The time has come, everyone. Mondrian – Plastic Reality’s final, major update. I’ve spent the last six months pouring over this one, building features, cleaning bugs, and adding in long-missing core functionality. While this is indeed the final feature update, I’m not putting the code on ice just yet, in case anyone runs into any issues. But if any pop up, once they’re cleared, that will be that, and it will be time to say goodbye. But don’t worry, some new stuff is getting cooked up at Lantana Games, and I’m excited to share it with you all at some point.

In the meantime, let’s dive in and see what’s new!

First and foremost, you’ll notice a new “manual.pdf” included in the install folder. This is a brand new book I’ve written which covers every single aspect of Mondrian Maker and Mondrian Studio. At close to 40 11×8.5” pages long, it’s a doozy, but no details are missing. This book takes the place of the old Instructions panel in Mondrian Maker, is more up-to-date, and even has pictures! If by some chance you’d prefer to have the manual in your lap than in a desktop window, you can purchase a paperback edition at Barnes & Noble. Preorders are open for the next couple days!

Mondrian Maker has received some massive changes this update. From a new menu bar, to new block shapes, a new Speedpaint mode which you can use to record your level being created block by block, Nudge Snapping which will keep your blocks on grid when you Nudge them around, updated UI elements, loads of bug fixes, and improvements specifically targeting Steam Deck, Mondrian Maker is officially the best its ever been. Honestly this should be called Mondrian Maker 2, it’s that much better. But luckily this just is, and always will be, Mondrian Maker. Please go try it out and upload some works to Steam Workshop or mod.io!

Features

• Steam: Cloud Saving is now fully integrated. In particular, your save file, Museum layout, game settings, Mondrian Maker settings, local leaderboards, and even your Active and Inactive Levels will all sync across your various devices. Make sure you have Steam Cloud enabled for the game under its Steam Properties and you should be all set!
• Menu: Holiday events are no longer network-bound.
• Menu: Restored Fullscreen/Windowed mode toggle.
• Menu: Restored Windowed resolutions, which will properly resize the game in Windowed mode. Fullscreen will still fill the game to your native screen resolution.
• Menu: Added “Download” and “Skip” buttons inside the Workshop Subscriptions popup. This way, you can skip downloading Workshop files if you don’t need or want to.
• Menu: Added an alternative “Download Workshop Content” button to the Options menu.
• Game: Added Right Triangle and Quarter Circle Blocks, plus powerup and obstacle variants for each.
• Game: Added particle effects for popped Right Triangle and Quarter Circle blocks.
• Workshop: Uploaded several new levels to Steam Workshop that take advantage of the new blocks! These are also available on mod.io & as a free download on itch.io.
• Maker: Added two new block shape selectors for Right Triangles and Quarter Circles.
• Maker: Added Right Triangle and Quarter Circle block selectors.
• Maker: Click any value (Scale, Angle, Red, Green, or Blue) to bring up a number entry box. Type in any value from a slider’s minimum to its max!
• Maker: Added a “Nudge Snap” checkbox. This snaps blocks to Grid setting when nudging to help prevent misalignment.
• Maker: Introducing Speedpaint mode! Now, when you Open a level, you can check off the Speedpaint box under the “Open Level” button. Doing so will paint your level one block at a time, and all sliders will move along with each individual block. You can use this to capture a quick video of your creation being built to share on social media (and it’s great for GIFs!) or just behold your masterpiece being constructed one block at a time. Note that there is a half-second delay before the Speedpaint begins, giving you some breathing space for editing your video. You can press any key, controller button, or mouse button to cancel the speedpaint and just load the level. Since the Paintbrush cursor that’s shown during a Speedpaint is not attached to your mouse cursor, rather each block as it appears, we recommend moving your mouse off-screen during a Speedpaint so it doesn’t show up on top of the final result.
• Maker: Added new Keyboard Shortcut for making a New Level (Control-N).
• Maker: Added new Keyboard Shortcut for changing Color Harmony (Control-H).
• Maker: The “Instructions” panel has been replaced with a new list of “Quick Links,” which includes a brand new Mondrian Maker and Studio PDF manual, free of charge. When clicked, this manual will automatically open in your web browser, Adobe Acrobat, or your other default PDF reader. “Free Admission” players get a Black & White version of the manual, while “Lifetime Pass” players get full-color. A high quality print version of the manual is available from our Shop.

