The Girl from Arkanya | A pixel art treasure hunting RPG
Created by Arkanya Games
A top-down, 2D action RPG following the journey of an ambitious young treasure hunter and her capybara companion.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Halfway Update! 265% funded and 15 days to go!
about 4 years ago
– Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 12:41:04 PM
Hey again! I know we just had an update but today marks the beginning of the second half of our campaign! And I'll be honest with you, I can't believe its only been 2 weeks.
I don't have a ton to tell you about today, just wanted to give a status update for the halfway point. With our current estimates, it looks like both Rob and I will be able to work on Arkanya full-time for 10 months if we're very careful. Everything that isn't required to eat and keep the lights on is going to go mainly to paying our artists. By the way, if you can do large, detailed pixel art scenes in an anime-like style, hit us up! It's hard to say right now what exactly our budget will be, as our backers have been very skewed towards the digital rewards (which cost us nothing but our time) so we could end up with more than we thought.
That's all I have for you news-wise! Sorry, I know it wasn't all that exciting. But I have some more contest entries to show you all!
First up we have yet another entry from @dubniumgames
And another one from BulletPetit
And one from Hto, which has face portraits with it but Kickstarter is being really difficult about uploading images today...
And as usual, let's finish off with another kickstarter to check out:
This time we have Another Crusade which has just entered its final 24 hours! Dragonvein Studios, a team based in Mexico, is following in the footsteps of Super Mario RPG, and they recently passed their funding goal! They are very close to reaching their first stretch goal as well, but today is the last day! Give them a look: http://kck.st/3gE5Nan
That's all I have for you today, thank you once again and have a wonderful weekend!
-BeanBandit, Lead Arkanya Developer
First stretch goal reached, couch co-op is in!
about 4 years ago
– Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 06:19:18 AM
Hello again you phenomenal people, I once again have awesome news for you all!
Not only did we reach our funding goal in under 24 hours, we hit our first stretch goal later that same day! And as I sit here watching the ticker go up every few minutes, I'm realizing that we would very well reach our second stretch goal tomorrow, maybe sooner!
So let's talk about this first stretch goal for a moment:
This is something I've personally always wanted since I first played Four Swords way back when. It was a good game but I don't think it really captured the full potential of what a multiplayer Zelda game could be. So we're going to do our best to provide that experience, or the Arkanya equivalent of it anyway!
So you might be asking, won't this increase the scope of the project? And the answer is yes, but not as much as you might think. We actually have a sort of "secret" 2-player mode already in the game, from back before Kapi had any ability to act on his own and swapping characters was still clunky. For testing purposes, it was actually easier to put Kapi on a second controller!
The extra work is going to come from designing a camera that facilitates two players. I don't much care for split screen in a 2D game, but we may go that way. We'll have to see what works. Aside from that, we need to re-think how Kapi works.
At the moment, Kapi pretty much just moves. He can interact with several things like buttons and blocks and whatnot, and that's fine when you spend 75% of your time as Marisa. But it's not super interesting if that's all you're doing, is it? So how do we make Kapi fun to play as? Well, we have some ideas and we're hoping you'll all make suggestions as well! Right now we're thinking about having him share a health pool with Marisa, as well as some offensive and defensive abilities to play with.
I think our newest stretch goal mostly speaks for itself! Like many of our stretch goals, the ninth dungeon was something we'd originally planned for Arkanya and then cut due to being too ambitious. But with your support and a bit of luck, maybe we can bring it back! This will be a dungeon more challenging than any other, meant to be the highest risk but also highest reward content in the game. More on that later!
We'll be doing another big announcement tomorrow. You guys are gonna really like it, so please stop by! It involves prizes!
While I still have you, I wanted to share another game with you that I actually just recently learned about but absolutely love already!
It's The Kind Camomille and it's a super wholesome adventure game about discovery and random acts of kindness! Camomille is a mouse, which is like a very small capybara, but Camomille is pretty much human-sized so I'm calling this a capybara game!
Seriously though, The Kind Camomille is a relaxing, GORGEOUS open-world game where you collect goodies by helping others in need, and you use the goodies to fill a gift basket for Grandma Rosie's 100th birthday! It's a much more ethical version of Marisa's treasure hunting, if you really think about it.
Consider giving it a look! You won't be disappointed, seriously! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xaviermoiny/the-kind-camomille?ref=82in9y
Well this is getting long and we've got another one tomorrow, so I'll sign off now!
