Creative Director Behind Planet of Lana Says They Did "Hundreds" of Pitches
Now the developer studio is planning a movie adaptation with Story Kitchen.
Planet of Lana is a puzzle-platform game that came out in 2023, and even though it was critically well-received, bringing the game into reality was very hard for the developers.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Adam Stjärnljus, Co-Head and Creative Director at Wishfully, talked about the game's development and how hard it was to pitch to publishers, as they didn't have a well-constructed plan.
"It was very naive, looking back," said Stjärnljus, "But if we hadn't been naive, then we wouldn't be here now. So it's a mix of stupidity and just trying to build something you care about, I guess."
For Stjärnljus, working on Planet of Lana meant working for nothing at first. He knew he wanted to create games, and the initial visual concept attracted a lot of attention, but publishers weren't convinced by the idea, and Stjärnljus later realized that he needed more people to create the game.
After adding more people to the team and creating a vertical slice, they obtained an exclusive deal with Xbox, which allowed them to hire more people and be seen by more publishers; around eight months later, Thunderful decided to publish the game.
Now Planet of Lana has a score of 80 on Metacritic, and it got a sequel in 2025. It became a game that has even inspired other developers to create their own titles.
According to Adam Stjärnljus, what we can expect now is more stories about that world and a movie based on the game with Story Kitchen, the production company behind the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and the Tomb Raider TV series.
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