Monster Design Contest first entries!
about 4 years ago – Sun, Apr 19, 2020 at 10:30:05 AM

On April 9th we started our Monster Design Contest, where the winner can win a Collector's Edition and appear in the credits as "Guest Monster Designer" and make their monster appear in the game!

Entries can be submitted until the end on the campaign, on May 8th, then the backers will decide which monster gets in the game! You only have to draw your design and upload it on Twitter with the hashtag #SwordOfTheNecromancer.

Until now, we have 8 entries. If more people participate, we can give prizes even to those who get on second or third place!

You can check the original Twitter posts in this thread.

If you have already submitted a design and you have more ideas, don't hesitate to submit another!

When we have some more designs we will share another update with them so everyone can see. This is your chance to create a monster!

Kind regards!

First stretch goal reached! Onwards to the second! + third stretch goal announced
about 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 04:36:35 AM

Thank you all again for your support!

We reached the first stretch goal, and thanks to that we can have another pixel artist on board that will help us to make more monsters, more bosses and better animations in general! Yay!

Now let's go for the second stretch goal! If you remember, reaching that goal means we can include a special music theme for a very special moment in the game. This track will be composed by Dale North (Wizard of Legend, Sparklite, Nintendo Minute) and sung by Emi Evans (Nier Series, Drakengard, Dark Souls)

 Here you have a sample of one of their beautiful works (and this one has both of them!)

But that's not everything!

As we reached the first stretch goal and entered the second, it's time to unlock the third one! We would like to add a new mode that gets unlocked after you beat the game, but we had to leave aside for scope reasons: Colosseum Mode!

In Colosseum Mode, you'd start at level 1 without any equipment but the Sword of the Necromancer, and will have to break through waves of enemies that will attack you in specially designed closed rooms (no dungeon here). Every once and then, chests with items will appear for a limited time. After several enemy waves, a boss will appear and if you defeat it you will get an item with guaranteed great abilities that you can keep and store after the battle ends.

Colosseum Mode would be designed to be a test of skills and endurance, with harder-than-usual enemies, and playable in 2 players mode too (which will scale enemies to be even harder).

To make Colosseum Mode, we need more testers and help to design the arenas, which would feature traps and mechanics that are not in the usual "Dungeon" mode (be it during story or the "free" mode that gets unlocked also when you beat the game).

Colosseum Mode will be a reality if we get to 30,000€ and available in an update after the game's release (we will try to have it in the base game if we can). If we reach than amount, we will also gift everyone with a physical reward an extra pack of IR Cards and one special IR Card that we will detail shortly...

It's time to talk about other projects!

The people from Halberd Studios have an awesome Metroidvania in the works named 9 Years of Shadows, where the main character is also a brave woman: Europa!

Check it out and see this awesome work, inspired by games like Castlevania and Megaman where music and color has a special meaning! And talking about music, it features music from the legendary Michiru Yamane and Manami Matsumae, what a team! You probably remember Michiru Yamame from the soundtrack of Castlevania Symphony of the Night. SOTN, like Sword of the Necromancer!

But that's not all! We will have Europa's trusty weapon, the Stormheart as an available weapon in Sword of the Necromancer! In our game it will be known as "Europa's Halberd", to keep the reference to the original game it comes from ;)

You can see it in action here, it will be a very strong and useful weapon!

But... how will you get it?

Using an IR Code, of course! Europa's Halberd will be the first code we release after the game's release, and everyone who gets a physical reward will receive this Kickstarter exclusive IR Card!

Maybe it's a good time to upgrade to a physical edition!

2 Stretch goals reached, onto the next one! + Speedpaint by Seán
about 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 04:34:38 AM

As always we are super grateful to all of our backers! We have reached 33,500€ and that means that we have smashed two stretch goals!

Thanks to you, Sword of the Necromancer will count on the talents of Dale North and Emi Evans to create a very special song for a moment we can assure you that you will love!

Also thanks to Scarlet Moon Productions for this awesome chance to work with such music pros.

We have also reached the Colosseum Mode goal, which will be available after the game's release. But if we can, we will try to include it with the base game, we will work hard for it!

However, we have something to share with you. Since we decided to start this Kickstarter campaign, we promised to be as transparent with all our backers as possible. We have answered any question with honesty: if we can't do something we tell you beforehand, and if we face problems we will tell you about them too. We don't want to pull the wool over your eyes, we will be earnest.

