Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends in the news: What it Means to be a "Hand-Drawn Game"
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 05:06:05 PM

Happy Friday backers! 

Just a small update today. We've spent much of the week working with BackerKit's quality assurance folks on the Pledge Management system and are going to meet internally on the best timeline to roll that out. In case you missed it, we also have our Slacker Backer and Add-on shop active there, so go check it out if there's something you missed during the campaign or tell your friends if they were unable to pledge last month! 

We also have an exciting piece of news to share - Chris was interviewed by Polygon for an article on hand-drawn video games! The article was just released yesterday and also features interviews with the developers of Cozy Grove, If Found..., Nobody Saves the World, and some other really awesome games!

For Little Nemo, Chris emphasized that hand-drawn art and animation was a key feature for honoring both the original Little Nemo in Slumberland comics and finding ways to explore the ways that the comics impacted art, animation, and video games. Some of our choices for techniques were made due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but these choices also led us to find new approaches for how to use modern animation tools: 

"For us “hand-drawn” is a way to experiment with bringing game art closer to other art forms (especially traditional animation, which [Winsor] McCay was an early pioneer of) and getting to explore animation history. We’re paying homage to the artwork of an important figure that set the stage for many of the processes we use today, so we wanted to get as close to his style as possible.
COVID-19 knocked out our ability to do a full in-studio ink-on-cels process of the kind you saw with Cuphead (or traditional feature animation in general), so we’re using the new 2D animation tools in the free and open-source digital animation program Blender. Rather than using vectors or anything like that, we’re still drawing the animations by hand with tablets following traditional animation principles like Disney’s 12 Principles of Animation, in-betweening (which McCay invented), and so on. To keep this process as “old school” as possible, we’re staying away from more modern elements of our animation software like armatures (“bones” put inside artwork to make it move), “puppet” animation (think Flash cartoons), or interpolation (draw shape A, then draw shape B on a later frame, and the computer makes everything between.) We’re doing everything we can with straightforward drawing.
Nightmare Fiends is as much a celebration of an important artist’s work as much as it is a cool indie game. Winsor McCay laid the groundwork for the comics and animation industries as we know them, which in turn had a lot of influences on games."

Little Nemo was just one game featured in the article, so go check it out over at Polygon for a look inside the artwork of other games! 

Cheers,

Team Nemo

BackerKit Slacker Backer shop is live!
about 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 18, 2021 at 05:26:37 PM

Dear backers,

Happy Friday! We've been busy with some additional e-mailings, meetings, and spreadsheet juggling this week, but we have some news on much-requested post-campaign features!

First of all, our Slacker Backer shop is LIVE at the link below:

Little Nemo Slacker Backer shop on BackerKit

We've also linked it to the big blue button on our Kickstarter page so if you know of anyone who wasn't able to get in on the campaign, they can now join in! 

We're offering most of the physical rewards and add-ons from the campaign on the store (including the much-requested 8-bit costumes!) Please note that the items have a shipping date of October 2022 since it's like an extension of the campaign (in that same spirit - maybe we can hit some new stretch goals here?) 

Pledge management

We'll also be able to do your Backer Surveys (many of the questions are already set up) and pledge management through BackerKit. These options usually go live when the surveys go out, so we'll keep you updated on that timeline. It will likely be a few months from now. There will be a window after the surveys where backers will be able to edit their order (in case you move, etc.) 

We'll also do an update sometime this weekend to send out the latest Discord access links. 

That's it for now! Have a great weekend! 

Team Nemo

Brainstorming Podcast Episode 5: The In-Game Museum and Mr. Bunion
about 3 years ago – Wed, Apr 14, 2021 at 11:58:05 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Sunday Funnies: The comic inspirations of Nightmare Fiends' Night Sky
about 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 12:56:45 AM

Happy Sunday backers! 

As we've mentioned in the past, we're going to keep up some of our update features throughout the game's development cycle when we're able. One of the ones we've really enjoyed has been Sunday Funnies, and we thought it might be fun to talk about some of the comic episodes that have inspired the level biomes we've worked on so far. This week, we're going to cover the first planned level, Nemo's Town and the Night Sky.

