Ever since seeing the first Planet of Lana reveal trailer during an Xbox Showcase two years ago, I knew I needed to play this game. I immediately wanted to visit this beautifully-crafted, hand-painted world.

Now that I’ve had the chance to play through most of this enchanting game, I was also able to talk to the game’s co-director, Adam Stjärnljus (Wishfully Studios), about what it was like to create this game with a small team of animators and the support of Thunderful Games as the publisher.

I spoke to Adam about some of the influences for Planet of Lana. Games like Inside and Limbo, and how although these are pretty “simple” games when it comes to the mechanics, it’s the mix of story, design, art, music and all of the elements coming together to make it an impactful game. Planet of Lana, adds in puzzles and a cute companion (Mui) — who is guided by the player to help solve puzzles and not get killed by killer robots.

He also mentioned the influence Studio Ghibli films and the work of Hayao Miyazaki had on the art style of Planet of Lana. Planet of Lana is an amazing first project from Wishfully Studio (Sweden), and I cannot wait to see what’s next from Adam and his brilliant team.

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You can catch my full interview with Adam right here:

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Planet of Lana was released earlier this year on Xbox and PC. The game is planned to release on PlayStation consoles and Nintendo Switch in 2024.

***myVGBC.com was given a review copy of Planet of Lana.