Gen Con recap

Gen Con was a learning experience to say the least! It was our first foray into the convention as a company, and we got to have four wonderful sessions in the First Exposure Playtest Hall (FEPH). Thank you to everyone who chose to spend their two hours in the playtest hall with Luminous; your insights are going to help make the game better for everyone when we launch.

Those eight hours gave us innumerable insights into our game and how we can improve not just the game itself, but how we present, market, and provide demos to not only experienced card game players, but also players who might not have as much experience with competitive card games.

We want Luminous to be approachable and playable by anyone regardless of skill, and I believe that the core mechanics and rules of the game allow that to be the case.

A few things we learned

Orb Iconography and Graphics

We were aware that this might be a problem leading into Gen Con, and our concerns were well-founded. Across the board, we received feedback about how differentiating the normal essence costs and the orb checks can be difficult at a glance. We’re taking another crack at iconography and card UI to help make it better.

Keyword confusion

Graft, specifically, can be confusing because it requires a lot of steps. We’re taking the keywords back to the drawing board to try to find words that might better explain it while simplifying Graft as a concept.

Balance issues

While it’s hard to truly get a sense of balance after playing just one or two games, balancing the decks against each other as well as themselves continues to be something we strive to improve.

We’re more energized than ever to produce a game that is simple to learn, accessible, and incredibly rewarding to master at a competitive level.

The plan moving forward into 2025

We have a lot to do before we want to soft-launch the game in central Texas before launching a full Kickstarter, but we’re confident that we’ll be able to accomplish it within the next year.

Art

Contracting art is an ongoing project for the team, and we’re incredibly lucky to be working with some amazing artists who are helping to bring the world of Luminous to life. If you are an artist or know any artists who might want to work on the game, please have them reach out to LuminousGamesLLC@Gmail.com

Getting the game into the hands of dedicated play testers

Our top priority is completing a rough balance on the first two Faction decks, the Kynda and the Disciples. Luckily, we’ve met lots of folks who are willing to play test the in-development version of the game!

We’ll be sending printed versions of each deck to play test groups across the country so they can provide us with valuable insights and feedback that can only be gained from playing a lot of games with a lot of different play styles.

We also plan on making the decks available via Tabletop Simulator a little further down the line once the balances are better so we can expand this network further.

If you have a group of players who want to help play test and would be willing to play for a few hours every week and provide feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to LuminousGamesLLC@Gmail.com

First print run and soft launch in Central Texas

Once we’ve balanced the decks and have completed the roughly 75 pieces of art for the two faction decks, we hope to soft launch the game in local game stores around Central Texas. Our plan is to run demo days and casual events with small prizes to generate momentum leading into Gen Con 2025 and a Kickstarter campaign to expand the game to more factions.

The road ahead is exciting

We’re all more energized than ever after leaving Gen Con 2024. It was a remarkable experience, and we can’t wait to show you the exciting updates the rest of 2024 and 2025 will bring to the world of Luminous.

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