Changes

• Menu: Changed game mode thumbnails back to originals.
• Menu: Removed unused Background Quality option.
• Menu: Updated social icons.
• Menu: Removed Discord button.
• Game: Reduced the requirements for several Achievements to more attainable goals based on Global Steam stats:
  • Brickbreaker Apprentice: 50 Blocks
  • Brickbreaker Professional: 250 Blocks
  • Brickbreaker Artisan: 1000 Blocks
  • Demolitions Apprentice: 10 Bombs
  • Demolitions Professional: 250 Bombs
  • Demolitions Artisan: 1000 Bombs
  • Locksmith Apprentice: 10 Locks
  • Locksmith Professional: 250 Locks
  • Locksmith Artisan: 1000 Locks
  • Cardshark Apprentice: 10 Wildcards
  • Cardshark Professional: 250 Wildcards
  • Cardshark Artisan: 1000 Wildcards
  • Phalanx Apprentice: 10 Shields
  • Phalanx Professional: 250 Shields
  • Phalanx Artisan: 1000 Shields
  • Watchmaker Professional: 10 Minutes in Time Attack
  • Watchmaker Artisan: 25 Minutes in Time Attack
  • Survivalist Apprentice: 1 Round in Sudden Death
  • Survivalist Professional: 3 Rounds in Sudden Death
  • Survivalist Artisan: 5 Rounds in Sudden Death
  • In the Name of Self Defense: Destroy 2000 Blocks with Bombs
• Game: Removed some Achievements entirely, including:
  • Pumpkincraft
  • All achievements related to earning a Top 10 place on the leaderboards
• Maker: Increased size of Title and Author text labels and entry boxes.
• Maker: Increased size of text for Show Grid and Grid Snap labels.
• Maker: Updated Main Menubar to have clicky, bubbly buttons with charcoal shadow in line with the rest of the UI.
• Maker: Updated Block Selector to be brighter with charcoal outlines in line with the rest of the UI.
• Maker: Removed fading block selector buttons in favor of block selectors that are always present.
• Maker: Replaced the Up & Down arrows for Scale & Angle selection with sliders.
• Maker: Added some color highlights to sliders and mouse over states to turn them white.
• Maker: Redesigned Context Menu buttons to be in-line with new Main Menu buttons and the rest of the UI.
• Maker: Vertical and Horizontal Level Flip buttons are now a bit darker and have proper rollover states.
• Maker: Improved controller compatibility across the board
• Maker: Added Right Click and B-Button as controls for closing the block context menu. These can be done from anywhere, not just while the cursor is hovering over the block.
• Maker: Keyboard shortcut for Share Level is now Control-L.
• Maker: Removed the Event Submission button from the Share window.
• Museum: Rotated out majority of the old Spotlight Artworks, but 30 now remain in a couple “Classics” collections.
• Museum: Rendered “Classics” pieces in 3D so they angle better on their respective pedestals.
• Museum: Increased font sizes on Level Select plaques.
• Museum: Updated button styles on Level Select plaques.
• Museum: Simplified wording of Difficulty descriptions.
• Studio: Adjusted the method for scaling image captures. You should see no difference other than being able to copy or save out a properly-sized graphic regardless of your screen resolution or playing in Fullscreen or Windowed mode.
• Studio: Since 180° and 270° didn’t do anything different, the “Rotation” slider under Custom Framing is now limited to just 0° and 90.
• Credits: Updated and removed some web links.

Bug Fixes

• Menu: Fixed Adventure Mode starting when selecting options in other submenus.
• Menu: Fixed Quick Play speeding through the process to start a game.
• Game: Fixed the Art Hallow’s Eve “Spooky Gem Hunt” randomizer getting stuck on either Trick or Treat.
• Game: Fixed “Big Gem Hunter” achievement remaining locked even if achieved.
• Game: Potential fix for controllers rumbling endlessly when activating a Wall Lock.
• Maker: Fixed sliders locking in place temporarily if the cursor goes over another slider.
• Maker: Fixed mouse over on Grid Selector and related buttons not displaying the Hand Cursor.
• Maker: Fixed tab order of Title and Author text entry areas.
• Maker: Fixed Block Alignment not closing when clicking on the key block.
• Maker: Fixed Mondrian Maker exiting when pressing Escape to close Alignment.
• Maker: Fixed Block Nudge activating Free Move and soft-locking up the editor upon placing the selected block back down.
• Maker: Clicking the Horizontal or Vertical Level Flip buttons with a Context Menu up will now close the Context Menu.
• Maker: The Context Menu will no longer open on an overlapping block when placing down a different block.
• Maker: Fixed Context Menu buttons not changing when in Rotate/Scale mode.
• Maker: Fixed Phasing context menu not working at Relaxing difficulty.
• Maker: Fixed Up Arrow not glowing when increasing Phase time on a block.
• Maker: Fixed several buttons, including in the top menu, not reacting to controller input.
• Maker: Fixed Miniswatch colors not saving when cleared.
• Maker: Fixed Miniswatches not storing colors when using a controller.
• Maker: Fixed Top Context Arrow not highlighting when selected.
• Maker: The Color Shuffle Toggle button can now be pressed normally when using a controller.
• Maker: Color Drop mode now switches off if the Main Swatch is clicked without the button being held down.
• Maker: Fixed button responsiveness in the Open, Save, and Play menus.
• Maker: Fixed hand cursor not appearing consistently when the cursor is over interactive elements.
• Maker: Fixed the Save/Open/Play scrollbar not being draggable while holding down the Confirm button on a controller.
• Studio: Fixed the Scheme Width slider being able to have a higher Current Notch value than its Total Notches.

