The series was initially conceived when Tetsuya Mizuguchi heard about the PlayStation Portable and wanted to develop a game for it.

When the Time Line passes through it, the colored square will disappear and points are added to the player's overall score.

The games feature background skins, which change the appearance of the visuals and blocks, and contain a different music track and sound effects.

Increasing score multipliers are earned by repeatedly clearing 3~4 squares (depending on the game) on consecutive Time Line sweeps.

For example, if one should get a 2x3 area of matching blocks, the middle portion will "share" itself with both the left and right halves and create two colored squares.

[3] After choosing the PSP as the next console to work with, Mizuguchi was inspired to make a puzzle game with music.

[4] Originally, Mizuguchi wanted to make a Tetris game with music but due to various issues including licensing, it was not possible at the time and the concept of Lumines was used instead.

[4] Katsumi Yokota implemented strict rules for the series that the songs would follow 44 time signature, with the exception of "Big Elpaso".

This was due to the playing field being divided into 16 rows, and the Time Line needing to match the tempo of the music and in sync with the beat.

In addition, licensed songs from famous artists such as Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas and The Chemical Brothers were incorporated into the game's soundtrack.

For Lumines Live!, Mizuguchi developed the game with the concept of customizing music and choosing and downloading new songs.

[8] Originally development of Lumines: Puzzle Fusion, audio had to be completed before finalizing the skin's design.

[19] Another version of Lumines was pre-installed on NTT Docomo's N07A mobile phone model via i-αppli widget on July 10, 2009.

The first mobile phone game was an adaptation of the original Lumines: Puzzle Fusion developed by Gameloft.

The second mobile phone game, titled Lumines: In the House Ibiza '10, was developed by Connect2Media and released in Europe on August 11, 2010, and in North America on March 18, 2012.