Creating acompelling monster-collector RPGis difficult. You have to make it differentenoughfrom Pokemon to make it an original concept, butalsoborrow significant elements from it so you don’t alienate your core playerbase. Beehive Studios has taken on this challenge with its upcoming game LumenTale: Memories of Trey, where you catch and battle with Animon, while the protagonist, Trey, is on a quest to recover his lost memories.
I spoke with Paolo Lella, CEO and head of development at Beehive Studios, about LumenTale: Memories of Trey’s development, how the team is tackling this particular hurdle, and making LumenTale a fresh experience for players.
Lella tells me that the story and worldbuilding are what set LumenTale: Memories of Trey apart from its monster-collector peers. “We took the utmost care in creating the world of Talea, to make sure that the players would feel immersed while going on their journey. The players have the freedom of choice in how they want to take on this adventure, leading them to different endings.”
Creating An Original World And Diverse Roster Of Animon
The depth of the worldbuilding is closely tied to the team’s aim of making the Animon more developed, too. “We wanted Animon to be more than just simple images, and as such, we have created coherent context and worldbuilding around each of them, making sure that all their design found context and a solid background in the world of LumenTale,” Lella explains.
There are around 140 Animon in the game, each belonging to one of 13 elemental types, so while the roster of creatures is still substantial, a lot of care was taken to develop each one.
We wanted Animon to be more than just simple images, and as such, we have created coherent context and worldbuilding around each of them.
Alongside the well-developed world and narrative, Lella tells me about how the team has spent a lot of time perfecting the gameplay to create something original. “The Holoken gameplay, the fast-paced yet still turn-based battles, the Anispace; all of these contribute to a blend that makes LumenTale feel unique and entertaining.”
The Holoken is a device that allows you to catch Animon in the field without having to engage them in battle, keeping exploration quick and satisfying as you rack up party members and research more Animon. With exploring the world and discovering new creatures always being a focal point of monster-collector RPGs, and LumenTale having such a well-thought-out world, it makes sense to keep you in it, rather than going to a separate screen.
Turn-Based, But Make It Fresh
On the turn-based battles, Lella explains that this was a particularly difficult part of the development process to get right. “The battle system was an especially bumpy ride. We’ve experimented a lot with a wide variety of types of battle systems. We also wanted to keep the battle system as simple as possible, but make sure that people could feel growth while playing with it.”
you’re able to choose from 1v1 duels or larger 4v4 battles, with individual Animon strengths and weaknesses being the main reasoning behind your strategies - a familiar routine for most games in this genre.
Lella tells me that the team had three main objectives when developing this battle system. The first was to make it “follow the pace of the player, giving time when needed but reacting quickly to experienced players that know what to do”. Secondly, the team wanted to make battles “strategically interesting and varied”, and finally, they wanted to “[bring] back the old feeling of RPG parties made of Attackers, Shielders, Healers, etc.”
I’ve not had a chance to play LumenTale myself yet, but if Beehive Studios has managed to achieve these goals, it sounds like the battles are going to be a lot of fun.
On top of the usual exploring the world, catching monsters, and battling, LumenTale also has a few other elements up its sleeve: cooking, crafting, trading, and, most interestingly, something called the Anispace. This is where you can set up a base for you and your Animon, decorate it with furniture, and also use training items to buff up your team.
When designing the Anispace, Lella tells me the development team took inspiration from a few popular titles. “To achieve what we were looking for, we took inspiration from a lot of different franchises - Digimon, Pokemon, Animal Crossing - though we wanted to give it our own unique spin and ensure it felt different.”
You can customise this area to your liking, creating a little home for you and the Animon you’ve caught along the way. The concept reminds me of when Pokemon used to have bases - like in Diamond and Pearl’s Grand Underground, and Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald’s Secret Bases - so a monster collector bringing this back has me intrigued.
While Lumentale: Memories of Trey doesn’t have a release date yet, the team is already looking at how to keep you hooked on the world of Talea after launch. “We plan to expand upon the Anispace after the game release, so that players may always have new furniture to decorate their Spaces!” We’ll have to keep an eye out for a firm date of when we can start catching Animon for ourselves.
