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:
News Update: Publishing changes, release date, console ports, and more
8 months ago
– Wed, Jul 02, 2025 at 09:42:38 AM
Hey guys, back with another update! The last few months have been quite chaotic for Arkanya games and now I’m returning to you with both good news and some less than good news.
Since Kickstarter no longer allows me to upload gifs, and I like to have some visuals with our updates, I’ve recorded this update in video form for those who would like to view/listen to it that way. I’m a little bit more ramble-y in the video version, so if you want to just get straight to the point, there will also be a written version below.
Recently, we decided to part ways with our former publisher. This decision was due to a disagreement over the future of The Girl from Arkanya, and both parties agreed it was in our best interests to end our partnership on good terms. After much deliberation, we have chosen to move forward with self-publishing, rather than seeking a new publisher.
This primarily means two things:
First, we are now free to release The Girl from Arkanya whenever we wish to do so. And we do wish to do so! We are currently preparing a release date announcement, which will happen some time this month. The exact date is still being worked out, as we’re trying to figure out the optimal timing (we’d like the game to do well, after all) but we know roughly when it’s going to be, and it’s probably sooner than you think!
That said, this first release will be Steam-only. I know that’s not what a lot of you would like to hear, but it is unfortunately the only way. Due to the split from our publisher, we now must negotiate a new porting agreement with a different company, which will take some time. Console versions are very much still in the works, but I cannot currently say when they will be complete.
Still, I believe this is entirely an improvement over our previous situation. Very little progress had been made on porting The Girl from Arkanya to consoles, and there was nothing I could do about that. Previously, we were required to release on Steam simultaneously with the console release, which effectively meant that PC players would be pointlessly waiting as we sat in queue behind other titles which needed ports as well.
Now, we can release the Steam version as soon as we are ready, and we are very close to ready. It is debatable if this turn of events has slowed down the console releases much at all, but it has most definitely sped up the PC release.
For those of you who wish to now switch your orders from console to PC, we fully welcome you to do so! Please message me here on Kickstarter or at [email protected] and we will get you squared away! For those who are limited to console play only, and will have to wait a while longer, all I can do is offer my sincere apologies and say that we’re currently brainstorming ways we can improve the situation.
Here’s a (relatively) simple breakdown of what’s going on:
Q&A Q: When are you announcing a release date? A: I will most likely be announcing a release date this month (July), even as early as next week. I’ve been delaying it to see if we could line it up with a big Steam event, but the timing hasn’t worked out on any of them, so I’m really close to just sending it.
Q: When is the game coming out? A: Steam release will be Q3 of this year. Think late August or early September, although there is one scenario (still waiting on more info for this) where it could be early August.
Q: What about Console versions? A: At this time, I do not know when console versions are coming out. Efforts are being made to find a new partner who can port Arkanya to consoles, but this will take some time. Unfortunately, it is simply not possible for me to port this game on my own. I will give you updates on this situation whenever I am able to, but right now all I can do is say that I am terribly sorry and ask for your understanding.
Q: I ordered the console version of the game. Can I switch to Steam? A: Absolutely! Just shoot me a message over Kickstarter, or email me at [email protected], and I’ll get you squared away.
Q: How will we receive our Steam keys? A: Some time before release I will upload the keys to Backerkit, at which point one will be emailed to you. If you no longer have access to the email you used to sign up for Backerkit, but you can still use Backerkit, then the key should be possible to access from your Backerkit account.
Q: If the game is done, why not release it right now? A: Unfortunately, it’s not 2011 anymore, and the days when you could just put an indie game up on Steam and expect sales are long gone. Marketing a game is very difficult, especially since I now have to do it all by myself. In the weeks leading up to release, I will be preparing new marketing materials, as well as contacting content creators who play indie zelda-likes to get more coverage on the game.
Q: What about our backer merch? A: We are still working out the logistics on this one. Previously we believed we would have publisher support for reward fulfillment, but as we are now without a publisher, the task falls entirely to Arkanya Games. And because I have never done this before, it may take some time to work out all of the resources and information I need to get you the items you ordered. As with console ports, I will continue sharing info about this whenever I am able.
