Nefarious

So, Mastermind and Megalomaniac Tier backers have something pretty cool coming their way. For everyone else, we will try to open up a method to buy the poster separately. I also think the music turned out fantastic. Matthew composed something that deviates a little from the normal stage music. Here, give it a listen and let me know what you think. Ariella is a princess of the north, and the landscapes of her kingdom are covered in ice and snow. But the dwarves of Winterdown have always been a hardy folk.

To wrap this update up, I wanted to mention our composer Matthew Taranto just sent me a rough draft of the music for this stage. PaxSouth was our first time exhibiting a playable demo of our game, Nefarious, the game where you get to play a bad guy, and your objective on each stage is to kidnap a princess. The booth was graciously provided by our incubator program Level up Labs. The event was overall immensly positive. I had feared going into the exhibit that the days would be marked with our team sitting around as our game went unplayed. This was by far the biggest problem.

This was the root of our problem because it branches out to create the other obstacles we faced. There was no limit on play time. This ended up being a big problem. Throughout Nefarious we have various small goals the player can accomplish before they set out to complete the next. First, reach the princess.

Second, escape with her. Third, thwart a hero. It was a basic three act structure that was really keeping people motivated to keep going. Once you couple that with the fact that our game is fairly difficult; it was taking the average player thirty minutes to beat a stage. That meant someone would have to stay in line for an hour if two people were ahead of them.

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• Nefarious: Merchant of Souls | A Documentary on the Global Sex Trade.
• nefarious - Wiktionary.

This caused a lot of people to wait and watch, but ultimately leave. We needed to get the average play time down to five to ten minutes tops. What could we do to fix this? We discussed adding a timer that gave them an allotted time to beat the level. But then we decided what would work best is a convention only three-life system. That way it would let the player dictate the pace without adding an imposing restriction. If they died, they would feel like it was their own fault instead of being something they had no control over.

We only brought one station to play at. We thought a single station would be enough. But, during the convention I kept thinking how awesome it would be if we could accomodate more than a single player at a time. The math would add up really quickly. Simple fix, just set up a second place to play. You need to be ready for the ordeal of giving that pitch to hundreds of people in a loud room with a lot of background noise and what it will do to you.

Water at conventions is pricey. Bring your own twelve pack of water and keep it under the table and nurse it throughout the entire convention and pop cough drops as neccesary. By the second day your mouth will feel like the Sahara. But we should have had it on day one. Foolishly, I thought one hundred cards was enough. That was a mistake. We ran out of cards near the beginning of the second day.

We met tons of other exhibitors, press, streamers and even just fans who wanted to stay in touch. I now believe the magic number of cards needed is five hundred. With that many cards, we could have some left over when the convention is over. Nefarious is by no means complete. Considering our illustrated backgrounds and classically animated characters, it takes a while to get things done. So Instead of getting a quanity of multiple stages, we focused on the quality of a single stage and tried to ensure the complete experience could be found there.

It was our vertical slice, and our goal was to make it appear as though we took a section out of what must be a completed game. This sometimes meant creating the illusion that a system was completely implemented. When in reality our goal was to simply show what we wanted to do.

Such as our grading system for how well someone does in a stage. It kept track of how long it took to get through a level, how many times the player had to respawn. They just want to see what the game is all about, what it does and how it plays. Logistically, we were prepared. Theres a lot of little things that can go wrong with your booth space and we had answers for almost all of it.

We had a box that had everything we could possibly need to not only make sure our presentation was up to snuff, but also allowed us to be good neighbors with our boothmates and nearby exhibitors if they needed anything.

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Suction cup hooks, sharpies, vinyl rope, zip ties, duct tape, bobby pins, scissors, tylenol, and tums. We had all the basics. If someones sign fell down? Duct tape and zip-tie it back into place. Someone need an impromptu sign? Sharpies, scissors and duct tape. Have a headache from that PAX day one after party? We also brought ample snacks so we could stay where we wanted to be at our booth longer before needing to go to lunch.

Though I found there was precious little time to sit down and eat. They only had a laptop and a controller. We received several comments from people that they saw our banner and liked the art. It created curiosity and gave a very brief impression on what sort of game it was. I think having some kind of banner should be an absolute must-have. It also helps make your booth look less sterile, and more inviting. We had a way to let people know about our game later. We took down email addresses of everyone who seemed interested in the game.

With such a tight budget 50, from our Kickstarter nearly all of our funds go into development rather than advertising. We recorded our emails with old-fashion clipboard and paper. But for future conventions we will mostly certainly get a security cord for a tablet device and let people enter their email digitally. This would have saved us hours of transcribing several hundreds of emails with varying degrees of legibility. Spending money to save time is almost always a worthwhile investment.

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Pax was unique for us in a few ways. We were excited to hear our Kickstarter mates were also exhibiting. Game projects who ran their Kickstarters at the exact same time as us, that we had some cross-promotion with. We had all achieved our funding, and it was awesome to see each others games and attach faces and names to those projects. But we also networked with other studios. Many of which who are perfectly willing to share the contact info of their contractors, voice actors, artist, programmers. Therefore increasing the pool of talent you have easy access to.

