Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends

November Update: Slumberland, New Music Track + More!
19 days ago – Mon, Dec 02, 2024 at 06:10:43 AM

Hey Dreamers!

We hope you had a good Thanksgiving! While we're taking a bit of a break to spend time with our family this week, we've been hard at work this month on sketching out the opening to Slumberland. This represents a major milestone for us in that, along with our tutorial stage and the game's HUD world (Nemo's House), we'll have every level in the game walkable from beginning to end. That means we can start spending the bulk of our time filling the game world with content, NPCs, side-quests and more along the game's critical path! We want to share with you that progress (after posting , so let's get started.

Slumberland

We've mentioned in previous updates the various different areas of Slumberland Palace that the player will visit, such as Dr. Pill's Lab and the Slumberland Barracks. As we've been building the level map, we've color-coded these areas, as well as been adding notes for various hazards and other game mechanics we'll be adding to the map.

While the map is being sketched out, Chris has been working on art assets that will fill the back and foregrounds of each area. In the screenshot, you can see an example from the first room within Dr. Pill's workshop. Here's another from a room within the barracks that will have an additional mechanic which we're excited about:

By next month, we hope to have some other excited areas, mechanics and more implemented into the game to show you!

New Music

While Slumberland is being sketched out, we're still working on content for the previous area, Jack Frost's Palace. We still have plenty to do that we'll show in the future including a new boss fight and hazards, for now we wanted to showcase a brand new track from Wayne Strange. The previous music we were using for the ice level was a great, mellow track that will be featured in the game, however was more subdued than the other active level music in our game. So Wayne fired up a new track that you'll hear throughout the ice palace:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bgu6_YtZFgvtj2-M-ULnaFMIZ05TUpDP/view?usp=sharing

Not to overstate it, but Wayne killed it with this track. But that's not all! Based on feedback we've received, he's also working on calmer versions of the tracks that will play during cutscenes or otherwise idle moments while you play through the level. Here's a sample from the Night Sky:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N6URNCpVq-wPhMZhTC7kD2jbgLKZ7iqZ/view?usp=drive_link

Systems update

Nothing too visual here (the stuff "under the hood" usually isn't), but with all of the stages and biomes coming together, we're transitioning away from our demo setup where you select a stage from a menu at the beginning to a more fully fleshed out file save system. We're also starting to string together the different stages with Nemo's house as a "hub." When you play, you will use the house to travel to the different dream worlds. Once in a dream world, you will have a number of chances (lives) to reach a goal (beating a boss, getting a major item, etc.) before you wake up back in Nemo's house. Players will be able to choose where they enter each dream world as they unlock platforms for Nemo's bed to land at (these will later be used for quick travel via Bosco the Dragon.) Stay tuned for more as this portion comes together! 

Also, we've noticed that players in our demo sessions sometimes need something to lead them along the path through the levels. For this reason, we're also starting to implement a system of hittable objects that will randomly cough up items (think the candlesticks in Castlevania games). This will help with pathfinding and directing players through the different branches of the levels. 

Conclusion

That's all from us for this month. We hope you enjoyed this month's update and one more time: Happy Thanksgiving (for our American readers) from all of us at Team Nemo. We'll see you again for the Holidays!

October update! New systems, GDEX, and more!
about 2 months ago – Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 07:55:19 AM

Hey Dreamers!

We hope everyone's having a good Fall season! This month, we've been hard at work preparing Little Nemo & the Nightmare Fiends for its recent public showing at GDEX in Columbus, Ohio which we'll talk about shortly. This included implementing new systems, tuning and playtesting the first titular Nightmare Fiend you'll meet in the game, Phobetor, and of course getting to meet and chat with everyone who came out to the show!  It's been a busy month and we want you to hear about it, so let's get to the updates.

GDEX

We're once again proud to show off the latest demo of Little Nemo & the Nightmare Fiends at the GDEX in Columbus, Ohio! This was also our first time getting to playtest Jack Frost's Ice Palace level in a public setting. We got lots of great comments and feedback on the game. We're extremely grateful to everyone to everyone who stopped by.

Ben has been working to get real game progression in place.  The scripting features that allow quest lines are all working now.  You can start new quests, complete them, and get rewards.  You've probably seen some new UI elements in our screenshots, especially around the health UI.  The player can now upgrade health and abilities, including the reflect ability: after Nemo finds this upgrade, he will be able to reflect certain projectile effects by hitting them with his sword. This will be required for a lot of the game's action, including in our new fight with the first Nightmare Fiend you meet, Phobetor! 

Lives were finally added too.  Previously if you lost all of your health you could continue at the last door you went though.  With lives added you will be able to continue that way as long as you have extra lives.  If you lose your last life you will start again in the house where you can re-enter the world (and quick travel to a Bosco station if necessary).  There are a couple of gameplay reasons for this, but mostly it gives us another knob to tune for difficulty.

We've also done a lot of fine tuning of gameplay, including adding a little bit of hit stun.  When a player damages an enemy there is a fraction of a second delay that adds a bit more punch to attacks.  It's one of those almost imperceptible changes that just feels better.