I’ll be quite busy preparing for release in the coming weeks, but rest assured I will share all major news here as it comes up. By the way, if you happen to know of any streamers or youtubers who cover games similar to The Girl from Arkanya, please let me know in the comments so I can reach out to them!
That’s all for right now. See you soon for the release announcement!
-BeanBandit
Quick update (before the real update)(game is done btw)
11 months ago
– Tue, Apr 08, 2025 at 12:46:23 PM
Hi guys! Please forgive me for being slow to get back to you. I thought I'd have a ton of free time once the game was done, but it turns out I don't.
Oh yeah, the game is done by the way. We handed it off to our publisher about two weeks ago. Except for the credits, I still have to go back and finish the credits sometime soon. But otherwise, we're fully in QA and porting now.
As I said before, I am going to do a pretty long post-mortem about the game development, and the game will be available early for all of our backers on Steam (not possible for other platforms, I'm sorry to say) but I'm still trying to get all of that sorted out. Gotta make sure the entire game is stable enough, and get achievements set up on Steam.
Sorry I can't give you more today. Just wanted to keep you all in the loop and let you know that we did finish, I just never got around to saying anything here.
I don't know exactly when the longer update is coming but I'm going to start working on it this week. Thank you for understanding!
-Bean, Arkanya dev
Just a little bit left...
12 months ago
– Mon, Mar 03, 2025 at 09:40:59 AM
Holy moly I've been busy! Finishing a game is really hard, as it turns out. It will be done this month though! Current goal is March 17th, I'll let you know if I hit that target or not.
Time to consult the charts! So last time on Dragon Ball Z, we had just finished minor cutscenes and museum logs. This was right after a particularly miserable day I spent waiting for ELEVEN HOURS in the lobby of a conference center in Chicago, but at least I got a ton of writing done that day.
Now here's the updated chart as of today. You can see that major cutscenes are also gone now, having been finished about two weeks ago. However, NPC dialogues and journal entries remain largely unchanged. This is because I've been focused on fixing critical bugs, so that our testers can give better feedback.
You can also see that I've added a new slot for active bug reports. This is more just for the sake of entertainment, as this number can go up or down at any time, and only counts bugs we've actually discovered, not every bug in the game (because we can't know what we don't know!) so please don't take it too seriously!
Interesting side note, the final cutscene of the game took me almost 4 days to make, and is over 3 minutes long without counting the time it takes you to read the dialogue. So many moving parts! Part of the reason it took so long is because I personally decided to draw a portrait for a character who wasn't originally going to have one. I can't tell you who that character is, because it would be a major story spoiler, but Kale said I did a good job!
Speaking of Kale, we had another holiday doodle for Valentine's day:
Alright, time is very short so I need to get back to work! Before I go though, please check out this new Zelda-like gem that just launched on Kickstarter! (You know I gotta support my fellow zelda-like devs. It's rough out there!)
Isle of Reveries
Isle of Reveries (kickstarter link here) is a project that first and foremost impressed me with its art style. At least 3 pixel artists have contributed to the project, and I'm only a little bit (a lot) jealous.
You can also play a free demo right now on Steam, assuming you can put down Monster Hunter long enough to try it:
The stand-out mechanic in this game is that the main character, Leif, has a fairy which can copy and duplicate items found in the overworld. While that might sound like it was inspired by Echoes of Wisdom, I'm pretty sure this game predates the Echoes of Wisdom announcement by quite a bit. So, more just a funny coincidence!
But unlike Zelda in Echoes of Wisdom, Leif is completely capable of combat, and has his own arsenal of items to use!
As of my writing, the project is currently sitting around 10k out of its 25k goal, and that's after just one weekend of being active. Really solid start!
Please consider giving this project a look and see if its something you want to support. And try the demo! It's fun!
