Playstation Plus offers a few games for free every month and one of the attractions for April 2015 is Aaru’s Awakening from Lumenox Games.
The game is a compelling fast-paced 2D platform adventure, featuring hand-drawn art of scenic beauty and mood music, dependent on the player’s ability to make decisions between heartbeats in how best to exercise the abilities of the protagonist (a mythical creature) to teleport and charge so as to progress through the levels.
Aaru’s Awakening was originally scheduled to launch last year. Here’s what marketing director Johann Ingi Gudjonsson had to say regarding its delay:
The plan was to release the game last summer, but first we had to learn about the hefty work of post-production in video games. The hard way. Since this is the debut game for us at Lumenox Games, it has been a learning experience. The game started out as a school project for three of the founding members of Lumenox Games, but took off when it won a game creation competition, IGI Gamecreator.
Extending the game’s release was well worth it. It first launched on Steam and received mixed reviews. The developers took all the criticism to heart and Aaru’s Awakening has since undergone several revisions, modifying the controls and adjusting the difficulty of the puzzles and boss stages to ensure a more rewarding experience for the players. With all this taken care of, the game is perhaps well on its way to even becoming an Indie hit.
Grudjonsson said: Aaru’s Awakening is an “indie game”. So, what makes a game an “indie game”? Some say it has to do with size of the developer, others say it has to do with distribution or funding – but really there is no real definition. For us, it has always been about creating the game independently. No compromise. Working long hours and burning up the midnight oil has defined this process. No regrets. This game is our passion. So, you have to understand: We are excited.
Aaru’s Awakening hits Playstation 3 and 4 on April 7 (today!) for $14.99, and free for Playstation Plus members.