Another very tiny change was made to the jumps, to better keep momentum in the air.  In the ice level, Ben noticed our play-testers (mostly the neighborhood kids) missing some (what I thought was easy) jumps because they let go of the direction too soon.  A jump buffer was also added to help avoid some missed jump inputs too.  Again, a super minor change but you would miss it if it wasn't there.

A while ago, I also added in sprinting, mostly just as a test.  But it ended up being a lot of fun and opens up additional advanced movement and traversal options. Which leads us to:

Sprint Animations

Also this month; Chris has been hard at work making sprint animations for each character in the game.

The ability to sprint is an early general character upgrade. It will let you jump longer and faster, and synergizes with each character's unique abilities in interesting ways. Just be sure to watch where you're running!

For Peony's sprint, we are actually going to use her current "Ninja Run", and instead create a new standard run that fits in with her largely ballet-based moveset. Stay tuned for more as we finish out that animation. 

Wrapping Up

That's all from us for this month. Before we go, we'll share these perlers, put together by our community manager, Max!

We'll see you again for our November update, Dreamers!

~ Team Nemo

September update: Engine update, Cleveland Gaming Classic, and Happy Birthday Mr. McCay!
3 months ago – Thu, Sep 26, 2024 at 10:36:36 AM

Happy Fall Dreamers,

First thing's first, it's September 26th, which means that we need to wish a very happy birthday to Little Nemo's creator, Winsor McCay!

Next, what we've been working on: so last month we had some bad news brought on by our engine, Unity, which seemed to have forgotten how to process the game's sprite artwork. It turned out that the plug-in that we use to import and process the sprites, TexturePacker, updated and was no longer fully compatible with the version of Unity that we were using. 

This prompted a (honestly, long overdue) full engine upgrade on our end, which we've just completed this week. As aggravating as it's been, the game runs much smoother and continues to look great. We now also have access to some other features that will help us in our development process. 

That's not all though! Even with these challenges, we've been hard at work on additional content. Last month we showed you some concept art of Slumberland, and this month, we can share some rooms where we have implemented those concepts in the engine to give you a sense of that environment. 

We've also been continuing work on Jack Frost's Palace. Like the Mushroom Forest, the Palace will have multiple biomes with their own unique quests and hazards. At the moment, we've been working on the engine room, the mechanical wing of the palace that ensures it stays nice and frozen all year round.

Because of the chaos that Phobetor and his gang of nightmares have caused around the palace, the machinery has gone amuck and certain rooms are inaccessible due to blinding snowstorms. In order to reach Slumberland, Nemo and friends will have to take care of things themselves by finding smashing up the five snow machines hidden within the twisted maze of pipes and gears. And if that wasn't bad enough, the engines themselves won't stop shooting icicles at our heroes! It's almost like they don't want to be broken into smithereens.

Much like the rest of the palace, elements of the engine room have been directly inspired by the original comic strip. For comparison, check out the original snow machine from the March 3rd, 1907 strip of Little Nemo in Slumberland!

Lastly, we also showcased the game at the Cleveland Gaming Classic this past weekend. As we were in the midst of the engine update, we couldn't show the latest and greatest with the ice level, but we still managed to have a good showing. We even took home the award for best characters and storytelling! 

As you can see in our booth shots, we've put together a few prototypes of our Kickstarter physical rewards and will be producing them in bigger quantities to fulfill some of the physical rewards. We will also get to work on the next wave of cameo backers. This way, folks will be able to get their swag as we head towards our first Early Access release. 

That's all for now. We've gotten a few backers reaching out asking if they've missed notifications about the game being released - you have not. Now that we've gotten through the big back-end update, we should be able to get things together for the demo. 

As we've said before, the process is going slower than we thought based on the current state of indie publishing, but we're making consistent progress and are in a lot better shape than other projects out there. We're working to make this the best game, experience, and tribute to Winsor McCay that it can be, so we thank everyone for their patience as our small team continues our steady work. 

Thanks again! We couldn't do this without you!

Team Nemo

August update! Demo polish! New gameplay video! The Double Deuce!
4 months ago – Sat, Aug 31, 2024 at 03:51:43 PM

Hello Dreamers,

We hope that this update finds everyone well and having had a good summer! We're gearing up for the return of the academic year here (especially those on the team who are teachers in their day jobs!) but, as always, have lots of new stuff to report for you. 

This month has seen a lot of gameplay adjustment and polish, as well as a lot of design for things beyond our upcoming demo rollout, including work on the level that will tie the game's worlds together - Nemo's house. We've also been working on some fun new art and animations we want to share. 

Art update

This month and the end of last month saw work on some more intensive art and animation pieces. This includes the Dawn Guard boss that you saw last month, featuring his galloping horse. This month we continued to work on art for that set piece, which will include a train that some eagle-eyed retro gamers might recognize...

We can assure you that this is a totally normal train and that nothing bad will happen when you ride it. 