The return of Arkanya KS Updates
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Feb 04, 2025 at 08:30:18 AM
Hey guys! It's been awhile, huh? Though development on Arkanya has been ongoing this entire time, there hasn't been any actual announcements to make since our last update, and things have been a little difficult on our end.
However, despite the difficulties, we're currently 5-6 weeks from finishing internal development. Meaning that's the point where we'll hand the full game off for final QA and console porting. I planned to wait until that time to do a huge update along with something of a post-mortem, but I was asked by our publisher to start making regular updates again. So I will do my best to keep you all in the loop from here on.
First, many of you may remember that we had previously estimated finishing development in the first half of last year. It's hard to explain exactly what happened there, but please know that we did our best to achieve that. Things simply did not go our way. That, and I probably overestimated what we were capable of in that time. Keep in mind that we are creating a game larger than Minish Cap in many ways, with only a single full-time developer and two others who have extremely limited time to offer, and a small budget that ran out years ago. With that in mind, I hope you will forgive us for failing to meet our previous time targets.
So now I'm telling you we're roughly 6 weeks from finishing development, but why would you believe that when all of my other estimates have been wrong? Seems like a fair question. Fortunately, as those of you who follow our social media know, I've been publicly tracking my progress towards completion for the last two months. So let's look at how things have been moving along recently.
First, here's where we were in early December:
And then this is what we were looking like at the beginning of the year:
And finally here's where we're standing today:
The final three cutscenes are going to be a bit heavy but typically a big cutscene takes the better part of one work day, so these might take up to two work days each on the longer end. We can expect all of these to be completed by next week.
Once those are done, the only content left is mainly filling in various npc dialogues and side quests. There are also many bugs with co-op that must be addressed. Maybe I can start adding a bug counter to the checklist releases since there's a lot of space freed up on there now? I'll have to think about it though, because seeing the bug number go up (by a lot) sometimes might freak out people who don't know a ton about game dev.
Once all of this is complete, the game will be passed off to our publisher for quality assurance and console porting. At this time, there is no concrete timeline for how long that part will take. However, what I would like to do at that time is give everyone who purchased the game access to the Steam beta, regardless of what platform they purchased the game for. This beta will include the full game, and should remain available until the console versions go live. Unless I get told that's not allowed, that's the current plan going forward.
With all that out of the way, it wouldn't be much of a KS update without some game content. So readers beware, many gameplay spoilers lurk below. No story spoilers though!
There may still be some minor changes to the abilities showcased in the video. For example, I have often gotten feedback that the Solar Dance attack is too small. While recording this video, I REALLY felt that. Unfortunately, increasing the size involves re-drawing the sprites, so it hasn't been updated yet. However you can look forward to the improved version in the final game.
Let's plan for another Kickstarter update roughly 3 weeks from now, so I can show you all the finished checklist and tell you how bug fixes are going.
One final thing, I would like to share some fan art with you, both old and new. DakotaDraws has created a sequel to his "WHAM" art, depicting the beginning of The Girl from Arkanya.
The original:
The sequel:
Also by DakotaDraws, we have an ominous encounter with the Kurupira
Thanks everyone, and I'll see you all next time
-Bean
Major issue with the demo - Now resolved! (I'M SO SORRY ;_;)
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 01:04:15 PM
Yesterday, when we released our new Demo, the version which was released was an older build - Approximately 2 weeks old - which was not meant to be given to players. It has since been replaced with the proper build, which you can get by updating the game.
For anyone who experienced issues with the demo or was not able to have the best demo experience due to this mistake, I sincerely apologize. I am absolutely kicking myself for the oversight.
For those of you who already played the demo but would like to experience a better version of it, today's update included the following changes:
-Better stability for Co-Op play -All placeholder dialogue now correctly replaced with real dialogue -General balancing changes to gameplay -Additional side quest which streamlines the process of obtaining sword upgrades -Side quests for the library and the museum -A variety of minor bug fixes
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. -BeanBandit, Arkanya Dev
