Luna's Wandering Stars

A planetary physics puzzle game, Luna was my first big project after college, and my first commercial game. I set out to make a small little mobile game. Having just finished a class on computational physics my senior year, I was feeling inspired by the possibilities of physics-based gameplay. There were already a number of very fun and successful games for the mobile market based on physics, but none based on orbital mechanics. So, I began programming Luna.

It ended up being a bit more ambitious, in the end. Many changes were made, and it even switched over from mobile to PC. Numerous visual overhauls and menu redesigns further extended the development time. But, with the whole team at Serenity Forge working hard, it was finished and shipped in a presentable state.

Development taught me a great many things, and forced me to solve a great number of challenges and puzzles. I’m particularly fond of my procedural nebulae backgrounds, which I spent quite a while on. It’s not as pretty as something pre-rendered or more expensive (I’m looking at you, volumetric rendering), but it means that the background is never the same, and often very pleasing to look at.

I learned so much it was tempting to remake it altogether, as is often the case with a longer project. Still, I’m very proud of the game. It’s certainly not for everyone, but can be very fun and I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing strangers enjoying it. The polish is decent, and the puzzles challenging. And yes, you might learn a thing or two about how gravity works on the planetary scale.

Here’s a trailer for the game:

You can find the game here on Steam