Little known fact: I coded the first prototype of Mondrian on April Fool’s Day, 2015. What a joke, huh? Five months later, Mondrian – Abstraction in Beauty launched to Positive reviews, and was accepted into the Indie Arcade exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Around the start of 2017, I had begun coding everything that would define Plastic Reality: the level editor, the photo mode, the lessened load times, the characters, all of it. From the road trip to Washington DC to the countless demo nights and conventions the game was brought to, this whole series has been adventure.

I can point to any number of reasons as to why Plastic Reality was not the success that Abstraction in Beauty was, some logical, and some pessimistic. But all that being said, YOU have been the most encouraging aspect of this game. Seeing the works the community has come up with over the last five and a half years has been a gift most game developers only dream of. I hope to see some fresh creations up in the Workshop again very soon! Thank you for being a part of the Plastic Reality community, no matter how small it’s been.

If you’re seeing this post, played the game, shared a level or two (or twenty) on Steam Workshop, left a review, or all of the above, thank you. It’s been a ride to get the game to this point. With everything else getting cooked up at Lantana Games now, it just felt necessary to get the game into a state of which everyone who worked on it could be proud.

If you’re just discovering the game for the first time, it would mean the world if you could check out everything on offer and leave a review, positive or negative (though obviously positive is preferable, but if for some reason it’s negative, the more workable the feedback, the better!).

Wait, what’s that? You haven’t played? Well good news! Free Admission now has its own dedicated Steam Page, AND the game is 90% off for the next week! So go check out the demo, and if you like it, please leave a review, drop us a buck, and upgrade to the Lifetime Pass!

Over the next few months, you’re going to notice our social channels – our video channels in particular – become very active. That’s because a huge library of shorts is being put together, which feature all manner of content creators and fellow game developers hosting bite-sized tutorials on Mondrian Maker and Mondrian Studio. Speedpaint shorts are also going to be mixed in as well, for a bit of variety, and hopefully also some creator compilations and maybe an unboxing or two. Please be sure to follow all these, like the videos, repost where you can, you know the deal! And be extra sure to follow all the amazing guest hosts who’ve come on board for these. If you’re interested in hosting one yourself, there are still spots available, so please get in touch!

As for what comes next for Lantana Games, well it’s no secret that the next project is being built in Godot. I can say that it is going well – VERY well in fact. I’ve taken quite the liking to GDScript, and the engine has nearly every tool I’ve ever needed as a developer. You’ll still have to wait a while to hear anything specific about this project as I’d rather play things close to the chest until things are good and ready. But believe me, it will have been worth the wait.

Thank you all so much again for your continued support and, of course, for playing. Now go Be Creative!

– Danny

Sorry for the delay, everybody! In the midst of working on this final update for Mondrian, I realized just how out-of-date the in-edit manual was, and could not successfully find a way to update it in-game where it would be screen-readable and easily editable. So, the Instructions panel has been removed, and in its place I have begun work on a PDF Mondrian Maker manual, fully updated, and even including instructions for Mondrian Studio too! The Instructions panel has been replaced with Quick Links, which will open the manual, the local content folder, or open your web browser to a few different sites (our homepage, this Steam community, our Discord, etc.). This manual is still in-progress, but you can view an early, low resolution Preview version of it for now.

Much effort has been put into improving the controller experience in Mondrian Maker. You’ll find that you can now actually access menu buttons, store colors in Miniswatches, open and close the Context Menu on blocks without issue, and the overall experience using a controller should just be a lot smoother.

In the toolset, you’ll see a new option next to the Grid menu, that being “Nudge Snap.” This option snaps block and level nudging to the grid so blocks don’t fall off from their snap amounts.

There have been several bug fixes too, including fixing the Mod Switch on Relaxing Difficulty, fixing context menu glows, Block Nudge activating free move and soft-locking the editor, and more. Finally, Achievements have gotten a big overhaul for everyone, including reduced requirements and a few removals across the board. The full patch notes will be posted when the update is finalized early next year.

Make sure to change to the beta branch to check out the updates. Until the next one, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

– Danny

Hello friends! So, last weekend, I participated in the Jamsepticeye Game Jam on itch.io, hosted by Jacksepticeye and Ducky Dev. The theme of the jam was “Death is an Opportunity,” but to me, this sounded like an opportunity to make a videogame! So, putting the new Godot skills to use, I am proud to present DOD: Department of Death.

DOD: Department of Death is a business simulator puzzle game. You are the newest agent at the Department of Death, tasked with selling travel packages to new souls. Your goal? Help them reach the final underworld with money in the bank and reputation to spare. It’s a simple little game, built in Godot over a three day period, and is fully playable on the web. The source code for this game is also MIT open source! You can grab it in the downloads section of the itch page or on my personal GitHub.

