Rita’s Website Phoenix’s Website

LUMA

Our thesis LUMA is a game that follows Luma’s journey of growing up and finding home in their distorted dreamscape. The adventure of LUMA reflects the lived experiences of its developers Rita Brederson and Phoenix Stroh as they explore themes of unconventional housing, identity, and growing up. LUMA acts as a synthesis of the duo’s previous projects and expands on new ideas to be a more thoughtful and striking conclusion to 3 years of collaboration. The scope of our thesis and our history of work together called for a larger collaboration between the studio and others around the school. The two not only had the help of animation juniors and an illustration major, but spoke to other students about their own lived experiences growing up.

While the journey of Luma concludes by finding their home, and our time at MECA&D ending, we look forward to continuing to build on our history together and the greater game community.

Bio

Rita Brederson and Phoenix Stroh are indie game developers and artists interested in making small experiences. Rita is a 3D generalist, pixel artist, and animator who explores whimsical styles and themes. Phoenix Stroh is a programmer and technical artist interested in making tools for game development and creating novel visual effects using technology. Together as 5’4 Games, the duo has worked on a variety of games, often collaborating with other creators. Their creative process draws from their previous work and the lived experiences of the two, and fuels future projects to come.