Lumino City

Lumino City is an adventure game built on a unique production technique – the entire game environment, buildings, mechanisms, and characters are hand-made from paper, cardboard, and wood and then photographed, so the player moves through a real, tangible miniature city instead of digital 3D graphics. The controls are simple touch point-and-click: tapping moves the camera and interacts with objects, while the main content of the game is logic puzzles based on mechanical devices – pulleys, elevators, gears – scattered throughout the city.

State of Play released the game in 2015 as a loose sequel to the earlier title Lume, continuing the same approach: the story about searching for a kidnapped grandfather serves mainly as a pretext for exploring the city's individual districts and solving their puzzles. It's a one-time paid game with no ads, which fits its character as a self-contained authorial work rather than a live service with long-term content.

The hand-made environment set the game apart from the vast majority of both mobile and console competition and earned it awards for its visual side, even though the puzzles themselves are rather classic and undemanding. The sound design and overall atmosphere of the city feel more like a stroll through a cozy, slightly melancholic place than a classic logic challenge.

Why play: Will appeal to players who appreciate an original visual technique and a calmer adventure pace more than puzzle difficulty; it's also a compact paid title with no need for further spending.