I often see posts online about, “Can you make a game entirely out of Control Nodes in Godot?” For those who are unaware, Control nodes are Godot’s User Interface objects. Think text, lines, colors, images, etc. It’s almost like a layer of CSS on top of your game. They are tough to learn how to wrangle into shape, but once you have, they can be very powerful. I saw this game jam as an opportunity (heh) to put that question to the test, and the answer is a resounding YES.

Every single node in this game is a Control node.* Labels give text-flavor to every Button. TextureRect nodes dance around slowly to add some style to your travel packages. RichTextLabels give deep control over the narrative, allowing for variation in the text styling. A MarginContainer controls the size of the game while HBox and VBox containers organize the layout. An overarching Color node displays the CRT shader. This gives the game its unique look, which then sits inside a Blender-rendered monitor on the itch.io page. While there’s a lot of GDScript controlling button presses, tweens, and variables, no other kinds of Nodes were used to bring this game to life.

* The one exception to this is AudioStreamPlayer nodes for the sounds because, well, they’re sounds.

Even more impressive, there are no load screens. The transition effect for your computer shutting off at the end of the day is simply for covering up the change in date. The game makes smart use of loading in various PackedScenes when needed, and trashing them when not, keeping resource usage down. This also means no Scene has an enormously long script file.

The database for dossiers and narrative was built using JSON. JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a text-based, very readable, and easy-to-use format for information storage and retrieval. This was not necessarily the best choice for a game like this, as Godot’s Resource format could have been easier to use. Still, JSON format allowed me to put all the game’s data into just a couple of files, and retrieve it through code. This saved me having to sift through dozens of Resource files to make adjustments for each character. Ultimately, though a bit more complex up front, this allowed me to just write the story as I needed.

When it came time to package everything up, the end result was a nice 11mb HTML5 game. There is also a 14mb source code download for anyone interested. A little bit of CSS editing at the top of the index.html page let me change the load to bar to orange and move it to the center of the screen. Finally, the page background was built and rendered using Blender. This was then aligned to be pixel-perfect with the resolution of the game in Photoshop. A completely blank banner image on itch pushes the game down into position, and then boom, we have DOD: Department of Death.

The entirety of DOD: Department of Death can be completed in about five minutes, so go ahead and play the whole thing! The real challenge comes in finding each of the game’s multiple endings on the last day. That’s right, MULTIPLE endings! Of course you could download the source code and spoil them for yourself, but really why would you do that?

Thank you all so much for playing! Don’t forget to please support the studio by grabbing another game or a piece of merch from the Shop. There will likely be some more small jam games over the next few months, so stay tuned, follow everywhere, and I’ll see you for the next one!

– Danny

One Last Major Update

Hello everyone! I know it’s been a while, but I’m excited today to tell you all about what’s going on with Mondrian – Plastic Reality’s final update, “The Last Exhibit.” This is shaping up to be the ultimate Quality of Life update, with a few fun new features too. Let’s take a look.

First and foremost, Mondrian Maker? More like Mondrian Makeover. Everyone’s favorite level editor has been getting some fine-tooth comb improvements, from top to bottom. The menu and context buttons are now more in-line with the rest of the game’s UI. Input text has been set to a higher minimum size for better legibility on Steam Deck. Everything interactive now properly displays the hand cursor. The RGB values have been darkened, making them more legible. You can now click any number to bring up an entry box and type in a value! Last but not least, there are two new block shapes, Right Triangles and Quarter Circles. But there’s more. So… so much more.

A New Way to Showcase your Work

When you go to open a level, you’ll now see a checkbox for “Speed Paint.” Opening a level with this checked will make your level open one block at a time. You can use this to record video of your level’s creation and upload it to your YouTube. Then you can share it on the Community page’s Videos tab! Combine this with playing your game in testing mode and our free-to-use, newly made “shorts ending” to make some instant content. You can download it in MP4 or MOV format off of GitHub.

Other changes include some asset reversion, other bug fixes, and a couple new levels on Steam Workshop. The full 1.6 update is still several months away, but Lifetime Pass owners can grab the current changes off the Beta Branch if you’d like to check out the Speedpaint Mode for yourself. Right click the game in your Steam library, go to Betas, and select “beta” in the dropdown menu. Note that since the new levels use the new block shapes, you will need to be running this latest beta in order to try them out, or they may look… weird. Or may crash the game entirely. No promises.

A Call for Help!

I will be honest with you: this update is actually coming at a cost, and has become a lot of work. There are many ways you can support this update, including buying the game for a friend, getting the whole Mondrian Series Bundle, or purchasing a t-shirt, hat, hoodie, or pair of socks from our merch store. But if you can’t afford any of that, please leave us a review on Steam! Good or bad, we’d greatly appreciate the support either way.

Expect a beta update every 2-3 weeks until “The Last Exhibit” drops for real sometime late this Fall! Please send feedback on the Steam forums or join our Discord.

