The Naive Gamble: How Wishfully Studios Turned a "Sinking Ship" into the Planet of Lana Phenomenon

The history of the video game industry is littered with the wreckage of ambitious debut titles that crumbled under the weight of their own aspirations. For Wishfully Studios, the Swedish developer behind the 2023 critical darling Planet of Lana, the path to success was not paved with industry savvy or a foolproof business plan. Instead, it was a harrowing odyssey defined by profound naivety, three years of unpaid labor, and a series of "slaughterous" rejections from publishers who saw little value in their vision.

Yet, Planet of Lana eventually emerged not just as a successful platformer, but as a multi-platform franchise currently eyeing a leap into feature film adaptation. The story of its creation is a masterclass in the intersection of creative stubbornness and the brutal realities of the modern games market.

A Reckless Beginning: Defying Industry Wisdom

Standard industry guidance for first-time developers is clear: start small. Build a mobile puzzle game or a hyper-casual title to learn the ropes, secure some cash flow, and then gradually scale up. Wishfully Studios, led by creative director Adam Stjärnljus and writer Klas Martin Eriksson, ignored every tenet of this conventional wisdom.

They chose to debut with a cinematic puzzle-platformer—a genre arguably as over-saturated as it is demanding. As Chris Wigley of 11-Bit Studios recently noted, "If you make a great platformer and it takes off, it can do amazingly well, but there’s so many of them that it’s extremely difficult to stand out."

The team’s initial pitch was, by their own admission, woefully inadequate. Their first demo was a rudimentary loop of a character walking back and forth, lacking the mechanical depth or narrative hook required to sway skeptical publishers. "We had no idea what we were doing," admits Eriksson. "We were just like, ‘Look, she’s moving.’"

Stjärnljus recalls the psychological toll of the early days, during which the team endured "hundreds" of pitches and subsequent rejections. "Some of them were kind ‘nos’ and some of them were not so kind. But it was really, really hard. It sucks to be told no."

Chronology of a Vision

The Genesis (2017)

The seeds of Planet of Lana were sown in 2017, rooted in Stjärnljus’s background in advertising and film production. Tired of the corporate grind—"commercials just seemed like an easy way to get paid to do the film stuff," Eriksson notes—the duo sought a creative outlet that felt meaningful. Stjärnljus, a father in his early thirties, decided to bet his savings on a new venture.

The project began as a single, evocative Photoshop image: a girl named Lana and her small creature companion, Mui, standing before a towering, spider-like machine in a lush, vibrant landscape. The image was a synthesis of inspiration drawn from Another World, Oddworld, and the atmospheric works of Studio Ghibli. It was this singular frame that caught the attention of composer Takeshi Furukawa, the visionary behind The Last Guardian’s score, lending the project an early veneer of prestige.

The Lean Years (2018–2020)

For three years, the team worked without salaries. Living in Sweden provided a safety net of social security, and they leaned on local game accelerators for travel grants to pitch their game, even as they lacked funding for actual development. Stjärnljus and his wife invested their personal savings—roughly €20,000—to hire a freelance animator and a part-time programmer.

By 2019, the reality of their "unrealistic production plan" set in. The team realized their initial trajectory was unsustainable. Rather than folding, Stjärnljus doubled down, officially incorporating Wishfully Studios and bringing on a core team who worked for equity rather than cash.

The Breakthrough (2020–2023)

The turning point arrived in early 2020. The team finished a polished vertical slice of the game, which finally resonated with the right people at Xbox. "They probably had meetings saying, ‘Wait a minute, these guys are quite inexperienced, will they really pull this off?’" Stjärnljus muses. The exclusivity deal they secured provided the oxygen needed to expand the team and finish the project. Shortly after, Thunderful Publishing came on board, providing the commercial backing needed to finalize the game for its 2023 launch.

The Economics of Artistic Persistence

The success of Planet of Lana is not merely anecdotal; it is backed by a trajectory of consistent growth. Following its 2023 release, the game garnered a 9/10 review from Edge magazine and a host of other accolades. The game has since been ported to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation consoles, and mobile devices—a testament to its broad appeal.

The financial risk was significant. By investing their own savings and relying on a network of unpaid labor in the early stages, the founders essentially treated the game as a high-stakes startup. However, the decision to maintain a clear creative vision—rather than pivoting to market-chasing trends—ultimately paid off. The game’s aesthetic, which leans heavily on the "hand-painted" look, allowed it to stand out in a market where many competitors relied on procedural generation or darker, muted palettes.

Official Perspectives: From Ad-Men to Auteurs

Both Stjärnljus and Eriksson view their transition from the film and advertising industry to gaming as a lesson in humility and collaboration.

"I really love how unpretentious it is, coming from film," Eriksson says. "It’s not about cred." He contrasts the collaborative, supportive nature of the indie game community with the "auteur-driven," sometimes ego-heavy culture of film production.

Stjärnljus agrees, noting that despite his fears that industry veterans would look down on his lack of experience, he found a community eager to help. "We’re all trying to make good games and help each other out," he says. This cultural fit was perhaps the most vital component in the game’s survival; without the goodwill of the developer community, the long, grueling development cycle might have ended in total failure.

Implications: The Hollywood Horizon

The success of Planet of Lana has now transcended the medium of interactive entertainment. The project is currently in the early stages of a film adaptation, spearheaded by Story Kitchen—the production house responsible for the Sonic the Hedgehog films and the Tomb Raider series.

With actor Amber Midthunder attached and Pixar veteran Angus MacLane involved, the project is positioning itself as a major transmedia property. For Stjärnljus and Eriksson, this is a return to their roots, albeit on a scale they never could have imagined when they were making commercials for denture adhesives.

The implications for indie studios are clear: while the market is undeniably crowded, a strong, singular artistic vision, when paired with the resilience to survive years of rejection, can still break through. The "naive" approach taken by Wishfully Studios—ignoring the advice to start small and instead aiming for a cinematic masterpiece—proved that in an industry obsessed with data-driven design, sometimes the most irrational decisions yield the most significant results.

As Stjärnljus reflects on the nine-year journey from a Photoshop sketch to a global franchise, his conclusion is modest yet definitive: "Now I think we can say that we are experienced." The naivety that almost destroyed them ultimately became their greatest asset, allowing them to build a world that audiences—and eventually, Hollywood—could not ignore.