Sunday Funnies - Winsor McCay's non-Nemo comics
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 08:31:12 PM

Happy Sunday dear backers!

Usually I would do this on Sunday morning, but we had some other big announcements today, including bringing the game to Nintendo Switch! The positive response has been overwhelming, so we’re going to make sure we work extra hard to make it something awesome!

That being said! It’s time for some Sunday Funnies! What are these? Well, it’s our opportunity to talk about the history of Little Nemo, and some of the other comics that Winsor McCay created, which is the main topic for today. They also won't usually be this long, but since this is the first, we have to lay some historical groundwork. 

A brief intro to Winsor McCay

First of all, the man himself. Winsor McCay was born Zenas Winsor McCay in either modern-day Ontario, Canada or Spring Lake, Michigan. Records of his birth have been lost, and McCay himself gave different dates of his birth, ranging from 1869 to 1871. From an early age, McCay was a talented artist, but his parents wanted him to have productive work and sent him to business school in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He would skip classes to take a train to Detroit to draw patrons in a local dime museum, and received drawing lessons from a professor at another nearby college. Becoming an artist was never not an option.

McCay eventually moved to Chicago, then to Cincinnati, Ohio where he did more dime museum work while doing freelance cartoon work for various magazines. In 1900 he got an illustrator and cartoonist position at the Cincinnati Enquirer, where he first worked in comic strips. Content warning if you look these up: some of this early work and even episodes of Little Nemo itself contain horrible racist caricatures common at that time. McCay was exceptional in many ways, but unfortunately not in this one.

McCay would eventually be lured away from the Enquirer and Ohio for a job at the New York Herald, where he worked alongside and built a rivalry with Richard F. Outcault, another comics pioneer. There he began a flurry of comic strips before arriving at arguably his most important work, Little Nemo in Slumberland. These other New York comics though, are our other topic today.

McCay's non-Nemo comics

First is a comic called Little Sammy Sneeze, first drawn in 1903. Sammy Sneeze was not McCay’s first strip for the Herald, these included earlier strips like Mister Goodenough or Phurious Phinish of Phoolish Philipe's Phunny Phrolics, but Sammy Sneeze was the first to really take off. Each strip featured 6 panels, where a young boy would be standing in some quiet or delicately-positioned place such as next to a tall department store display or at a chess game. The first 4 panels would display him beginning to sneeze and increase in intensity until he lets loose in frame 5, often completely destroying the place he is with a powerful gust of wind. The 6th frame always featured Sammy being literally kicked out by an adult.

Sammy Sneeze would demonstrate themes prominent in McCay’s other work, such as sequential art (Sammy’s sneeze occurs over 5 frames showing the passage of time), repeated motifs (Sammy destroying the adults’ world and being kicked out), and sometimes even meta-narrative. The final Sammy Sneeze strip sees him sneeze his own comic into oblivion.

The next comic we’ll look at is Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, a hugely popular comic that McCay would draw from 1904-1911 until he left the Herald to sign with William Randolph Hearst’s New York American newspaper. Like many of McCay’s other comics, Rarebit Fiend always followed the same plot structure: a person finds themselves in an increasingly bizarre and at times horrifying situation which would reach a climax right before the person woke up. Every time, the dreamer would express regret at eating Welsh Rarebit, a dish made of a rich cheese sauce served over toast.

Rarebit Fiend and Little Nemo form interesting mirrors of one another: one is a mature and sometimes terrifying look at latent anxieties, while the other is a whimsical childhood fantasy. Each ends with the dreamer waking up and, at least in Nemo’s early strips, blaming the dream on food. Given the tonal difference between Rarebit Fiend and McCay’s other strips, his editor asked him to use a pseudonym when drawing it. He chose “Silas” after the trash collector that worked in Herald Square. At times, it seems like Rarebit Fiend infringes on Nemo, with some episodes having the former’s darker tone (an idea that’s inspiring our approach to Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends’ villains.)