As always, thank you for playing, and see you at the next update!

– Danny

Hi so remember when I said I’d be doing something weekly like… eight months ago? And I said that after making a blog post about how I was taking too long between blog posts? Ha! Well, it’s officially August and what a rollercoaster of a year 2025 has been. All that being said, I think enough other people have covered the state of the game industry, so I think it’s more important to cover the state of Lantana Games. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? I think the most pressing matter is to discuss the keymailer situation, because things have gotten interesting on that front.

So in a weird turn of events, all of the key services we’ve used to support Content Creators – be it keymailer, Woovit, or DoDistribute – have either shut down or become too expensive for us to keep using. While we appreciate everything these services did for us in the past, helping streamers and video creators get access to our games, the fact that they are all vanishing or squeezing out indies is a sure sign of the times.

But fear not, friends! We are officially rolling our OWN alternative to keyymailer, and should hopefully have even less friction than before. If you visit our Content Creators page, you’ll notice a brand new contact form to fill out. Just let us know your platform URL’s and which game you want a key for, and press submit. This will send an email to a new address on our end, and after we take a couple minutes to vet the info, we’ll send a game key your way.

Since we’re no longer limited by keymailer’s campaign times, ALL of our games are available for streaming! If you’d like a key, just fill out the form.

Oh also if you represent a media publication or group of creators, you can request up to 5 keys instead of just one. It goes without saying but make sure these other keys get to your colleagues! They’re not for giveaways or Grey Market sales. If you’d like to do a giveaway of a Lantana title, the old rule still applies: post something about the game first, THEN we can talk giveaway.

It’s a shame, but Mondrian – Plastic Reality is now marching toward its final update. This is an update I’ve spent the last month on, and it is one I’ll be spending at least a few more weeks or months on before it gets released. The update will have a lot of treats for Mondrian Maker fans, including:

• Two new block shapes (Right Triangle and Quarter Circle)
• Angle/Scale sliders
• Improved legibility on RGB values
• The ability to click numbers to type them in
• Bigger text entry boxes
• Updated menu buttons

Various other fixes and improvements are being made all around the game too, like new and improved Museum showcase art, detaching holiday triggers from web calls, and some menu control improvements. It will be a big-ish update. Not the biggest, but it will be a good update to say goodbye. Despite this being the last update, though, we’ll also publish some levels featuring the new block shapes up onto Steam Workshop, and hopefully you will too!

“The Last Exhibit” will be coming… sometime soonish. Aiming for the Fall, and I’ll post more news when I have it.

“But what about my data?” I hear you asking. Worry not! I don’t care about it. All I need is an email address to A. get back in touch with you with a key, and B. confirm the URLs you include are indeed yours. All submissions are set to auto-delete after a week anyway. I’m not selling anything you submit along on this form. Data brokers are gross.

Signing off for now, as always. I’ll be back when “The Last Exhibit” is live, and then after that? Who’s to say. In the meantime, go buy some indie games, share them with your friends, and go enjoy the Dog Days of Summer. Like the old saying goes, Winter is coming.

This morning I logged on to the site to do the requisite backend updates. I suddenly realized the last time I had posted a blog was in May. Before that was literally last December. Whoops! So here I am like Uncle Moe to serve you a basket of fries on top of my head… er, to deliver a long overdue rambling on what’s been happening with us and in the game industry at large.

I’ll admit it’s been a very quiet year for Lantana Games… externally. A few weeks ago marked our 15th anniversary (!!!) and there’s a goal to do something public-facing every week. This could be a blog post, a sale, a video, just… SOMETHING. The holidays are an easier time for doing this kind of thing, oddly enough, since everyone is itching for the next Steam sale. 2025 is going to be the real challenge to keep up with this. I’m half tempted to make a chore wheel and let the fates pick what gets posted week to week. In the meantime, you can follow our brand new Bluesky account! We’ll still be posting on Twitter and Instagram as we always do, but it never hurts to branch out.

What’s been going on with the studio itself though? Well, in a word, working. In three words, working and learning. One year ago we adopted the Godot Engine for upcoming projects, diving deep into learning GDScript to make some great things happen. Why Godot specifically? Well, for one, we’ve always made high fidelity/low requirement games, IE we target 1080p 60fps on potato quality laptops. Technology like Unreal Engine is overkill for what we do, but Godot’s capabilities are a perfect fit and can even push us into 1440p (or POTENTIALLY 4k) territory.

Second, Godot offers us a greater level of multiplatform compatibility than Clickteam Fusion does. As much as we will always love Fusion, it’s hampering in terms of where we want to go with future projects. Our last game really pushed the engine to its limits, but its real limits still held it back. Hopefully with the engine upgrades, and some more forward-thinking, some of our old conversations throughout the game industry will even help us branch out even more. It’s always important to hit new platforms and markets. At the very least, we’ll be able to directly target Steam Deck and Linux platforms going forward, and we won’t need Proton to emulate Windows.