-BeanBandit, Lead Arkanya Developer
Another update, another stretch goal: 2 goals passed in 2 days!
about 4 years ago
– Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 06:17:54 AM
Well folks, it seemed like things were finally slowing down a bit. The Arkanya team was taking a breather, trying to relax a little after an absolutely wild couple of days. But project enthusiasm wouldn't stay down, and now I get to write about another completed stretch goal today! You folks are just incredible, your generosity and support continues to blow me away!
Before I dive into that, let's talk about what I mentioned in yesterday's update. A contest! It's an art contest but one that you don't need to be a skilled artist to win!
You might not know this, but The Girl from Arkanya lets you change Marisa and Kapi's outfits! So we're asking the community to help us come up with more costumes to include in the game, and giving out prizes for our three favorites.
We're providing an optional template for those who would like to draw their design over the existing sprites, but we'll accept entries in just about any format. Sketch it on a napkin if that's your thing!
We also have a color palette that you can optionally use, however please be aware that if you choose not to use it, we will convert your design to this palette before it is put in the game.
Last time we held this contest, we had problems with many people never hearing about it until either the last minute or after it ended, so please help spread the word if you can!
Alright, now let's talk about those stretch goals again!
We are absolutely killing it with these! Pixel art cutscenes is the one I'm most excited for, but I'll stick to the one we just completed: Dialogue portraits. One of the big complaints we've had so far about Arkanya is that it's often hard to tell who's saying what, especially since some of our dialogue involves 3+ speakers. The stretch goal says 64 x 64px but depending on where our funding ends up, we'd actually like to do full waist-up character art.
Now for the one we've just revealed: the free expansion pack! We have an expansion planned which will add 2 new dungeons and a new overworld zone to the game, plus a story and side quests to go with them. If we can reach such a tremendous goal of $40,000, everyone who backed the project will receive the expansion for free when it comes out! This expansion will take place outside of Amazonia and be our first adventure into the lands that lie beyond Arkanya! It's a big world, and one we're hoping we can continue to explore with you all.
Finally, I don't have another kickstarter to share with you today, but I'd like to show you something else really cool: Our in-game voice actress for Marisa drew a picture of Ari! Arkanya fan art always makes my day, and I think this is actually the first time Ari has ever been drawn outside of pixelart form!
Thank you all for all the support you've given us, and I hope you all have a fantastic day!
-BeanBandit, Lead Arkanya Developer
100% funded in just 19 hours! Now let's work on making Arkanya even bigger and better!
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Aug 05, 2020 at 12:55:55 PM
Just unbelievable. As I'm writing this, we just hit the 24 hour mark, and we've been 100% funded for over 5 hours now.
The community response has been nothing short of incredible! So many of you have done so much to help get the word out about Arkanya, and we're so grateful to be surrounded by such incredible people.
And to top it all off, we're less than $800 from our first stretch goal! I can't keep up with you guys! I know I'm not the only one who wants to sit on my couch with a friend and take on Arkanya together, so let's get that co-op mode unlocked!
You may have also noticed we now have a $22,000 stretch goal for pixel art cutscenes. If you've ever played Oracle of Seasons or Oracle of Ages, you should have an idea of what these will be like! If not, treat yourself to this:
If we can keep even a fraction of this insane momentum we've had so far, then together we can take Arkanya from an awesome game to an incredible one!
We still have lots of the "Design a capybara" backer tier left, so let me touch on that one for a moment because I think it'll be a fun one. In The Girl from Arkanya, there is a tribe of capybaras called Puru Puru. Puru Puru is lead by King Oli, and all of Oli's subjects are quite... eccentric. Those who back at that tier will be able to work with us to design a member of Puru Puru, choosing their fur color, creating an outfit (we love to put hats on capybaras!), naming them, and giving them a personality!
Design by David Martin-Bennett, @DubniumGames on twitter
Stay tuned, we have more big announcements on the way! Also, if you want more cute games starring cute animals, I highly recommend Neko Ghost Jump !
Don't let the cute aesthetic fool you, it's really challenging, but very addicting! You not only switch between 2D and 3D perspectives to solve puzzles, you also switch between physical and ghost forms, meaning these puzzles have a ton of depth to them!
The game has over 40 levels, an online leaderboard (which I sadly am not skilled enough to get on!) and an absolute TON of customization options so you can dress up your cat however you want. Maybe if we're loud enough, we can convince them to do a Marisa outfit?
They've also got plushies which, I mean, look at this thing
And tons of different ways for you to get your real-life pet featured in the game!
Their kickstarter is coming up on its final 48 hours though, so check it out while you still can!
Thank you all once again, for believing in us and supporting us in such an amazing way! If there are any topics you'd like me to discuss in future updates, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or message us! We'll respond to you personally at the very least, and it may become the topic of a future update!
