Call Me Under
Call Me Under Release Information
We hope you’ve been well and have been keeping safe. We’ve been dealing with some unexpected obstacles I want to lay out. We’ve made the difficult decision to delay Call Me Under, which will now be released in 2024.
Delaying is truly the last thing both I and my team members want, but it’s turned out to be our only option. There have been unexpected challenges on the development side – as no one on the team but me does this full-time, it’s been really difficult to wrangle everything together at times, so we’ve had a couple of factors slow down development.
The biggest issue we’ve run into is a lack of money. I cannot overstate how difficult it is to be a self-funded, self-publishing indie studio. Kickstarter got us off to a great start, but the reality is that indie developers never ask for what they truly need as it would be beyond anything we could ever realistically raise, unless we got incredibly lucky, which isn't always a risk some can take. That money runs out FAST, as is the case with many indie Kickstarters, our primary goal has been getting any amount of funding we can. We've had no outside funding during development – our only income has been from game sales from our previous titles, merch sales, and our Patreon. Having no publisher money and no grants has created a heavy strain on us and our ability to create high-quality games. To be frank, I'm really not sure what Lunaris’ future looks like once we’ve released this game, which gives us even more reasons to handle it with the care and love it deserves.
Even so, we won't compromise on that mission or release something unfinished like we have with one of our previous games. Games get rushed out and their developers lament what the game they worked so hard on could have been. I know, because we've been there. We won’t do that again – we would rather take the time and release a polished product that we can say we’re proud of delivering to you. We learned a grave lesson before and won't be making the same mistake again.
I also won’t compromise on my dedication to making sure my staff is well-paid. There are many indie studios that exploit their workers and pay them subhuman wages – I refuse to have Lunaris be one of those studios.
Despite these difficulties, we’re still working hard on Call Me Under.
Progress remaining is as follows:
Script: 70%
Programming: 70%
Other assets: 80%
CGs: 90%
Sprites: 95%
We’ve faced a lot of hardships along the way, both personal and professional, but we’re committed to finishing this game that we have been so proud of every step of the way. Obstacles have never detracted from how excited we have been to be working on this. It’s our best work yet – I truly believe we have something special here, and we’re eager to get it in your hands. But we want to make sure you get the best experience possible, and so delaying it is the right thing for us to do. I also want to make sure to say that Call Me Under will absolutely be released in 2024 – as you can see, we’re far along into production and we’re confident you’ll get to delve into the world of Styx again.
If you’re reading this and you haven’t played one of our games before, please head on over to our developer page and try them out. If you enjoy the experience and believe in our mission to create immersive, narrative-driven stories filled with diverse characters, feel free to support us on Patreon or by checking out our merch, and we thank you in advance for supporting us in whatever way you can, it means more than anything.
We’re extremely grateful for your understanding. Take care, stay safe, and have a great holiday period.
Call Me Under: New Demo Now Live!
We've released our first chapter today as an extended demo! Dive back into Styx as you revisit the Prologue and continue forward into Act One in its entirety. As a team, we believe in taking our time to deliver the best story possible without crunch – it’s part of our power as an indie studio. We really appreciate everyone who’s been patiently waiting ever since we announced Call Me Under, so we wanted to show our appreciation by releasing this extended demo. We hope it offers a taste of what’s to come for our delicious cast and the sinister mysteries they find themselves trapped within.
Play as the Human or the Skia in our two different player roles to uncover the mysteries of Styx. But choose wisely! Some of your choices affect the interactions you unlock. With a number of new CGs across both routes, we're excited to show you a little more of the story we've been working so hard on, and hopefully leave you wanting more ready for the full release later this year.
Demo Notes
While some of the UI is updated from what you saw in the original demo, this is not necessarily the final look! We wanted to give it a bit more polish so you get an idea of what the final game will look like, but we also wanted to keep a lot of that under-wraps for the main release. The gallery is simplified to just display the demo CGs, but in the main game, we will have multiple galleries for CGs, flashbacks, and other fun things you'll encounter around Styx.
Another important thing that those of you who played the original demo will notice is that we removed Blue's voice-over lines. This is purely because it felt a little misplaced now we've extended the demo and ONLY had his prologue lines voiced. The purpose of getting those demo lines voiced originally was to help our Kickstarter prospects. But do not fear, THE FINAL GAME WILL STILL BE VOICED!
We encourage you to share your experience with your playthrough by using #CMUdemo
See you under the waves.
Dev Let's Play & Concept Art Livestream!
Then, join Anna Tsagada, Lunaris Games' Art Director, as she creates some concept art for some of our all-important side characters. Other members of the dev team will also be present to answer some questions about development.