Finally, based on the direction technology has been heading lately – rising subscription costs, legally capricious terms of service, always-online requirements, etc. – Godot’s open source and more traditional nature feels like a better fit for what we do. Plus it has been an absolute joy to work with and we can’t wait for you to see what we’re cooking up.

Wait wait wait. Cooking? New game?! Well, yes. That was the implication of talking about working with Godot for the last year. What is this game? Can’t say. But you’ll know when the time is right.

This might also be a good time to address the state of the game industry itself. Things aren’t looking so good for us purveyors of interactive digital entertainment. Billion dollar projects are being pulled from proverbial shelves after a couple weeks. Investment opportunities have dried up. Layoffs are posting bigger numbers than some AAA releases. Job postings are being discovered to be, well, completely fake. Indies though? WOW what a year for indies, and I mean like really small indies. Tiny Glade is pure art. Content Warning is social commentary silliness with friends. Balatro just… Good God Balatro. With 200 games released on Steam every week, it’d be impossible to name every single one and list the reasons why you should play them. Needless to say, small games with zero budget are CRUSHING the big-name competition this year. The AAA industry should be taking notes.

Meanwhile, gamers are getting paranoid. They see forced messaging in the most mundane of artistic decisions. They think that every single developer is out to brainwash them. Recognizable patterns in modern storytelling, and how the game industry treat their audiences, are sending players into a spiral of seeking out deception. Often they do this before it’s even been confirmed the developers had bad intentions or dislike their players. Gamers want to escape from work, school, the news, or life for an hour or two and just be engrossed in another world. Ultimately, gamers still want games, but the trust has vanished.

Barriers to entry like launchers, logins, and anticheats do more to keep players out of games than deliver great experiences. Technological bloat is taking its toll on experience stability and even visual quality. Indies suffer none, or at least very little, of this because we do not have the budgets to justify implementing this level of tech bloat. On the one hand, that’s a huge benefit to gamers. On the other hand, we still struggle to pay the bills without consistent sources of funding. About 1 out of every 1000 game pitches actually get signed to a publishing deal. Not only are we broke, but so are our audiences. With them thinking games all have nefarious actors writing the story and managing their Discords, now is probably not the best time to follow the “charge more for your games” advice.

I do think the industry is starting to get the message that monstrous budgets are unsustainable. Personally, I think they’d be better off hedging their bets with 500 $1mil games than a single $500mil game… hypothetically speaking, so please don’t take this as a plea to flood the market. Fifteen years ago, a game was deemed successful if it sold 20,000 copies. Nowadays, most games are lucky to sell 200. Studios need to quit trying to make the next “forever game” and go back to hooking players for a weekend.

The game industry is in dire need of regrouping and refocusing. I think 2025 needs to be the year big studios scope their projects way down. Investors, meanwhile, need to seriously consider funding more like 4-5 games out of every 1000 pitches than just 1-2. Otherwise they risk missing out on the next Lethal Company. No matter what, there is one major problem to be solved next year. We, as gamers, need to support developers who actually LIKE games, like MAKING games, and like GAMERS. It’s not a lot to ask.

Needless to say, 2025 is going to be a very interesting year for game development. At this rate, I think we will see indies continue to grow, regardless of external funding. Whether or not the AAA industry has learned any lessons from this past year remains to be seen. Never underestimate the stubbornness of high tech artists.

As for Lantana Games? Well, with any luck, you’re going to be seeing a LOT more from us in the coming months. More blog posts, some videos, and hopefully some new downloads, tools, and of course, even games. Things are happening and we’re excited to be getting back to work.

Don’t forget that if you’d like to support our game development efforts, we’d greatly appreciate it! You can buy a copy of our games or pick up some merch over at our Shop page.

Have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and a safe and cozy New Years everybody! See you in 2025.

– Danny

We’re bringing Mondrian to the Indie Revolution Expo this weekend! There’ll be games, giveaways, presentations, trivia, contests, and loads of fun!

Mondrian will be part of tomorrow’s second exhibit. Friday May 17, at noon EST, alongside Balatro, Cute Fames Adventure, Beacon Pines, and Aces & Adventures.

Join us on JaShinYa’s Twitch or on Indie Game Riot’s Discord to chat about the game, and be sure to vote for us after! Hope to see you all there.

– Danny

Happy Makersmas, everybody! This is our fourth annual Festival of Creativity. In the past, we’ve celebrated by hosting art contests, boosted in-game Gems by pushing social media hashtags, and challenged you to create holiday-themed levels using Mondrian Maker and Mondrian Studio. This year, we want you to celebrate Makersmas your way.

What does a Festival of Creativity mean to you? Does it mean undertaking a new project for the month? Trying your hand at a new form of art? Finding new avenues to share your or others’ creative works? Learning a new tool?

Anyone can Create! So whatever you make, as always, use our community during Makersmas as YOUR community. Share your endeavors, make some new fans, and be creative!

