Lucen is a charming and visually splendid action-adventure title about saving your village from a darkness that has plunged your village into a never-ending slumber. In order to save them you will have to find the old gods and acquire their favor and along the way explore a vast open-world untouched for centuries by civilization.
Gameplay doesn’t reinvent the action-RPG genre, but it does incorporate am RPG and Breath of the Wild-esk upgrade system. Exploration nets players new tools and experience allowing you to go further, become stronger, and complete your quest. A satisfying loop.
Being developed by a solo Australian developer Kristian Kebbe with music contracted out to composer Lukas Piel and sound design to Samantha Schellenberg it is an impressively comfy with a dark underpinning project.
For the most part, the developer spends his time working on the game and talking about it on social media. When he’s not he’s talking about other projects that he has found interesting. Though my research was brief I found no problematic connections or anti-gamer mentality.
Originally this project was going to launch a Kickstarter earlier this month, but following the global pandemic and subsequent panic, Kristian announced the postponement of his Kickstarter as he did not feel it was an appropriate time to be asking others for money.
Made the bigass bird turn her head to look at u#UE4 #Houdini #gamedev pic.twitter.com/o8Dh22nKzH
— LucenDev (@lucengame) February 13, 2020
Made a way for spiders to spawn. The hatching is triggered by proximity to Lucen, with some randomisation on delay and radius.
The sims are done in #Houdini, and brought into #UE4 with vertex animation textures.
Much, much more in the works I can’t wait to share!#gamedev pic.twitter.com/wMe575hnxB
— LucenDev (@lucengame) February 12, 2020
Had an idea for shader based vine growth, turned out easier than I expected!
Everything ultimately gets controlled by 1 ‘growth’ material collection parameter.#Houdini #UE4 pic.twitter.com/2BjYnQf0b7
— LucenDev (@lucengame) October 29, 2019
It will be interesting to see where the development of this game goes. It’s visually bright aesthetics and Lovecraftian influences come together to create something familiar and unique at the same time. Certainly a project worth keeping an eye on.
Description From Steam
Lucen is an adventure into the unknown. You play as a boy named Lucen, and after your village is mysteriously shrouded in darkness and fellow villagers won’t wake up, you must take it upon yourself to venture into the vast lands outside the village. Armed with your sword, bow, and legends passed down by generations, you must set out on a quest to ask the mythical old gods for their help.
Along the way you will traverse environments that have been untouched by civilisation for centuries – lush woods with ruins of altars to the old gods, caves hoarding mystical light orbs to augment your abilities, foggy swamplands occupied by terrifying creatures, and many more.
Features:
-Fast-paced hack’n’slash gameplay – harness light with your sword and bow to augment your attacks
-Master your sword to learn and perform new combos, or deal damage from afar with your bow. Allocate specialization points to focus on one type, or spread them out to balance between the two.
-Narrative-driven questline – learn more about Lucen and the world he’s in as you progress through quests
-Open-world exploration – explore every corner of the open world, learning ancient secrets and lore, and finding items to aid you on your quest
-Dynamic battles – Fight monsters large and small, who will do anything to prevent your intrusion into their lands. Engage in numerous boss battles with huge bosses, and gain access to the magical light orbs they protect.
