using lemons to power the city to exploring the uses of solar power, this game encourages players to expand their knowledge past the limits of old-fashioned, wasteful energy. In the process, Lumino City explores the benefits of renewable energy and raises awareness of the importance of recycling. Through the game aesthetics, the different strategies applied, and the unique interaction the player has with the environment, Lumino City inspires creative ways to use renewable energy sources and promote a healthier environment.
First, you're running through the rustic gates; next, you're being swung in the air with a crane hook. From the unique lopsidedness of the city layout to the tightropes that stretch across the city's abyss, everything you see on screen is a real-life model made entirely of crafted materials such as paper or parts from motors or clocks. The game’s developers crafted this 10-foot-high city and used laser cutting to solidify the finer details. The only animation used is that of the avatars navigating through the city. As a result of the clever design of the game's aesthetics, the player unconsciously picks up cues about recycling as they move through its levels. While the game’s aesthetics are not directly related to its objective, they constantly influence the mind of the player with their handcrafted design. Playing the game allows you to see how recycled items can be transformed into a model city, and even the avatar’s aesthetics are designed with intent, encouraging the player to help build and repair the world. At times, the avatar will hop on a motion-powered bike or use gravity as potential energy to climb a rope and start an engine. All of the avatar's actions, in fact, train the player to think deliberately in more renewable, energy-saving terms. For every input, there is a consequence or negative outcome in the environment. Which method will reduce output the most efficiently? The game encourages the player to move and act deliberately, making choices to save the environment by using renewable energy.
Upon arriving in the city, for example, you discover several objects that will support different methods of navigating the city. Interaction within this environment is one of the most important things to remember about the city. How you interact with and manipulate the objects determines how you can create renewable energy. For instance, one of the first items you come across is a lemon tree as the game invites you to pick lemons and use them to generate electricity. In addition, this city has hidden gems and artifacts to interact with that advance you in the game. It is crucial to interact with the environment and find the right tools in order to play the game. You must use creativity in your environment to generate ways to reuse these objects into something useful. For example, you might stumble upon different silicon sheets in the city, and you must build a solar panel to power a house. The game encourages you to interact with the environment and utilize materials to your advantage, promoting creative thinking by replicating the need to use recycled materials in the real world. In this age, we need to encourage people to take advantage of resources instead of depending on the burning of fossil fuels. Who would have thought that collecting crystals and rotating them in a specific pattern could amplify a light source? No need for extra electricity; the game teaches you that innovation can lead to creative uses of natural science. This game teaches people to be aware of the materials found in their environment.
During the game, players may wander around in the recycled city picking up random objects to their heart's content. However, if a player does not apply a strategy, none of this is meaningful. A player's strategy determines how they use and create renewable energy. Naturally, there is a handbook supplying the different ways of generating energy and light (more like a solution manual), but the game also encourages players to create ideas of their own, stimulating their imagination. All players are presented with the same puzzles, but each can be solved in a different fashion. Of course, the more efficient your solution, the easier it will be to navigate the city. But the strategies used to solve puzzles mimic the environmental problems humans face in the real world. From electric cars to hydroelectric power for our cities, the game inspires players to devise solutions that simulate real world problems.
At the end of the game, right before you rescue your grandfather, you are rewarded with an alarming, informative video that threatens the conditions of the current environment. No matter which strategy you choose or how often you interact with the city, this foreboding statement warns all players why they should be concerned about the environment. State of Play's creators hope to address this issue through a visually stunning, highly interactive game, one that could easily be incorporated into schools to raise awareness about climate change. While fun and entertaining, it is also a serious game that actively promotes environmental conservation. It invites us to imagine how children can change the future of the environment if engaged in problem solving from a young age. Traveling to Lumino City teaches you the skills needed to start solving problems and repairing our environment.
Works Cited
Flanagan, Mary, and Helen Nissenbaum. “Game Elements: The Language of Values.” Values at Play in Digital Games, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2016, pp. 33–72.
Lumino City. For mobile, State of Play, 2014.
Whittaker, Luke, et al. “State of Play.” State of Play, 2008, www.stateofplaygames.com/.