To celebrate on our end, we’ve added our annual Makersmas decorations to the Museum, including six new Spotlight Artworks. This is also the only month of the year when you can earn the Makersmas Riches, Goodies, and Avarice Achievements by opening your free Daily Presents from each of the trees in the Museum. The Gift Tree will give you a free daily cosmetic (Spotlight Artworks, Pedestals, Walls, Floors, Ceilings, Baseboards, or Columns), while the Gem Tree will give you free daily Gems (300, 500, 1000, 2000, or 3000). So make the most of this Makersmas and Get. Those. Gifts!

Patch Notes

Features

• Museum: Added new Spotlight Cosmetics.
  • Makersmas: Menorah, Snowman, Polar Bear, Yeti, Tower of Presents, Frozen Fountain
• Museum: Added the last year’s-worth of cosmetics to the Gift Tree for Makersmas.

Changes

• Museum: Updated the look of the Nutcracker spotlight artwork

Signing Off

As always, we want to wish you all a very happy holiday season and a happy New Year! We’re signing off for the rest of 2023 but we will see you in 2024!

– Danny

Art Hallow’s Eve Has Begun

Good morning to you all! The leaves are falling on Mondrian’s main menu, and that can only mean one thing: our annual spooky celebration has begun, and with it, we’ve published the latest update for Mondrian – Plastic Reality, version 1.5.1. Here are the latest patch notes:

Features

• Museum: Added new Spotlight Cosmetics.
  • Art Hallow’s Eve: Gargoyle, Scarecrow, Grim Reaper, Witch, Pile of Skulls, Fat Bat, Headless Horseman, Black Cat, Vampiric Fountain, The Monster, Werewolf, and Mr. Bones.
• Museum: Added new Construction Cosmetics.
  • Walls: Strand Board Wall.
  • Ceilings: Strand Board Ceiling.
• Game: Added “A Master Trickster” Achievement to Steam version. Survive 10 rounds of Tricks in Spooky Gem Hunt mode to get it!

Changes

• Menu: Adjusted the gray value for Art Hallow’s Eve Razer Chroma RGB lighting.

This patch is now available on all platforms.

Spooky Celebrations

It would not be Art Hallow’s Eve without our annual community celebrations! This year we’re mixing things up with different creative contests and LOTS of key giveaways! Read on to see how you can get involved.

Third Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest

Mondrian’s oldest community event returns! Use one of our Pumpkin templates or design your own in Mondrian Maker to make the best jack-o-lantern! Players can participate in the Free Admission demo or Lifetime Pass versions of the game. Submit your jack-o-lanterns onto mod.io or Steam Workshop with the “Art Hallow’s Eve” Gala Entry tag to enter. Three winners total will be picked by the community (so Like your favorites). Be sure to share them on social media using #artHallowsEve and mention @lantanagames to rack up those Likes. Submissions open through 10/30 and votes tallied 10/31!

Haunted House Contest

Decorate your Museum into the best spooky space possible! You may use any cosmetics you feel would make the best haunted house. Due to Adventure Mode not being available in the demo, the Haunted House Contest is only open to Lifetime Pass players. Post your screenshots on social media (in particular, Twitter/X, Threads, or Instagram) using #artHallowsEve and mention @lantanagames. Three winners total will be picked by the community (so Like your favorites). Submissions open through 10/30 and votes tallied 10/31!

Costume Contest

For anyone who still doesn’t have their Halloween costume ready, why not dress up as one of our world famous artists?! Design your costume of Piet, Sophie, Hale, Andy, Lois, or even Ariko and share it in photo or video form on social media using #artHallowsEve and mention @lantanagames (Twitter/X, Threads, or Instagram). This costume can even be digital, so if you think you can dress up your VR Chat avatar or your Sea of Thieves pirate or your Minecraft Steve or whoever as one of our artists, go for it! Voted by the community and open to everyone regardless of if you have any version of the game downloaded. Three winners total! Submissions through 10/30 and votes tallied 10/31!

“I Am So Startled” Contest

One for the content creators! Play Spooky Gem Hunt on stream or in a video and send us your best clips of getting got by the Tricks. Go overboard with it! The bigger the reaction, the better. You will need either the Free Admission demo or the Lifetime Pass version of the game to play Spooky Gem Hunt. Share the clips on social media (Twitter/X, Threads, or Instagram), using #artHallowsEve and mention @lantanagames. Three winners total will be picked by the community (so Like your favorites). Submissions through 10/30 and votes tallied 10/31!

But what are the prizes?

To keep things simple, all contests will have the same prize packs:

• 1st Place: Gold Frame, Mondrian Series Bundle including all games and DLC’s in the series (itch.io or Steam keys)
• 2nd Place: Silver Frame, 2 Mondrian Steam or itch.io keys of your choice (Games or DLC’s)
• 3rd Place: Bronze Frame, 1 Mondrian Steam or itch.io key of your choice (Game or DLC)

The keys are self-explanatory, and for the frames, we will send you a customized version of your screenshot, thumbnail, or photo with the winning frame around it so you can display it proudly!

