Alpha, free to play in your browser at paigegames.net/kilumen/. Full release coming before the end of the year on Steam, Google Play and Apple.
Hi, I'm Gary. Kilumen is the game I've wanted to make for the longest time, and right now it's the main thing Paige Games is building. It's in alpha, which means you can play it today, but it's still growing, and some names, art and sounds are stand-ins while I finish them.
What kind of game it is
Kilumen is a 2D open-world creature battler with a "128-bit" pixel look. You explore a big world on foot, find wild creatures (called Kilumen) out in the tall grass and along the trails, bring them onto your team, raise them, and battle with them. The alpha runs in your browser on desktop, phones and tablets. On phones it plays in landscape, and the PC and mobile versions each have their own layout so neither one feels squeezed.
Features
- A living world. There's a day and night clock, weather, cloud shadows drifting over the ground, and a night look where the town lights come on in the evening.
- Creature battles with real depth. Battles are turn-based and team-based, with elements like earth, water, light, wind, swamp, sea, spirit and fire, each with its own feel.
- Your team and your Field Archive. You carry up to six creatures. Extras go to the Field Archive, and your lead creature is your Trail Buddy, the one that walks with you.
- Eight Master halls, each with a puzzle. Every hall has its own challenge before you reach the Master: plates and crystals in Fernwick, salt-pan sluices in Saltmere, a prism relay in Revival Heights, gust lanes in Frostspire, a bog-light boardwalk in Mirefen, a tide clock on Tidewater Coast, a lens signal in Lanternport and quench channels in Cindervale.
- A job, not just a journey. You work for Revival Tech. You have an Employee ID that levels up as you work, and level-ups earn you merit to spend on the company Benefits Board, including a boost that helps your creatures grow faster.
- Quests and side stories. The towns have their own personalities and side quests.
- Gold, shops and saves. You earn gold from battles and work. Your game saves in your browser and keeps a backup.
How it plays
You start in Brookhollow, a little river town, and head out along Trail 1 through meadow grass. Walk into the grass and wild Kilumen can show up. Battle them, weaken them, then use a dominance crystal to bring one onto your team. After a catch, the game asks whether to log it under its company catalogue number (like RT-0147) or give it a real name.
From there you travel town to town. Each town has a Master's hall, and beating a Master earns you that region's coin and opens up the next part of the world, like a barricade lifting or a new bridge or sea lane opening. Along the way you'll take on Revival Tech work, which includes sending a set number of creatures to the company. The top goal there is 2,000.
Some creatures only change form after a trip by rail freight down the Lumen Line and back. A friendly coworker named Ron works the other end of the line and sends them home with a short note.
Story and setting
Kilumen's world is warm and cosy on the surface, with fern gardens, salty harbours and snowy shrines. But there's something quietly uneasy underneath. Every creature carries a violet dominance crystal, and you work for the company that put it there.
Revival Tech is everywhere. Its head office, the Glass Tower, rises over Revival Heights, a tidy, glassy company town where people are polite, nobody chats for long, and the motivational posters change every act. Out in the wilds, the field team that worked before you went missing and left abandoned camps behind in Thornwood, Greystone, Mirefen and Frostspire. You can restore them into your own camps to rest, decorate and use as fast-travel points.
Then there's Ron. Ron always nicknames his creatures, hasn't taken his bins out in ages, and is the kind of friend who makes a long journey feel like home. No spoilers, but the very last thing you see before the credits is Ron finally taking the bins out.
Kilumen is free in alpha and in active development, and every playtest note helps. Thanks for playing.