Anyway...

A major set piece in the Ice Palace will be adding Flip to your team, which will also include chasing Flip after he's pulled off some pranks on Jack Frost. This includes his making some rude gestures towards Nemo and Peony, who he doesn't realize are the ones chasing him! Here's an inked and painted example below: 

In animation, sometimes you can have motions happen in a more "snappy" way and with fewer drawings by using what's called a "smear", which is a frame that is a mushed-together summary of a whole motion. Smear frames can look pretty silly, but they're a lot of fun to draw because you end up with some pretty wild poses. This animation might have one of our favorites in the whole game so far. 

One question we get sometimes is how Flip does some activities, like typing and answering e-mails, with boxing gloves on. To which he answers "I don't know? How do you do things with YOUR hands?!" We've also wondered how he makes other certain rude gestures with the gloves on, to which he replied...

New gameplay video

We're beginning the fall festival submission season, so we've put together a new reel of gameplay, featuring characters and set pieces we've been working on, including refining the mosquito boss fight, the ice cutters, and various other nightmare imp creatures. It also showcases Peony's powers, particularly her new bomb throw ability. 

That's all for now! Thanks again for your support and patience as we continue to make this game into the project we all know and believe it can be. We will also be updating soon with some new info about updated boss battle stuff and some new additions to the game's overall feel. 

Until next time dreamers! 

Cheers,

Team Nemo

July update: Too Many Games recap, new bosses, and Slumberland concepts
5 months ago – Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 07:10:55 AM

Dear Dreamers,

Happy July - we hope you all are having a great summer! As usual, we've been hard at work on the game and have some awesome new updates to share. We just finished our summer internship period and were able to make progress on several fronts so that we can put the final major biome in place and get to work on implementing more of the games' systems. 

TooManyGames recap

As mentioned in the last update, Adrian, Ben and Max once again went to TooManyGames in Oaks, PA to demo Little Nemo & The Nightmare Fiends!

We always have a great time at this show, and 2024 was no different. We got to chat with backers as well as a lot of folks who had never seen the game before. We received nothing but kind words and great feedback, so once again thank you so much to those of you who spent some of your precious convention time with us! We really appreciate it!

We also talked to several media outlets and content creators at the show! For example, the Nintendads, who featured our community manager Max on their show. Check it out here! 

As other interviews are published, we'll be sure to highlight them in future updates. Again, a big thanks to those who were able to see the game at the show, and to all of the TooManyGames Defenders and staff that made the show possible!

Boss update - 1st battle with Phobetor and the Dawn Guard

One of the most difficult things to make in game development are boss fights. This is for lots of reasons, including balancing, having a bunch of art and code that are only going to be used once, and just lots of other things that go into making memorable but fair game encounters. We've been hard at work on 2 bosses from the Ice Palace level: the Nightmare Fiend Phobetor - who you will fight for the first of several times during your first visit to the palace - and Flip's uncle, the Dawn Guard. 

The Phobetor Boss fight is being polished right now and uses quite a few new systems that we're implementing for the first time.  This boss is the first that will require the use of Nemo's reflect ability.  Nemo will need to swat projectiles back to first destroy a shield protecting him. 

This boss also takes advantage of additional scripting features we're building.  As you can see, the battle takes place in Jack Frost's throne room.  This is a large, complex animated backdrop, and during the battle the plan is to freeze the animations (as it gets a little bit busy with all the animated elements).  Because of the large room additional camera controls need to be built as well.

We're planning on taking full advantage of everything we're working on here during other boss battles and scripted events.

The other boss we're working on right now is the Dawn Guard, which is in the art and animation phase right now. He is called in by Flip to wreak havoc on the Palace, but is soon "nightmare-ized" by Phobetor! He presents a unique challenge for our heroes thanks to his ability to call the sun - in the comics, he literally vaporized Slumberland on more than one occasion! 

Our approach to this character is going to include a few different varied attacks that will take advantage of the character's theming and Nemo and friends' powers. We are utilizing both artwork from the comics and references that McCay would have used, like Eadweard Muybridge's famous animal movement study photographs, to design the boss version. 

Visual design update: upcoming demo Slumberland

With all of this development in the Ice Palace, we are moving towards releasing yet another new demo later this month/early August. As we get that ready, we also worked with some awesome upcoming and talented game artists on developing the visual identity of Slumberland. All of our major level biomes are actually split into several sub-variations, so that even while you're exploring an area like the Night Sky, you will see cool variations on the level theme that will keep gameplay fresh and help you navigate. Slumberland will be no different, and will have maybe the most wildly divergent sub-themes of any of the dream worlds, including the palace grounds, a garden, the dungeons, and a giant kitchen!

We're also starting to flesh out Nemo's hometown, which will be an open area for the game where you will learn the controls and chase Nemo's out-of-control long-legged bed! 

That's all for now! Thank you everyone for your patience with us as we continue to make consistent and regular progress on the game! 

Cheers and many thanks,

Team Nemo