The last comic we’ll look at is A Pilgrim’s Progress by Mister Bunion, which depicts the adventures of an everyman trying to rid himself of a valise labeled “Dull Care.” This comic closely mirrors the premise of John Bunyan's 1678 Christian Allegory A Pilgrim's Progress, that tells a similar story (albeit far less humorously) of a man seeking relief from the burden of his own sin. McCay's comic version ran from June of 1905 until 1909. The briefcase is understood to be Mister Bunion’s mundane cares and worries of his everyday life. Bunion tries again and again to get rid of the case, whether by pawning it off on another unfortunate soul, selling it, or flat out abandoning it. In all cases though, he is inevitably reunited with it, furthering his suffering.

While not McCay’s full catalog of non-Nemo comics, these ones show common elements of McCay’s work such as sequential art, dreams, or wry social humor. They also hold up compared to many comics of the era, with themes that resonate with modern readers. That's all for today's Sunday Funnies, we hope you liked it! 

Be well dear backers, and we'll see you in the funny papers!

Chris and Team Nemo

25% and Nintendo Switch news
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 03:55:57 PM

Hi Everyone it's Ben,

First of all we've made it to 25% funded - thank you so much for being wonderful backers and community members!  You are incredible!

We've been following all of the feedback, and have absolutely seen the demand for console versions of Nemo!  The Nintendo Switch version has been the most frequently requested, so after some chatting with the rest of the team we've decided to prioritize putting the game on Switch.

We initially had the console versions as stretch goals, because of the hidden costs of porting.  Testing, first-party compliance, SDK integration, and console optimization is a significant commitment in both time and money.  Console ports have always been on our long-term plans, but by shuffling some things around, we can commit to getting the game out for you on Nintendo Switch.

We are also looking at publishing partners, and console plans are absolutely part of this!  Hitting or exceeding our Kickstarter goals will absolutely help prove to these partners that there is a demand and it's worth the cost and effort to bring the game to other platforms.

If you've chosen a digital copy of the game as a perk, you'll have the option to select Switch as your backer reward.  This version may still ship later than the PC release, simply because of things like the rigorous testing that needs to go into console releases, but we're absolutely making this a reality and a priority!

Again, thanks for all the support and feedback!  We sincerely appreciate all the passion we've seen around Nemo and can't wait to bring this game to you.  Now on Nintendo Switch!

- Ben and Team Nemo

Saturday Night Dev Stream!
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 12:46:02 PM

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

Meet the Team
about 3 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 08:23:57 PM

Hi Everyone,  It's Ben with my first update.  I thought I'd introduce the team that's been working on Nemo, and let everyone share some stories about their background and influences and maybe share some stories about projects we've worked on and what drew us to this game.  If you'd like to see more of this kind of thing let me know!  Kick it off Chris!

Chris Totten

Hi, I'm Chris! I've been drawing the stuff you see in Little Nemo (with help from some of our outside collaborators!) I've been developing the look of Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends for a bit over a year. I'm working on developing the look of our version of Slumberland and I hope you'll look forward to some of the art updates that I'll be doing on Wednesdays (as well as some other design updates)! 

I’ve been making games for 15 years and have been working as an artist, animator, level designer, and project manager. I once 3D modeled and animated 26 characters (the letters of the alphabet) in 1 week during a freak storm/heatwave combo that knocked out all power in my apartment except for 1 outlet (so feats of animation daring-do are not new to me!) I’ve been teaching game development for 11 years at various universities and even wrote a book about level design and architecture. I founded Pie for Breakfast Studios in 2014 to make games that explored the connections between games and the arts, founded some game festivals at art museums, and have even had games shown in museums!   

I’ve been a huge fan of Little Nemo for years since I first rented the NES game from our local grocery store. I later discovered the comics and was amazed by the architectural detail, innovative layouts, and amazing creatures. After that, I readily dove into any and all Winsor McCay stuff I could find! From my experiences making games based on public domain works (including various works of art and the novel Don Quixote) I’ve gained a keen sense of how to balance a game’s design with the details of its source material. We’ll be able to create a game that honors and even builds on the legacy of this work, while offering new surprises for longtime fans! We hope you’ll enjoy what we’ve got planned!

Adrian Sandoval

Hey there, I'm Adrian! For the last year or so I've been helping Ben and Chris with the overall design of the game, including the various gameplay systems, character abilities and the general feeling of moment to moment gameplay. I've also been involved in the preliminary level design and structure of the game as well. I'll be posting updates about our design process and overall philosophy for the game, so please look forward to it!