Nemo's town/night sky

While everything might change during the long game development cycle, the current plan is to start the game with Peony summoning Nemo to Slumberland while he's sleeping in his bed. She makes the bed gallop through the town and eventually into the clouds! 

This currently planned opening level will have 2 parts: an opening scene in Nemo's Town and an adventure through the night sky. This is based on a few key comics: 

The overall theme of the level is based on Nemo's earliest adventure from October 15, 1905 - the premiere of Little Nemo in Slumberland. In it, he rides a horse named Somnus through the colorful night sky surrounded by stars. 

As you know, we're also making nods to other Nemo media in the visual design of the game. In this case, we're acknowledging some of the concept art for the Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland movie created by French comics legend Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius.

When planning levels like this, we want to find interesting set pieces or level mechanisms to base level sections on. One we really like for this level is the Bridge Guardians from the November 12, 1905 episode.

The section in Nemo's town, where the current plan is to have Peony retrieve Nemo and depart for Slumberland on the famous walking bed, will of course follow the July 26, 1908 episode (which we've covered in previous Sunday Funnies features.)

We also want to make heavy use of airships in the level itself, as typified in the January 2, 1910 episode where Nemo first departs on what would become his signature vehicle for the rest of his time in the New York Herald comics supplement. 

Of course, there's the boss of this level, the Moon itself! He's usually a passive observer in the comics and never an antagonist - I wonder what's making him so grouchy? 

We're taking cues from episodes where Nemo directly interacts with the Moon, such as the December 3, 1905 episode where a Slumberlandian tries to use the Moon as a vehicle to escort Nemo to Slumberland. The prospect of climbing into the Moon's mouth proves to be a step too far for the young adventurer. 

As you can see, we've even based how the moon opens his mouth and the colors used for that animation on that comic! 

There's also this episode from January 7, 1912, where Doctor Pill, having finally had enough of Flip, convinces Morpheus to have Flip "Razzoo'ed", which appears to be when a Slumberlandian is shot into the sky. This backfires on Pill, when Flip is shot directly into the Moon's mouth, who spits him out back towards Earth and crashing down onto an unsuspecting Doctor Pill. 

Those are but a few of the comics that we've been thinking about as we develop the early levels of Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends. We'll be updating on the inspirations for other levels in the coming weeks and sharing some of our other favorite Little Nemo in Slumberland strips! 

See you in the funny papers! 

Chris and Team Nemo

First week post-campaign update!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 11:03:53 AM

Dear backers,

I hope everyone's been well in this first week post-campaign! We wanted to write a quick update to let everyone know what's been going on so far with Nightmare Fiends production! 

E-mails! Spreadsheets! Meetings!

That's right! We're very much in the throes of the production management portion of game development where we're doing a lot of organizational stuff. As we meet with contractors and other folks who are going to help us flesh out the project, it will give us a good direction for the next phases of development. 

Vertical slice

As we said during the campaign, we're in early production and are a ways away from release. Our next milestone will be preparing what's called a "vertical slice" - a super-polished chunk of gameplay that can be used to showcase the vision of the project. For this slice we've chosen to do the Mushroom Forest level, where we'll introduce players to Peony and encounter the Pie Eaters. 

We've got some fun level mechanic and set piece ideas for this area so stay tuned!

Pledge management and "slacker backer" storefront

We have some news to share regarding the much-requested pledge management and "slacker backer" storefront. We're going to be using Backerkit to set up these features and will have it set up in a week or so after we receive our campaign funds from Kickstarter (this takes about 2 weeks.) If you missed out on any of the add-ons, you'll be able to get them again here (please note that all images are mock-ups and the design of these items are subject to change!)

Backerkit is also where we'll be distributing your eventual Backer Surveys from. That step is several months away and we'll let you know with an update when they're going out. 

That's it for now Dreamers! We'll update when the Backerkit Interface goes live and with any other fun upcoming content! 

Cheers,

Team Nemo