Final hours! 95% to the goal! Stretch goal mockups!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 12:47:03 AM

Hey there Dreamers!

Here we are, within the final 72 hours of the campaign! We're also 95% funded!

We've come a long way from both the beginning of the campaign and the beginning of this project and things are starting to take shape. We could not be more grateful that you've chosen to join us on this journey encompassing history, art, game design, and animation. 

We're so close! So close, in fact, that we've started talking about the possibilities of stretch goals being in our future. How many? That's up to all of us getting the word out! We made over 12% of our entire goal in the first day alone, and there's no reason to think we can't recreate that success in these final days with 48-hour notifications going out soon and folks getting in last minute pledges! 

What can you do?

Once again we're reaching out to our awesome community for help getting the word out about the game and the campaign. Here are a few ideas:

• Reach out directly to friends who would be interested in the project: fans of comics, art history, the old NES game, the 1989 movie, or even just people who like indie games with interesting art! 
• Share news stories like the one from PCGamesN about the game or videos like the one below. It's one thing for US to tell you why our game is cool (we're a bit biased), but it's another to see it coming from games press and YouTubers! 

• If you are able, get an add-on with your pledge. We've gotten questions about things like the 8-bit costumes and the making-of videos: these things will not be offered again after the campaign! If these items are things you'd like to have with your game, now's the last chance to get them! We've also got our physical items for order a-la-carte (including those sweet vinyl records!) so get them while you can! If you want to add on, do the following:

1. Click on "manage your pledge"

2. Go to "change your pledge"

3. Click on add-ons to choose them. Shipping is included in the price amounts

• Share the link to the Kickstarter on social media and tell the world why you're excited about the game! 

Stretch goals mockups!

Like we said, being so close has started some conversations about possibly reaching some stretch goals, so we've made some mock-ups of some of features listed in the first few levels. Please keep in mind that these are mockups and not final artwork, they are both subject to change and were put together fairly quickly. 

Nemo's Kitchen

The first mockup is Nemo's Kitchen, drawn by Lauren Moore. Nemo's kitchen will be one of the rooms explorable in the house. It will also have the icebox. At the $75,000 level, we'll add the ability to go into the icebox and get stat-changing midnight snacks! These items will affect Nemo's stats during his next visit to Slumberland and fade away when he wakes up again. 

These foods are, of course, all based on foods that Nemo and other Winsor McCay characters eat in the comics (including the much-asked-for Welsh Rarebit!) Nemo will be able to find ingredients for more foods in Slumberland to unlock new recipes! 

In-game museum

Another feature in our early stretch goals is the in-game museum. This would unlock concept art and comics that players could peruse if we hit the $80,000 level. Our plan for this includes another Winsor McCay cameo...

Mister Bunion is a character from McCay's comic A Pilgrim's Progress, which we covered in one of our previous Sunday Funnies updates. As in his comic, Mister Bunion is trying to get rid of his case and ACTUALLY SUCCEEDS! 

Until you come along...

In each level you can find Mister Bunion, loving life and reading the comics section of a newspaper. If you can find his case elsewhere in the level and deliver it to him. He'll sadly accept it and trudge off, leaving the comics for you to add to your gallery! 

Dare we dream?

Lastly we wanted to share this VERY ROUGH mockup that we've been kicking around. This stretch goal is also a ways off ($100,000), but we're nothing if not dreamers ourselves! 

Let's do it! We're so close! 

Thanks again for taking this journey with us. We honestly couldn't have done this without you. If everything goes well, we'll be able to make a dream game come true! 

Team Nemo

Discord Access Update and Brainstorming Podcast Episode 4 - Nemo's House & Bosco the Dragon
over 3 years ago – Tue, Mar 30, 2021 at 08:47:12 PM

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

Discord Invite Update!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 03:40:52 AM

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

The Environment Art of Slumberland
over 3 years ago – Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 12:06:15 AM

Dear backers,

Happy Friday everyone! I wanted to check in very briefly and then give you all some insight into how we're using modern game development tools to recreate the rich detail of Winsor McCay's world! 

Home stretch!

We're in the middle of a massively busy period of the campaign - the HOME STRETCH! As always, we need your help signal boosting the campaign anywhere and everywhere you can, especially so we can make this final push towards 100% funded! 

Also, don't forget to check out our add-ons, containing a number of Kickstarter-exclusive items like 8-bit character skins and making-of videos. Last night we even added an add-on option for vinyl soundtracks that I'm sure a lot of you will want to check out. If you already have a physical soundtrack in your reward tier, these are already included in your tier and you can snag yours when we sent out our backer surveys after the campaign. 

To do the add-on version, you can click on "Manage your Pledge" and then "Change your Pledge", which will take you to the place to do the add-ons. Thanks for your patience with this as it's a new feature of Kickstarter!

The environment art of Slumberland

Now it's time for another Friday look inside our game development process! This time I wanted to talk about how the background elements and environment art of Slumberland work. 

Winsor McCay was fond of adding tons of rhythmic architectural elements in the Beaux Arts style: his backgrounds were rarely boring and more often then not, part of the attraction of a Little Nemo comic. 

To capture some of this magic in our own game, we're using our level editing tools to create stretch-able and repeatable pieces of environment art that let us get a lot out of a little bit of artwork. Check out the video below for more details! 

I hope you're enjoying these looks inside the gamedev process for the game! Remember Dreamers - home stretch! We can do it! 

Cheers,

Chris and Team Nemo

Over 76% and Vinyl soundtrack option
over 3 years ago – Fri, Mar 26, 2021 at 01:55:07 AM

Thanks to everyone's support we just broke 76%!  We still have a long way to go over the next 5 days but with your help, we can make it!  Keep posting on social media and if you see any articles mentioning the game be sure to join the conversation.  

We have a couple of great pieces of news!  First up, Nemo got a fantastic write-up on PCGamesN you can check out at https://www.pcgamesn.com/little-nemo-and-the-nightmare-fiends/kickstarter.  We loved this quote from writer Ian Boudreau: "If you were a big fan of Cuphead’s revival of the Fleischer brothers’  animation style, this might be a good one to check out and support."

Also because we've got a critical mass of physical soundtracks we've unlocked Vinyl records as a backer perk!  The Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends OST features Hip Hop artist (and nemo super fan) Mega Ran with an exclusive track, and is composed by Wayne Strange who has done work on Star Trek: The Video Game and God of War: Ascension, as well as arrangements for Materia Collective and Video Games Live.  You can check out Wayne's previous work at: Wayne Strange | Materia Collective and Mega Ran at Music | Mega Ran (megaranmusic.com).

If you've backed at a tier that includes a physical soundtrack you'll be able to choose between the Vinyl Record or CD.  Otherwise, both the record and CD are available as add on options.

Thanks so much for believing in us! We're super excited about how far we've come so far in this campaign and we're looking to finish it out strong!

- Ben and Team Nemo