So it is our duty to inform all our backers that we received an unusual amount of 8,500€ from a single backer who didn't even chose a reward tier. 

That was (for us) on the night of Saturday, receiving this amount meant that we reached the two stretch goals at once. We have tried to contact this backer, who is not registered on Kickstarter (they pledged as a Guest) without success. We have also have tried to contact Kickstarter regarding this issue but got no response.

If you don't know, it's not unusual on Kickstarter to have "Troll" backers that retire the pledged amount at last minute so they hurt the campaign, or even put a fake credit card so when the campaign ends we cannot process the payment. If that is the case, we might have to cancel the last stretch goal if we don't reach the total amount after "losing" those 8,500€.

So that's why we have waited until now to post an update. We are currently at 33,500€, which means that even without the 8,500€ of that backer, we would reach the 25,000 of the Song Stretch Goal.

If you are the backer who pledged 8,500€, please get in contact with us as soon as possible so we know you are legit. And if that's the case, thank you for that amount!

So, once this has been cleared out, we have to continue the campaign.

New stretch goal!

You know that Tama and Koko's backstory is told via some Visual Novel-esque parts, and VN usually have Voice Acting, so... What about we put Voice Acting in the game, to make those parts of the game even more expressive and touching?

If we reach 40,000€ we will have Sandra Molina Juan (SandraMJ) on board directing the English voice acting and casting for Tama and Koko. They have a lot of experience with Visual Novels with their game The Hayseed Knight, which is fully voice acted (and you can play for free!) and others like Nekodeito, Our Lost World - Beneath the Skies and Caladria Chronicles among others.

Help us reach this goal and give voice to Tama and Koko!

Also, if we reach this goal every backer (regardless of if they chose physical or digital rewards) will receive a bundle of Jandusoft games for Steam!

So now we were talking about the flashbacks in the game, meet our artist Seán-Lee (CasualMisfit), who crafts the CG illustrations!

 
Watch Seán working on an illustration for the game (speedpaint)

A few words from the artist:

"Hey! I'm Seán-Lee (Casualmisfit), CG artist for Sword of the Necromancer. 

I'm a character designer/illustrator and comic artist. I've also worked on Youtube series Dragon Ball RR primarily as a background artist and occasionally as a story boarder, character artist and editor. I write and illustrate my own web comic Legion: King of Kings and am extremely happy and excited to be working on Sword of the Necromancer!

Thank you all so very much for believing in and supporting this project! It's truly exhilarating to see all this support!"
 

Back to the previous stretch goal
about 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 04:33:39 AM

Hi again, and sorry for posting so much.

As expected, our "Troll Backer" withdrew their pledge as soon as we talked about reaching the stretch goals. So we're back to the Colosseum Mode stretch goal.

Thank you very much for your understanding.

Monster Design Contest + More Ultra Collector and Fan Editions available
about 4 years ago – Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 10:00:47 AM

Hi everyone! 

After the good reception of the project, and seeing that all Ultra Collector Edition pledges were all taken and Fan Edition is meeting the same fate, we have talked with both The3DHut and Boira Plushies and asked them if they could make some more items for those tiers.

Keep in mind that the "Altar of the Sword" figurine is painted and mounted by hand (it has movable parts) and that takes time and work. The Tama and Koko plushies are also handmade (with the help of an awesome embroidery machine though). So being this way, we cannot offer many units of these items because the people who make them have to meet the demand.

Anyway, after we talked with them, both have said they could make some more units, and thus we update the tiers to make more of them available for pledge! So if you missed them, now you have another chance!

We also are glad to announce the first community event: the Monster Design Contest!

Anyone, backer or not, can participate in this contest, following these easy steps:

Do you want your monster to appear as an enemy (and summon!) in Sword of the Necromancer? Draw your design and upload it on Twitter with the hashtag #SwordOfTheNecromancer, the best will get in the game & its author will receive a Collector's Edition!

Winner(s) will be credited as “Guest Monster Designer”! The more people participate, the more prizes we will give, even to those who get on second or third place! Also, try to put Tama in the drawing! (For scale purposes!)

You can check the Terms and Conditions here

Contest entries will be accepted until the end of the Kickstarter campaign (May 8th), then all the backers will decide which monster gets in the game!

Thank you very much!