Winter 2025 update post:

I'm glad to finally launch this website, the development of which I've been putting off forever. Now I can post updates here without any design restrictions.

This site wasn't created so much for simply promoting my game, but rather for creating posts, similar to Deltarune newsletters or Patreon posts. I liked the concept of my own website, where I could program some interesting puzzle and let people sit and solve it. Someday I'll do something similar, as I have a lot of plans for the game.
From now on, all game updates, the outgoing season's conclusion, and other stuff will happen here, because it's much cooler.





Now the Telegram channel will only briefly cover upcoming news. For more detailed information, visit the website and read on!

Developing from scratch.

Let's talk about the game itself.

I've already mentioned this in posts on Telegram and Discord, but I'll repeat it: the game will now be developed using the Godot engine.



After finishing the "The College Demo" prototype, I started focusing on other important matters unrelated to game development (a bit personal, not really important). During this time, I showed the demo on several of my YouTube livestreams and replayed it myself. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that Clickteam Fusion, the constructor on which the game was originally developed, was completely unsuitable for this game. Already at Level 2, the game would inevitably freeze slightly during gameplay, which caused a lot of problems with closing the dome in time, parrying attacks, and so on. Ultimately, I made the rather difficult decision to completely redesign the game using Godot to completely eliminate these issues.

I have a friend who would be happy to help me with the development. Her name is Charlotte, and she knows Godot far better than I do. But that doesn't mean I should entrust the entire development to her. Ultimately, I have to sit down and figure out the code myself, how everything works. And I don't even have a game design document ready, if only because I'm not entirely sure what the final gameplay should be. Considering that the player might not be able to fend off attacks with the cursor in time, the obvious option is to add arrow keys/WASD controls. But then the game's uniqueness is lost, and it'll just be another FNF clone, or whatever they call it nowadays...



Either way, I fully understand that at this rate, the game won't be released anytime soon. But it's worth it.

Designing.

Besides the website, I've been actively working on the final design of Lumirium these days, if only because it was needed for the website. I can't launch the website if it's filled with placeholders instead of Lumirium.

Lumirium concepts | me

Lumirium icons concepts | Aid_Baiter

Lumirium icons concepts | safir_mdvk

Lumirium icons concepts | sacre_bleu

Lumirium interface concepts | ordinator_official

I'm incredibly grateful to my friends who suggested designs for Lumirium. We needed fresh perspectives on the design, so you could look at it and say: "Yes, this is Lumirium."
In the end, everything came together, and I designed it (it can be changed sometime).

New character!

For the game's third anniversary, I couldn't prepare anything, except for one thing: a new character: Malister the Mail Agent.



I came up with the concept for this character about a year ago while playing Super Bo Noise. I really liked the mechanic of receiving letters in that game. Inspired by this feature, I decided that this mechanic would be a great addition to the game's experience on Lumirium. Specifically, for various actions in the game, you receive a new letter. These letters can contain anything: a funny phrase, a game hint, a lore addition, and so on. And you don't know when or why you'll receive a new letter. That's why Malister was created. He will notify the player of the arrival of a new letter with his robotic TTS voice.
The design itself is simple. He looks like a mailbox with a drawer on the side and a slot in the head for letters. I want the character designs to be simple yet unique.

What's next?

Now that I've finished this website and designed Lumirium, my next plan is to start writing a design document for the game. I need to detail the gameplay, as I still haven't decided on many things. Perhaps the most difficult part will be thinking through the Cursor Dance section. It needs to be replaced, improved, or even removed entirely. And then I need to start studying Godot. There's a huge amount of work ahead.

And despite all this, I'm very happy that the game is still supported and people are helping me with it. I consider this project truly relevant, and I really want to see it through to the end. Even if it doesn't become a hit and remains underground, I'll be proud of my creation.

Conclusion.

This year was truly the most important for the game, because it was the year I graduated from college, and with it the "The College Demo" I submitted for my thesis defense. This demo showed that Clickteam Fusion wasn't suitable, so I switched to Godot. And so, in the third or fourth quarter of 2025, I designed a truly good design for Lumirium and a promotional website for it.
In 2026, new achievements await me: creating a design document for the game, remaking all the character assets, exploring Godot, and much more. And none of this would have been possible without you. Thank you for being part of this community! Even if you're new and know nothing about the game. I hope this site will be someone's first introduction to Virusnya, Openly, and the rest of the team.



Adios! And Happy New Year everyone!