Hi everyone

We hope youve been well and have been keeping safe. Weve been dealing with some unexpected obstacles I want to lay out. Weve 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 its 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, its been really difficult to wrangle everything together at times, so weve had a couple of factors slow down development.

The biggest issue weve 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 weve 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 wont do that again we would rather take the time and release a polished product that we can say were proud of delivering to you. We learned a grave lesson before and won't be making the same mistake again.

I also wont 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, were still working hard on Call Me Under.

Progress remaining is as follows:

Script: 70%
Programming: 70%
Other assets: 80%
CGs: 90%
Sprites: 95%

Weve faced a lot of hardships along the way, both personal and professional, but were 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. Its our best work yet I truly believe we have something special here, and were 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, were far along into production and were confident youll get to delve into the world of Styx again.

If youre reading this and you havent 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.

Were extremely grateful for your understanding. Take care, stay safe, and have a great holiday period.

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 its part of our power as an indie studio. We really appreciate everyone whos 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 whats 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.

Join Lunaris Games Lead Artist, Anna Tsagada, 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.

To celebrate the demo being included in Steam Next Fest we're going to do a let's play! Join some of the dev team under the sea for an hour-long stream with commentary on Saturday 19th June at 4 pm Pacific. We'll be playing through both of our demos; The Human and The Skia, two faceless protagonists from The Surface seeking to leave their past behind and start fresh in a new city. Each character comes with a different background and, depending on who you choose, a different journey throughout Styx.

Dive into the 1950s and explore an eldritch-horror-infested world soaked in dark magic, mystery, and romance. Call Me Under takes place in the mysterious underwater city of Styx, a haven inhabited by humans, sirens, and a host of unknown otherworldly entities.

Call Me Under is rated Mature 17+ for strong language, sexual themes, dark humor, violence, body horror/blood, and eldritch horrors.