July update - festival season wrap-up, technical shenanigans, and chill vibes in the ice palace
over 2 years ago – Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 07:09:02 AM

Hello dearest Dreamers,

Happy end of July! We have a big update for you today after our big festival period at the end of last month, so let's get into it! 

Steam Next Fest, Too Many Games, and GDEX takeaways

First of all, thanks to everyone who played and shared the game during Steam Next Fest. The positive reaction from players and from the press was overwhelming. We were even featured in the Next Fest livestream during the Exploration block, with the hosts all praising the game and putting it among their most looked forward to titles. In case you missed that, here it is: 

We also got a TON of great info on our feedback form, in the press, as well as on Steam itself during our appearance at the event that we've already been moving on, including cleaning up some of the platformer behavior and balancing levels. Thanks to the event, we also got several thousand new Wishlists! 

Here are some of the press highlights: https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/the-most-anticipated-nintendo-switch-games-of-2023-and-beyond/2900-4251/#17

http://retronauts.com/article/2086/steam-next-fest-upcoming-retro-lookin-games

For the in-person events, we likewise got some great reactions at the two events we showed at, Too Many Games in Philadelphia, and GDEX/Origins in Columbus. Here are some pictures of our booth at GDEX, complete with our Nemo's bedroom setup!

Also of note was that Nemo and the Princess were featured on GDEX's official shirt AND we won Best of Show for Art and Design - a huge honor among some of the excellent games also showing at the event. 

Overall, these events were super-successful for the game and gave us some great next steps to accomplish. We are hoping to continue our momentum on Wishlists, though, so if you have not already, please head to the Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends Steam Page to add it to your Wishlist today and share the link with your friends! 

Development Updates

Speaking of next steps on development, we're happy to share some of the latest:

The first thing we did post-festivals was postmortem some of the feedback we got on the game, squashing bugs and balancing aspects of the levels so everything flows better. We're hoping to get another backer demo out in the near future, but we think folks will like how the game feels. 

Another big development effort is that we will be migrating the game to a new version of the Unity engine. This is not necessarily something you all will notice, but it will allow us to utilize some newer tools that we've wanted to integrate for a while. This is a big process which will include modifying some of our pipeline, so please pardon our dust while we undertake that effort. Honestly, there's not that much visually to show of this, but here's a cool screenshot of some of Nemo's animation frames packed together (we're having to change over to a new sprite import system too) 

Lastly, we're also deep in the design phases for the Ice Palace and Slumberland. For the Ice Palace, we thought we'd share a small preview of one of the major sights in the level, along with composer Wayne Strange's  most excellent track, Jack Frost's Ice Palace. We hope you enjoy the chill (bah dum chh) vibes, especially if you're one of the folks experiencing a heat wave right now:

Last but not least, we are also working on implementing the cameos for backers at the $300, $500, and up reward tiers right now. We will be reaching out to those folks in the coming weeks with versions of your sprite so you can see how your characters are coming along! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out at [email protected]

Cheers and many thanks,

Team Nemo

Steam Next Fest starts today!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 05:50:23 AM

Good morning Dreamers! 

We're excited to share that Steam Next Fest begins today, which will feature our game Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends! This will include a free demo of the game (again, thank you everyone for helping us playtest!) and NEW LEVEL CONTENT from the Mushroom Forest! Nemo and the Princess will be playable in the demo, so we hope you join us at 10 am PDT for this awesome milestone! 

You can find more info at the Steam Next Fest page. The demo and info about the game can be found on the Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends Steam Page. 

In addition to the demo, we'll be doing developer livestreams of the game on Wed, June 21 at 7:00 PM EDT and on Thurs, June 22 at 9 PM EDT. Join us to hear about how the demo came together and some cool things on the horizon! 

Cheers and many thanks for your support!

Team Nemo

Steam Next Fest event trailer announcement and project update
over 2 years ago – Thu, Jun 08, 2023 at 08:24:08 AM

Happy June, dear dreamers! 

Steam Next Fest News

Things have been busy on our end, but we wanted to start this update with some news regarding Steam Next Fest! First of all, if you hadn't seen, Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends is going to be in Steam Next Fest, Valve's showcase of specially-chosen upcoming games on the platform. This means that everyone will be able to enjoy a public demo of the game during the week of June 19 (thank you to everyone who's been helping us test the latest builds and hunt down bugs, by the way!) 

The big news, though, is that we were informed by Steam that our game is going to be featured in the promotional materials for the event. This means that we'll be in trailers and other aspects of the promotion, starting with the trailer for this summer's Next Fest to be released today at https://www.youtube.com/c/SteamYT, which will premiere a few hours after this update goes out. 

Save system, mosquitoes, and a bit of history

In terms of game development, a lot of our attention has been ironing out features and building content for the Next Fest demo, which will be the build we take to 2 conventions that week: GDEX/Origins in Columbus, OH, and Too Many Games in Philadelphia, PA. This has included getting parts of the Mushroom Forest into the same state as the Night Sky area we've previously shown, as well as getting other systems show ready. Here's a taste: 

Here's a taste of a new biome: the mosquito caves! 

The caves have been something that we've been researching and concepting out for a while. As you know, we're reaching back into animation history with our game - not only the history of Winsor McCay and Little Nemo in Slumberland, but also works that came from or were inspired by McCay. One of the studios in this category is the Fleischer Brothers studio, creators of Betty Boop and the animators behind the original Popeye cartoons. The Fleischers were known fans of McCay's works and cited his influence in their own animation. In the late 1920's, the Fleischer's even hosted a dinner of New York's animation professionals in McCay's honor, during which McCay famously chastised those present for turning animation into "not an art, as I had envisioned it, but a trade. Bad luck!" 

In the 1936 short, Popeye the Sailor meets Sindbad the Sailor, the Fleischer's used a process called the "setback process" where models were filmed to be the backgrounds of various scenes, including a mysterious cave. We wanted to recreate imagery from the Popeye cave in a style that would befit Nemo's world as a way to acknowledge the connection between McCay and Fleischer's works. 

Speaking of mosquitoes, you'll also visit a mosquito farm, where the farmer has some creepy stuff afoot...

Again, that's just a small taste of what's been going on. We've also brought on some new hands to assist with work over the summer, so look out for that work to be featured soon! 

Cheers and many thanks,

Chris and Team Nemo

Late May gameplay footage
over 2 years ago – Fri, May 26, 2023 at 12:43:51 PM

Hello dear backers! 

We wanted to once again post a quick gameplay footage update. This is footage from our upcoming public Steam Next Fest demo that will premiere next month. We're still polishing things up, but we wanted everyone to see how some of the gameplay is going, including a taste of Peony's wall-hang platforming in the forest. 

We're hard at work on some new environment types as well, so be on the lookout for that in the coming weeks!

Enjoy! Thanks to everyone who's checked out the test version of the demo so far and given us feedback (see previous updates for info if you missed it.) Look forward to more in the coming weeks! 

Chris 

Public Demo
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 08, 2023 at 04:45:13 PM

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