Digital Dragons Indie Spotlight: Lumencraft

At Digital Dragons 2023’s Indie Zone I dropped by the Lumencraft station and to get a demo of the game. Lumencraft is one of those genre mash-ups that indies do a great job of creating. In this case, we have a base-builder, tower defense game wrapped into a rogue-like top-down shooter. Lumencraft is set about 200 years in the future, at a time when the world ha run out of energy sources. Just as hope was about to run out Lumen was discovered, a crystal with high energy potential, but that can only be found deep underground. Brave miners have established a subterranean settlement to begin extracting Lumen from the surrounding earth, but they soon find that they’re not alone. The subterranean tunnels that twist around the Lumen deposits are filled with mutant creatures that resemble giant insects, and they are bent on destroying anything that dares enter their realm.

The game features a full narrative, 27 mission-based campaign, but during my time with the game at Digital Dragons 2023 I had a look at the game’s horde-like survival mode. In this mode you are given a base that is centered on a reactor. This reactor provides your base with power and allows you to build and run production, research, and defensive structures. The enemy creatures will attack your base in waves of increasing numbers – eventually you’ll find yourself facing thousands of enemies – and your goal will be to fight them off before they can get to your reactor. If they destroy your reactor, it’s all over. Of course, things won’t go well for your game if you die, either, but as long as you build a clone station and remember to clone yourself, death is only a temporary setback. Between waves you can explore the tunnels beyond your base, or create new ones through the rock. This can lead to the discovery of more resources or some special items, but you may also find yourself running into a bug nest.

One of the really interesting things about Lumencraft is that its subterranean environment is completely destructible … down to the individual pixel. You can carve paths through the rock with as much precision as you want, flank a bug nest by coming through the wall, or break Lumen deposits down to individual crystals. You can clear a small path through a lava pocket to look for resources, or open a large gap to send it gushing out over your enemies.

The game’s ability to track things down to the pixel level also allows you to be quite precise with some of the explosive and incendiary weapons. You can spread napalm to encircle an approach to your base, ignite it when enemies approach, and watch it burn along every twist of the tunnel.

Everything in the game is procedurally generated, so the exploration aspect of the game will remain fresh on each playthrough. The game supports Steam Workshop, though, so if you have some interesting ideas for a level, or want to see what others have come up with, you can do that.

The game may take place entirely underground, but one of the things that struck me about it while watching it in action is that it actually is quite a colorful and vibrant game. The darkness is certainly dark, but the glow generate from your base installations, the brilliance of the Lumen, and the brilliant glow of the lava within the darkness almost give the game a stained glass look.

If you’re interested in seeing more on Lumencraft, you can find the game on Steam.