In Lux & The Shadowmaker, Granny Lumb is the other main human character who the player encounters, and Granny was a character before Lux emerged in the writing workshops at the Arvon Writing for Games residential at Lumb Bank. Originally the game was going to be Granny Lumb & The Shadowmaker but then I decided to make it from the viewpoint of Lux, as a) seeing everything in the game from the eye level of a child would make it visually quite interesting and b) having a child as the main character would allow me to disguise the gender of Lux, to make the point that someone’s gender does not necessarily affect how they respond to a situation.
I still very much want to include Granny Lumb in my game, as I like her, and it is probably quite rare to find positive older female characters in computer games. The impression I get is that Old Ladies are mainly included to be the frail mugging victims or figures of fun. So in the game it will be Granny Lumb who occasionally pops up to keep an eye on her grandchild, and comes to the rescue when Lux calls. Granny has a pair of magic fire-tongs that she sends flying to pick Lux up and deposit back to bed or elsewhere – depending on where the player has got stuck.
Needless to say, the firetongs are based on a real pair of fire-tongs that sat in the hearth at Lumb Bank in Hedben Bridge.

Elements of Granny Lumb’s character are based on old Rabenmutterings and I am working out what to include in the game itself and what to ‘publish’ alongside the game, in the form of short tales or comicbooks, and what to just leave out. Granny Lumb will be tall, strong and full of stories.