I've been making games professionally for over ten years as a technical producer and lead designer, having shipped games for PC, mobile, and the Nintendo DS. I've also been teaching both game development and game history in Philadelphia for the past couple of years, and have written about games for various outlets as well. I'm also currently the chair for the Philadelphia chapter of the International Game Developers Association.

Like a lot of folks my age, I first experienced Little Nemo through the NES, and was immediately taken not just by how imaginative and captivating it was. The word 'surreal' wasn't a part of my vocabulary back then, but it's one of the first times I can recall experiencing such an emotion from any piece of media. When I later found out about the comic and its long reaching influence across not just comics but all of entertainment, it was a similar revelation; a tour de force of fantastical adventure and surreal imagery that sometimes could be funny, sometimes breathtaking, and sometimes even scary! My goal with this game is to capture all of those feelings both in the play and the world of Nightmare Fiends, whether it's your first experience with anything Little Nemo or if you've been a fan for ages. That's why I'm forever grateful for your support, and the opportunity to help bring this game to life. Cheers!

Benjamin Cole

Hi, I'm Ben.  I'm the programmer on Nemo.  I've been working on prototyping features for Nemo for about a year and currently, I'm trying to get some frameworks in place to build out the full game. I really hope you can join me on Saturdays during the campaign for some development streams.  We'll be posting a streaming schedule here shortly.  I also really love talking shop!  Hit me up in Discord any time if you want to talk games or programming.  

I've been working in or adjacent to games for over 20 years, and have had all kinds of jobs.  Early in my career, I worked as an artist and animator before moving into production.  I even helped out with sound design on a game once upon a time.  Now I'm mostly doing programming.  I did a lot of work on PS2 and Gameboy Advance games back in the day and was the producer on Snoopy vs the Red Baron for PS2.  I co-founded Pxlplz in 2011 and have shipped several independent games, including another pretty cool MetroidVania called Star Saver on iPhone.

I absolutely love working on kid friendly games and properties, but I like to give the games I work on a weird edge.  I think Nemo fits in well here.  Of course overall it's gentle but it's going to have those surprise moments where we can really push the envelope.  Anyway, that's me.  Thanks so much for backing Nemo!  I'm looking forward to seeing you in the streams and really looking forward to getting the game out to you!

Post-first day update!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 03, 2021 at 12:18:32 PM

Dear backers, 

Hello and if you just backed today, welcome to Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends! We're so excited to have your support on this project combining video games, comics, and classic animation! 

Progress update

We wanted to share updates on our progress since launching yesterday:

• We're at over 17% funded already with 266 supporters! 
• The project was named one of Kickstarter's "Projects We Love"!
• We're #2 in most popular video game projects on Kickstarter! 
• We also got some great external attention! Frank Cifaldi of the Video Game History Foundation called the game "the best use of public domain I've seen in a video game." We've also done some press interviews and will hopefully be able to share on that soon!

What can you do?

We're off to a great start, but still have a long way to go! We need your help getting the word out. For today - can we hit 300 backers? Let's find out! 

Please share the game with your friends and social networks, including if you are members of any communities that might be interested in the game. The same goes if you can share the game with any YouTubers (or post videos about the game yourself!) That will help us reach more potential backers and help us fund the project and hopefully get into some of those awesome stretch goals (stat-changing food! Flying bed world map! New levels with surreal fun-house effects!)  

Inside peeks at the game's development

We also wanted to give you a sense of what to expect from updates. We've planned out lots of content in the coming days so that we can discuss and discover the world of Slumberland together. Here's some of what you'll see:

• Saturdays will feature live stream game development from Ben Cole, the project's tech lead
• Regular focus features on the game's mechanics from Adrian Sandoval, the project's design lead
• Tuesdays will feature the Brainstorming Slumberland mini-podcast, where you can hear us brainstorming ideas for the game from our weekly meetings. 
• Artwork Wednesdays, featuring artwork reveals (new friends! new enemies!)
• ...and more looks inside the game development process of Little Nemo. 

That's all for today! Thanks again for your support and stay dreamy! 

Team Nemo