The Evolution of Lumen

The Evolution of Lumen

Lumen PhotoVocab Game Officially Launches: A Journey from MFA Thesis to Classroom Tool

I’m thrilled to announce the official launch of Lumen PhotoVocab Game! 🎉

Born out of my MFA thesis project on game-based learning at Jacksonville State University, Lumen was designed to address challenges I faced in my own classroom. Students often struggled to engage during critiques and group discussions, which are such an important part of learning. As a lifelong gamer, I knew that games could be powerful tools for bringing people together and overcoming fear of failure so I decided to design a card game to help.

Lumen went through extensive research, prototyping, and playtesting—including IBR-approved testing in design and photography classes at Jacksonville State University. The response was overwhelmingly positive, which inspired me to bring it to market.

📖 Interested in the research behind Lumen? You can download my paper, “Game-Based Learning: Building Competence in Visual Literacy Through Simulation,” at JSU Digital Commons.

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Shop Our Games

Good News: We’re Extending Lumen’s Launch Special!

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To give educators more time to explore Lumen PhotoVocab Game and to share this innovative resource with their schools, we’re extending the Launch Special through January 31st!

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Lumen isn’t just a game—it’s a powerful teaching tool that:

Enhances visual literacy

Expands photography vocabulary

Sharpens critical thinking skills

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Ideal for classrooms, critiques, and photo clubs, Lumen PhotoVocab Game transforms teaching photography into a fun, interactive, and collaborative experience for students.

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Now through January 31st, get 50% OFF with CODE: BLASTOFF at checkout!

Use this extra time to plan for the new semester and talk to your administrators about adding Lumen to your school’s resources.

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Shop now: Blackwater Shop

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Let’s make 2025 the year of creative and engaging education!  

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Lumen’s final prototype is being assembled!

Our manufacturer, NiceFunnyGames, sent us in-progress photos of Lumen’s final prototype. They reported that all game files have been printed and that Lumen’s samples should be finished in two days. 

This is Lumen’s third official prototype. The differences between it and the second prototype are as follows:

• Updated game logo. The name was changed from ‘Lumen: A Game of Photographic Terminology’ to ‘Lumen PhotoVocab Game’.
• Rewritten and redesigned Player Guide (slightly larger in size).
• Updated game box layout.
• 4 photo cards were swapped out to aid variety.
• Four vocabulary cards were added to make the game an even 400 cards (100 vocabulary cards and 300 photo cards).

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Lumen, Prototype II

Several changes were made to the second version of Lumen to improve the game. More terminology and photo cards were added, the player guide was rewritten, and the game box was redesigned. 

This version of Lumen consists of 96 Terminology cards, 300 Photo cards, and a card-sized 8-page accordion fold player guide.

Samples produced: 7

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2023 was a busy year and Lumen’s Education Edition is close to being published. I’m working on a few final tweaks and am hoping to place the order for its first official production run within the next week.

There’s a lot of news to share since my last blog post–the website has unfortunately taken a back seat so I could focus on the actual game. Now that the game is almost done I’m in the process of building a new website so I won’t waste too much time making updates here but here are a few highlights from this past year.

• Lumen’s name has been updated to Lumen PhotoVocab Game from Lumen: A Game of Photographic Terminology.
• The player guide has been rewritten and is much clearer, and more fun, and the game is now themed around submitting work for a photography exhibition. The gameplay didn’t change. I just realized that it plays just like submitting work to an art show so that was a fun realization.
• I’ve hired various part-time crew to help me get things done. I realized this past year that despite being an amazing one-woman show I cannot do everything myself. Starting a business is a lot of work and there are lots of things to juggle. It’s too overwhelming to try to do it all myself. Shoutout to Karl, Madison, Abbey, and Shankar; and to my game publishing coach Joe Slack, and the many other people helping with various projects.
• Lumen now has a Print-to-Play sampler edition available for purchase in our shop. It’s a smaller version of the game we put together to give people the opportunity to go ahead and get the game in their classrooms and/or to test it out before ordering the actual game.

There’s more but I’ll save the other news for another time since I need to go get back to work on the game. 😅

Thanks for your patience and support!

~Captain Carol

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Anyways, here are some photos from my MFA thesis exhibition. We were still in a pandemic situation when it took place so I was so touched that so many people came out to support me. The exhibition included the game, including copies that people were able to play at the show, large prints of cards from the game that attendees were asked to vote on (so they could experience a hint of the game if they didn’t have the opportunity to play the actual thing), and a How to Play video. Everyone seemed to have a great time and I got a ton of great feedback.

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Spent part of the day designing QR cards for Lumen. This website is still a work in progress so it made more sense to share a Linktree for Lumen since I have information about it here, on my artist site, and across social media. I was originally going to add some other text to the card but my designer brain kicked in and was like ‘let’s keep it simple’ which is great because I’ll be able to use this for pretty much everything since updating the Linktree is super easy. I kind of think I should have put my name on it but I like how it looks without it.

I will say, if you’re going to use a QR code it’s a good idea to also share the actual link — if it’s short to aid accessibility, or at the very least tell people what to expect.

These babies should arrive in a little over a week. Can’t wait!

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Ahoy friends! I’m excited to announce that I’ll be presenting at the 2022 SPE South Central conference, Come Together, taking place Oct. 14-15 in Shreveport, LA.

I’ve been a member of SPE since 2010 and am super pumped to get to share my thesis research with my favorite photography group. I’ve exhibited work at SPE but this will be my first time presenting so that is also super exciting. I don’t know the exact date and time of my presentation yet but below you can find the title and a bit of information regarding my session.

Game-Based Learning: Building Competence in Visual Literacy Through Simulation

Game-based learning is a growing academic practice that encourages the use of games and gamification to engage students and improve retention. This presentation will include an introductory talk on game-based learning and the development of Lumen, a card game designed to prepare students for photographic discussion and critique, followed by the opportunity to play Lumen with fellow attendees.

Lumen is a card game designed to serve as an icebreaker and a teaching tool for introductory photography students. The game introduces players to professional terminology useful in critique and discussion, while also encouraging critical thinking, debate, and analysis.

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