I
t’s odd to think that
Luna—a game with
such rich textures and
which plays out its
gentle story in a
variety of interactive terrarium-
style spaces—was ever intended as a
solely 2D game. Porting it to VR
happened about halfway through
development after the team
experimented with taking a version
of Luna to the Oculus platform.“The tactile
quality of the
art lent itself to
VR,” says Luna’s
art director
Glenn
Hernandez. “But
this meant that“WHEN THE LIGHTING
FOR THIS SCENE
CAME TOGETHER WE
WERE ECS TATIC!”we could no longer replicate my
concept paintings in the VR
realm since the 2D camera was
very curated.”
Instead, Hernandez would
greybox the basic forms of the
environments, and the team would
see how different arrangements felt
in the headset. Modeler Allena Hail
would then add definition to the
greybox using Hernandez’ paintovers
for reference.
Hernandez stresses the
collaborative nature of the work. “My
drawings and paintings serve as
blueprints, and the real design comes
to life when other artists insert their
unique senses of style.”
Luna’s own blueprints take
inspiration from the illustrations
of Mary Blair, the woodblock prints
of Umetaro Azechi, the animations of
Jirí Trnka, and
the sculptures of
Lee Bontecou and
Harry Bertoia.
Funomena also
looked at the
folkloric style of
the 1975 Yuri
Norstein filmLUNA
Work i ng i n 3D
Gamenamexxxx
FEATURE