Coming up on the end of an incredible first week!
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 12:50:03 PM
At 2PM today our first week of fundraising will come to an end, and we are 190% funded. I can't imagine having another week like this one but if the next three weeks combined were as good as the first, we could hit every single stretch goal.
Now that things have slowed down somewhat, I've had a bit of time to devote to actually working on Arkanya. So what did I spend that time on? Well I'm glad you asked, inquisitiveness is an indicator of intelligence! We now have SNOW!
Hopefully before the end of the campaign we'll be able to show you every weather effect that will be in Arkanya.
Its also time to start featuring some of the contest entries we've gotten! First off, here's the contest info again:
From PetitBullet:
From Sparks:
From PetitBullet again:
And finally... from PetitBullet...
You probably noticed that 75% of those are from the same person, and while these aren't all of the entries we've gotten, about half the remaining ones are also from him. What I'm saying is that its stuff very much anyone's contest! So please get us your entries so we can feature them here and on our twitter!
I also have a bit more fan art I want to share with everyone, once again from our very own Pinkedalink!
There's a story behind this but its a bit hard to explain! The official concept art for Ari is just about done, so look forward to that soon!
And finally, I actually have another Kickstarter campaign to share with you this time! The game is Duru, and I was honestly iffy about it at first when the team contacted us. Its a game about depression, so my first thought was "well that's no good, we want to promote games that are fun and happy!"
But Duru won me over as soon as I watched the trailer. Unlike many games about unpleasant subjects, Duru approaches its topic in a more light-hearted way, through a cute but cruel creature named Bel.
I absolutely love this concept! Bel is kind of like Kapi, if Kapi just bullied you nonstop. Cool rock you got there Tuli, sure would be a shame if I KICKED IT!
The way the creators describe it, it's not meant to be a simulation of depression, but focuses on misunderstandings that can happen in everyday life when someone suffers from depression, as well as offering solutions for the people around them. The goal is to help those who may know someone with depression be able to better understand that person, and better navigate potentially difficult social situations. And I think we can all agree that's a pretty admirable goal, unlike Arkanya which just teaches you to dance and steal things mostly.
Anyway, please give their page a look, they explain their game so much better than I ever could and the trailer is super fun! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twisted-ramble/duru?ref=3jr7yv
Thank you all for reading, and look out for our next update later this week!
-BeanBandit, Lead Arkanya Developer
We have implemented our most important feature ever! (It's head pats)
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 12:47:51 PM
Good morning, afternoon or evening, wherever you might be! Spirits are high in the Arkanya community right now as we near the halfway point of the campaign. Despite the mid-campaign plateau, we've so far managed to keep every day's funding above $500. I say we, but really it is all you guys. We can shout about Arkanya until we're blue in the face but ultimately we can't make you click that button. So I want to once again thank you all for your amazing generosity and for keeping the Arkanya dream alive!
I almost decided to delay this update since we're extremely close to finally reaching our third stretch goal, the pixel art cutscenes, but we'll get that in the next update! Look for that one Tuesday! Today, I've got something even better.
Ever since we first revealed Kapi, I've gotten countless requests for this. I honestly fought against it (because it's harder than you might think) but I finally caved and here it is:
You can pet Kapi! I can't promise he'll like it though.
The real challenge is going to be making this work in multiplayer, but we'll figure it out. I would not deprive you of the ability to pet your friends!
Next, I want to share with you this amazing new pixel art from @flufflebear on twitter: https://twitter.com/Flufflebear
For those who haven't played the Arkanya prototype, this is from the scene where Marisa and Ari have their reunion and dance together in the forest. This is one of the most important parts of the story to me, and its so incredible to see it illustrated like this.
Today's gonna be a short one so let's finish off with some more costume contest entries. Side note on that: If you submit your entry now, you're pretty much guaranteed to get it featured on our twitter page or in a Kickstarter update. Last time we held this contest, probably 90% of our entries came on the last final day, meaning I couldn't feature hardly any of them. And that's a shame.
These are all from PetitBullet. I'm pretty sure he just does these all day but we love him for it!
Thank you all again and please have a wonderful day!
-BeanBandit, Lead Arkanya Developer
Halfway Update! 265% funded and 15 days to go!
over 3 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!
over 3 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!
over 3 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