Happy Art Hallow’s Eve, everybody. Please enjoy the update, and we can’t wait to see what you cook up this month!

– Danny

Good morning, everybody! Today I’m very pleased to announce that the latest update for Mondrian – Plastic Reality, 1.5.0, is now available on Steam for both Free Admission and Lifetime Pass users. This update is heavily built around improving the experience in Mondrian Maker, particularly on controllers. Nearly all – if not actually all – missing controller functionality has been accounted for, and even includes some functions not available on keyboard and mouse, such as boosting and slowing the cursor speed with the shoulder bumpers.

As well as the above additions to Mondrian Maker, we’ve added the requisite bug fixes and some new cosmetics to the Museum! See the patch notes below for more details.

Game

Features

• Museum: Added new Spotlight Cosmetics
  • Porcelain: Angel, Sea Siren, Antonin the Dragon, Horse, Tortoise, and Elephant.
  • World: Anubis, Seated Monkey, Ocelot Cuauhxicalli, Resting Goat, Ocelot Warrior, Ganesh.
  • Plantlife: Areca Palm, Cristina’s Sunflowers, Rose Bush, Maidenhair Fern, Purple Orchid, Fig Tree.
  • Retro Tech: Red Phone, Typewriter, Gamething 2000, Gramophone, Daguerreotype, and Dorm TV.
• Museum: The “Black Ornate” Wallpaper is now just “Ornate” Wallpaper and is fully paintable! If you had the Black Ornate wallpaper on already, it will still load just as it was.
• Museum: Added “Oriented Strand Board” floor
• Museum: Added the “Rijksmuseum Collection,” including a very fancy Wall, Floor, Columns, and Ceiling.

Changes

• Menu: Exiting the Free Admission version of the game will no longer take you to the Steam page.
• Museum: Made a quality improvement to the Ornate wallpaper.

Bug Fixes

• Museum: Fixed a bug that would close the Inventory Window when Piet stepped slightly outside the edge of the room.

Maker

Features

• Full functionality of the Save/Open/Play windows with a controller. The D-Pad can be used to scroll up and down the level list, while the Start button can be used to instantly open a level once selected. Otherwise you can press the window’s buttons like usual with the lower face button (for instance, A on an Xbox Controller).
• Full functionality for painting tools on controllers.
• You can now open the context menu on a block by pressing the lower face button (A on Xbox) while the cursor is over it.
• Full functionality of the context menu with a controller.
• You can now free-move a block with a controller by pressing and holding the lower face button (A on Xbox) on a block.
• Full functionality of all painting, color, and flip tools with a controller.
• Full functionality of the mini manual with a controller.
• Added a function to slow the cursor down on controllers. Holding down the Left Shoulder Bumper will slow the cursor.
• Non-Steam versions of Mondrian feature a brand new Share window, with buttons that will open your Levels and Thumbnails folders, and a link to our mod.io page.
• The Steam version has a new button in the Share window to bring you to the above page to upload your creations to mod.io.
• Added a Controller Map section to the mini manual. This map updates to match your currently selected controller layout from the Main Menu.

Changes

• Cursor movement with a controller will now only snap to the grid when carrying a block.
• Updated some pages of the mini manual.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused blocks to Stamp far too quickly when using a controller.
• Fixed the “Nope” X appearing when grabbing a block with a controller.
• Fixed a bug where using the controller D-Pad would still nudge the level if the cursor was still over the Scale or Angle arrows.
• Fixed the Stamp cursor not appearing when using a controller.
• Fixed snap movement with a Controller not working at all grid sizes. It also no longer skips lines or snaps at different increments depending on how you’re moving the cursor.
• Fixed tooltips not disappearing when using a controller

This update is now available for both Free Admission and Lifetime Pass players, so make sure to update!

As an added bonus, you may have noticed a note that mentions a new button in the Share window. This button will switch you over to a brand new mod.io interface! That’s right, our mod.io page is back online. These new buttons will guide you through the relatively simple process of uploading your creations to mod.io from their website (with a teensy bit of finagling involving MS Paint and zipping a file). If you’ve been active on Steam Workshop, we’d love to see you upload your creations over there as well.

You may have also noticed we mentioned “non-Steam versions” of the game. Well, as of today, Mondrian – Plastic Reality is also available on itch.io, GameJolt, and a dedicated Humble Gamepage! Free Admission is also now available on indieDB. The itch and Humble versions also include Steam Keys. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be trickling the game out to other platforms as well, so keep an eye out and please welcome any new players to the community who show up!

Finally, as promised, the price of the game has dropped from $14.99 to $9.99 USD.

Thanks as always for your support, and for playing. Happy third anniversary! Let’s make this the best Mondrian update yet!
– Danny