An indie game based on Winsor McCay's groundbreaking comic strip.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
March Update
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Mar 31, 2025 at 11:51:11 AM
Hi Dreamers, March just flew by! We've been hard at work polishing what we're calling our Act 1, and fleshing out all the final details. As we told you last month, we're building our intro scenes, which includes a trip though the rooftops of Nemo's neighborhood, and an initial nightmarescape level to give you a preview of what's to come. We've also been hard at work on some upgrades to the characters that we will put throughout the game, including some that are Easter Eggs for Little Nemo fans.
We're also settling in on the puzzles that populate Nemo's house, and that act as the gates between the different dream worlds. It's all coming together and is going to feel super adventure game-ish: we're super excited to get you playing soon.
The game is more or less broken down into two Acts. The first act being the more traditional Metroidvania style of exploring the world and unlocking skills and characters as you make your way to Slumberland, and the second act more exploratory and quest-focused as you track down the Nightmare Fiends. As you complete missions you'll gather Figments which will eventually open new pathways to the hideouts of the Nightmare Fiends. The story we want to tell has a natural break at the end of Act 1, after a rather shocking reveal.
There have also been lots of updates in Slumberland. This area has been a big project since it includes so many different unique biomes, but the work is very much paying off! Here are some editor shots from one of our favorite areas, the garden, and a hint at some environment art for other areas:
A shot of Slumberland's gardens
Leaf platforms in the Slumberland Gardens
A terrain for our challenge levels - the architecture is quite befuddling!
Artwork from Slumberland's military barracks
A potion thief! These guys are the bane of Doctor Pill in his laboratory...
We'll have more info about timing on everything soon, including backer rewards. Thanks so much for sticking with us as we chip away at the game.
Since we're getting close on our Act 1, we've made a decision to launch this into Steam Early Access as soon as possible so everyone can start playing while we work on the Act 2 content (which we plan on continually adding). We've put a ton of effort into this project and think we have something really special that we can't wait to share. As we said during the campaign, backers will all get access to this regardless of chosen platform. If you read game industry news, you know that it's not the same industry it was when we started the project. But where other studios have had to close up shop, we've been able to pivot and keep the project going by keeping a steady pace. We know it seems like a long time to the folks eagerly awaiting the game, but we've been able to make a lot of progress that we think you all will be very happy with.
Cheers and many thanks,
Ben and Team Nemo
February update - a big month of progress!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 28, 2025 at 02:43:29 PM
Happy February Dreamers,
This has been a big month for us, moving towards some major milestones that we hope we can tell you about soon. With some of this in mind, we're going to quickly run down some of the major developments that we're able to share.
Fleshing out the game intro
A big lift this month has been fleshing out the beginning of the game, where Nemo is going to have a nightmare then be awoken by Peony, who will guide him to Slumberland before his bed runs away and starts stomping through his hometown. Some of this is very work-in-progress, but our goal is to be able to walk front to back through the entire Act 1 edition of the game and have all the game spaces laid out, over having everything with polished art (again, more info on this mindset soon).
Without giving away too many details, here's a sample of some of what we've been working on (again, these have some art but are still a work in progress and do not reflect the absolutely final look or design):
Nemo's city will be a very short level right before he flies off into the Night Sky, and used to teach the player how to jump and attack
No ground plane yet here, but we're able to add perspective effects with the game's camera system
The game opens with a nightmare...I wonder where this is?
Who is this creature?
Challenge levels
Another lift has been creating challenge levels akin to the void levels in Astro Bot or the rifts in Kirby and the Forgotten Land - short, sweet, and focused on mastery of one or a few game mechanics. These will be used in some of the game's side quests. Right now, we've mostly focused on single-character levels, but we are going to continue expanding these to include multi-character challenges.
These are all currently in the "graybox" stage of design, meaning that they do not feature their final artwork - they will get appropriate set dressing when they are fully playtested and finished. We're also in the process of making triggers for things like making doors unlock when enemies are killed, etc, but this should give you an idea of how these areas will look from a design perspective.
CANDY!
Some of you may be looking at this headline like, "Wait...you already collect candy...what's the big deal here?" We decided to put in a fun Easter Egg by giving Nemo a candy attack if you press the attack button and up on the control stick or directional buttons. This won't cause a ton of damage to enemies and does eat up your candy supply, but it can be an option for players looking for a challenge.
Beyond this fun callback to the NES game though, candy is the game's currency, and we're also in the process of adding in Doctor Pill's shop to the game. Here's some of the art for it below:
The interface art for Pill's shop
Pill's shopping animation is more understated so that the player can focus on the items on the shelves
Monsters!
Are are also a few new monsters for the game, colored and ready for implementation:
That should be all for now - we're looking forward to sharing what we have in the coming weeks as we continue sprinting towards our next milestones!
Again - we know the game is taking longer than folks wanted, but we want to make sure we can make this the Little Nemo game that Nemo and friends deserve, so thank you for your continued patience. We promise that it will pay off soon!
Cheers,
Chris and Team Nemo
January Updates
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 02:06:34 PM
Hey there! It's Ben with a technical update. First up, thanks so much for checking out the Holiday build! We got some great feedback and have made a few small changes.
During play testing I noticed that folks were missing jumps, expecting the momentum of the jump to carry through in the air. When I enabled this in the Holiday build, I forgot to zero out the momentum when you hit the ground - this made things feel a little slidier than expected, but I just fixed it.
I've been hard at work getting in all of the upgrades and a more final flow in the game. You'll be able to collect your character upgrades, as well as health, stamina, and attack upgrades now. We're starting to sprinkle everything in and it's starting to feel like a complete adventure! I opened the house back up too, to start adding the hub world features.
Additional animations have been added for all the characters. Nemo (finally) has his combo attack in, and all the characters are being given a dash animation.
The next thing I'm working on is the Dr Pill shop as well as some other ways to use all that candy you've been collecting.
Chris and Adrian are meanwhile working on Slumberland and the game's opening on the rooftops of Nemo's town. Chris is buried under a mountain of art and animation to do, but we were able to find this archival photo of him during these busy periods:
We're going to be starting some very important sprints soon and ramping up with some development help. We're hoping to have more details why soon, but until then, we'll continue plugging away!
Cheers,
Ben and Team Nemo
Post-Holiday Holiday Demo - Santa needs your help!
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Jan 04, 2025 at 12:34:36 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
November Update: Slumberland, New Music Track + More!
over 1 year 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.
A small preview of the map as it looks now
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:
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:
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!
