A perfect paper craft world to explore

Lumino City is a point-and-click puzzle adventure set in a gorgeous paper-craft world. You must guide Lumi as she searches for her grandfather, through the titular Lumino City. Along the way she must repair the city’s failing infrastructure and help its inhabitants through a series of puzzles to progress.

Puzzling problems

It’s an overused word. A term used when you run out of ways to express how twee, cute, or down right warm inside something makes you feel. Yet – in the case of Lumino City – charming is the perfect description.

From the opening scene, in which you explore your grandfather’ house, every screen and puzzle oozes a distinctive tactile style that begs to be explored and touched.

But – before you get a chance to really appreciate the world the developer has created – a noise comes from another room, and Lumi runs out to discover her Grandfather has been kidnapped. Or Gramps napped, I’m really not sure.

Instantly setting off to the Lumina City, you begin to meet its many entertaining inhabitants, all of whom have their own mechanical problems that must be solved to progress.

A practical world

The world gently rotates as you move from one puzzle to the next, shifting seamlessly between 2D and 3D, all looking stunning. It’s a feat made all the more impressive once you realize many of the effects are practical and developer, State of Play Games, actually build a 10 foot high model city in which to set the action.

Lumino City’s puzzles vary significantly in complexity – and quality. One just has you talking to a selection of disgruntled neighbors in the right order so they stop arguing. Another wants you to place mirrors correctly to reflect light in to a series of rooms, all so you can see the different parts of a code to open a door. But there is one through line across all of these problems – they can all be solved using the intuitive interface.

If puzzles ever prove too complex you always have you granddad’s technical manual to hand. Each problem has its own entry which offers clues to the solution, but there are hundreds of pages that offer no help at all. Here Lumino City respects your intelligence – a contents page that leads you to relevant spot, providing you can solve a simple math problem related to the puzzle.

Cute and charming

From start to finish Lumino City keeps you captivated with its breathtaking, paper craft world. It puzzles range from mundane to fantastic but you will be so preoccupied wondering how the developer built each environment that, even at its lowest moments, you remain enraptured by its charming style.