Daft Punk were nearly the stars of their own game

By Hirun Cryer
published

The project ended up becoming Lumines: Electronic Symphony

Daft Punk
(Image credit: Daft Punk / Columbia Records)

Daft Punk could have been the stars of Lumines: Electronic Symphony. 

This comes from the game's producer, who revealed that the game was originally pitched as a Daft Punk game during the early development stages.

Just below, James Mielke reveals that while he was pitching the game that would eventually become Lumines: Electronic Symphony to Ubisoft, he approached Daft Punk to feature in the game, which they accepted. However, the French duo was too busy working on the soundtrack for Tron: Legacy at the time, and so ultimately declined to work on the project.

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It must've been excruciating for Mielke and other development staff, because Daft Punk actually liked the sound of featuring in Lumines. However, as the post from Mielke reads above, they didn't want to just reuse their old music, and wanted instead to write brand new tracks to feature in the PS Vita game. The timing was just off though, and plans for the duo to feature in the game never materialized.

"What I wanted to do was put the player in the cockpit of Daft Punk’s pyramid-shaped DJ booth that they tour with, and—as Daft Punk—rock the crowd by performing big combos in Lumines," Mielke wrote in a development blog back in 2012 for Gamasutra. "Everything in the game was going to be Daft Punk-ified, from the HUD, to the soundtrack, to the bassy aural ambiance found on their 2007 Alive live album, to the special effects, real-time lighting, bouncing 3D crowd, etc."

This all follows after Daft Punk announced their split yesterday on February 22. The duo announced they were no more in an eight-minute video called Epilogue on their YouTube channel, revealing that they would finally be hanging up their robot helmets after 28 years of performing and writing music together. Like Mielke, legions of fans took to social media to express their appreciation for Daft Punk's career throughout the day.

For our pick of the best games to ever grace Sony's handheld device, head over to our best PS Vita games ever made.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.