In Conclusion So there you have our five things we did right and wrong at PaxSouth. Nefarious is the game about being a villain. Your goal in each stage is to kidnap a princess, and thwart a hero. Each princess has a different effect on your movement in some way. At the end of each stage we have what we call reverse boss fights.

Where instead of being the small hero fighting a big guy who takes up the entire screen. You become the guy who takes up the entire screen trying to squash a little hero. But at the same time, dissecting it, and really taking a closer look at it.

Nefarious by Josh Hano — Kickstarter

The ambient temperature around her can exceed degrees! Ariella knows two things: A warrior princess at heart, she's not a big fan of the status quo, and woe to any villain who thinks she can be easily swept away from her strict training regiment. Because we want to make this game specifically for you! We want to make the game you want, not the game a publisher wants.

We want to interface directly with you and speak to you during the development cycle. Our fans will be our top priority, which makes creating a fun engaging adventure our end game. Nefarious is a dream project that we've spent a lot of time on. We have beta tested several ideas and mechanics and made several iterations. Only after we ensured our core mechanic is fun have we decided to launch our Kickstarter.

Join us on a crazy adventure! Drawing cues from greats such as Earthworm Jim, we wanted to have classically animated characters with life and personality. Exploring this world should be fun! Throughout the game, Crow and the Princess will often banter back and forth. Nefarious will not have standard cut scenes, you will be free to move while talking to various NPC's. Not every opponent you come across is a hero attempting to rescue the princess you just kidnapped.

nefarious (adj.)

Sometimes, they just want to eat both of you. You're not the little guy jumping around trying to hit a flashing weak point. You're the big guy trying to crush the little one! We have a collection of awards that we can't wait to make! In this section we will briefly go over some of the goodies you can nab by making pledges. Many images seen here are mockups and subject to visual updates. Josh Hano is a freelance artist and animator currently working out of Baton Rouge. Inspired by games such as Earthworm Jim, Megaman and other classics, he's set out to create his own.

A game designer with a silly hat. By day, he makes games. By night, he also makes games. They say he has previously lived in China, Indonesia, and on the moon. He's an alumnus of the mysterious Game Creation Society.

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His credo is "Why are you reading this instead of making a game? Brad has been developing and animating platformers for almost a decade now. Best known for the series The Fancy Pants Adventures , Brad will be contributing animation and game design. Jameson is an experienced software entrepreneur with years of experience developing and shipping entertainment products. Most recently Jameson developed the mobile game Dream Flight , which received wide praise and honors for its unique style.

Jameson is also well known in the mobile development community for his work on popular apps such as PhotoGoo , Reactor HD , and his uniquely approachable writing about mobile software development on jamesonquave. The man with the musical plan. On Nefarious, Matt will be providing a host of musical ear candy. Who knew Villains and Tadpoles would get along so well? Good games need good sound design.

• nefarious | Definition of nefarious in English by Oxford Dictionaries.
• FINAL TWO DAYS: ALL $10+ Patrons will receive a Glow in the Dark Crow Pin!.
• Nefarious for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Game Details;
• Tell me more about Nefarious.
• Creative thinking!

Enter David Levy, composer of music and sound effects. Sound can really bring a project to life, and David is no stranger to the process. The biggest risk we face may be delays on production. As the project goes on, new incredibly cool ideas are bound to crop from us or our backers. And a good production is a balance of staying on target, but also being open to new ideas. We are asking for a tight budget to fund a skeleton crew of experienced professionals. In the event of a disaster we are willing to partner with a publisher in order to ensure a shipped project. However, we will do everything in our power to prevent that from occurring.

This game will be our life for a year and we will see it be the foundation of our studio. We could also be struck by lightning. The chance of an average person living in the US being struck by lightning in a given year is estimated at 1 in , We just wanted you to be aware. Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ. For the next 48 hours only! All previous rewards, the digital version of Nefarious, the PDF Instruction manual and the digital soundtrack!

All previous rewards, plus the digital art book that contains all the concept art and sketches made during development! Plus your name listed in the credits of the game! A great pledge for fans of Matthew Taranto's music and want something a few months early. Tadpole Treble projected launch: A wallpaper, the digital soundtrack, the PDF instruction manual, the digital art book, your name in the credits and a digital copy of Nefarious.

Select this tier if you are outside of the US. Let your voice be heard!

• Deine Kinder sind Deine Schuld!: Ein Ratgeber zur Erziehung verantwortungsbewusster Eltern (German Edition).
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• The Crisis of the 17th Century: Religion, the Reformation and Social Change (Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change)!

Send a message to Crow's answering machine which is accessible in-game. We'll play up to a 15 second message. If it's within reason A great way to get yourself in the game! If you pledged higher than the Siren tier, you may opt-in at no extra cost. This tier also includes a wallpaper, the digital soundtrack, the PDF instruction manual, the digital art book, your name in the credits and a digital copy of Nefarious.