Check out our Pre-Alpha Tech Demo! This demo will give you a chance to experience the core gameplay mechanics such as horse-back riding, exploring, combat, and puzzle-solving.
Press/Gaming journalist? Download our press kit.
Naima’s Melody (pronounced “Nye-muh”) is a 2D action-adventure game inspired by retro classics. In this game you will travel a vast world in search of answers to the darkness that is plaguing the lands.
Naima’s Melody is being developed for PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch platforms. (If we can meet the Switch platform goal!)
Background: What is Naima’s Melody? Thousands of years ago, the Great Goddess Naima left the world to remain in the Astral Realm for all eternity. Before she departed, she left behind a song that could be sung to call upon her power, if the inhabitants of the world were ever in dire need. She instructed four great guardian beasts, known as Songbirds, to become caretakers of the Melody. The Songbirds would remain in ancient temples across the land, serving as keepers of Naima’s Melody.
This is a game about healing. A great darkness has awakened in the world to spread its sinister influence. There are regions and people all across the lands tainted by this wickedness. One day while playing outside of their village, our story’s hero, Talis, discovers that his sister has suddenly fallen ill due to mysterious causes. After determining that it was her exposure to strange dark crystals that had appeared at a nearby cave, Talis sets out on a quest to defeat the darkness, heal his sister, and save the rest of the world from suffering a similar fate.
Talis is advised to travel the lands in search of The Four Songbirds of Legend. Each one must be sought out in the Four Great Temples, to sing Naima’s Melody, in order to erase the darkness from the world once and for all.
But our hero’s journey won’t be easy. A powerful foe has plans of his own…
Naima’s Melody is intended to have a large overworld that will consist of roughly 100-120 interconnected maps. Each region in the game will have varying biomes, and unique elements to set them apart. Planned regions include: Forest, desert, ice/water, mountains, swamp, and others. There will be unique characters to interact with, quests, and mini-dungeons in each region.
One of the standout features of Naima’s Melody is the horseback riding gameplay.
You will be able to ride the horse across the world, to make travel much faster and to provide a unique gameplay experience. Eventually, you will be able to whistle to get the horse to appear on the map and run towards you. The horse will also serve as an additional gameplay mechanic while exploring the overworld. There will be certain obstacles and hazards in the overworld that you can only surpass while riding the horse!
The game will feature a full day/night cycle system as well as weather cycles. During a normal day, you might see the shadows of clouds moving across the screen. Later, a rain storm could appear, and day will eventually turn to night bringing in the ambience of nocturnal creatures.
The gameplay significance of weather/time is that certain NPCs, events, wildlife, and even monsters will appear depending on time of day/weather conditions. The daytime gameplay can be described as a casual experience. However, when night falls, the monsters become much more dangerous…
Night time will be more of a challenging experience. For those who cannot handle traveling the world at night, there will be inns and campsites for the player to rest and fast forward time.
The bread-and-butter of Naima’s Melody is the action adventure battle system. You will be able to roll to dodge enemy attacks, block with a shield, and use various items to destroy enemies.
As you progress through the game, new abilities/items will be acquired to aid in combat.
In Naima’s Melody, you’ll be conquering 6 main dungeons, as well dozens of mini-dungeons. Dungeons are where your combat, puzzle-solving, and exploration abilities are put to the test.
(You can try out one such ‘mini-dungeon’ in our Pre-Alpha Demo!)
You can expect to face off against bosses as well!
There are plenty of items to be found in Naima’s Melody. Some will allow you to gain access to new areas, defeat certain types of enemies, or solve certain puzzles. Here’s a taste of what we have planned:
Magic Mirror: Allows you to warp to certain locations on the map.
Kusanagi: A legendary katana, known as “the grass cutter”. Allows you to perform an instant 360 sword spin that has the ability to project gusts of wind to knock back enemies or quell attacks.
Vine Whip: Pulls in enemies and objects so they’re right within your reach.
Shovel: Use this to dig up buried treasures and secret cave entrances.
Rifter: A scythe that can cut through time and space. What sort of things will you do with this?
…and MUCH MORE to be revealed!
We need your help, and we want to make it worth your while. Together we can reach new milestones! Share the game and retweet us on Twitter, make fanart, share the trailer, and this Kickstarter page to reviewers and press outlets to help get Naima’s Melody the attention it deserves.
The rewards are listed below:
We have been working on Naima’s Melody for about 8 months. What began as an experimental “zelda style game prototype”, quickly managed to take shape into a vision of a true project with its own identity.
Want to see where we began? This was the first prototype video released on March 1st, 2019:
With the support of the community, various artists, and developers along the way, we managed to evolve that first gameplay video into what we are presenting to you today.
$5 – The Villager: This basic reward level helps fund development and gets your name in the credits!
$15 – The Supporter: A digital copy of Naima’s Melody on a platform of your choice & your name in the credits.
$20 – The Bard: At this level you’ll get the original soundtrack, a digital copy of Naima’s Melody & your name in the credits.
$40 – The Artist: Receive a digital copy of “Song of Adventure: Naima’s Melody Art Book”, the original soundtrack, a digital copy of Naima’s Melody & your name in the credits.
$75 – The Rogue: Gain Alpha & Beta Access to Naima’s Melody while its in development, Naima’s Melody Art Book, original soundtrack, a digital copy of the game & your name in the credits.
$150 – The Tailor: A limited edition Naima’s Melody t-shirt, alpha & beta access to the game, Naima’s Melody Art Book, original soundtrack, a digital copy of the game & your name in the credits.
$350 – The Craftsman: Create your own character to appear in-game, a limited edition Naima’s Melody t-shirt, alpha & beta access to the game, Naima’s Melody Art Book, original soundtrack, a digital copy of the game & your name in the credits.
$500 – The Beastmaster: Create your own monster to appear in-game, create a character, receive a limited edition Naima’s Melody t-shirt, alpha & beta access to the game, Naima’s Melody Art Book, original soundtrack, a digital copy of the game & your name in the credits.
$1000 – The Merchant: Create your own item to appear in-game, create a monster, create a character, receive a limited edition Naima’s Melody t-shirt, alpha & beta access to the game, Naima’s Melody Art Book, original soundtrack, a digital copy of the game & your name in the credits.
$2000 – The Hero: Gain access to our dev chat where you can get directly involved in the behind-the-scenes of the game’s day-to-day development, create your own item to appear in-game, create a monster, create a character, receive a limited edition Naima’s Melody t-shirt, alpha & beta access to the game, Naima’s Melody Art Book, original soundtrack, a digital copy of the game & your name in the credits.
$5000 – The Grandmaster: Design a mini-boss to destroy our players! You’ll also gain access to our dev chat where you can get directly involved in the behind-the-scenes of the game’s day-to-day development, create your own item to appear in-game, create a monster, create a character, receive a limited edition Naima’s Melody t-shirt, alpha & beta access to the game, Naima’s Melody Art Book, original soundtrack, a digital copy of the game & your name in the credits.
Development: 35% of the budget will be used to offset day-to-day expenses as well as for any additional developmental support we may require.
Art Assets: 25% of the budget will be used for creating more artwork (sprites/tiles) for the game.
Sound: 20% of the budget will be used for composition of our original soundtrack.
Taxes: 10% of the budget will go towards taxes associated with the campaign.
Kickstarter Fees: 5% of the budget will go towards paying Kickstarter’s cut.
Backer Rewards: 5% of the budget will go towards support and fulfillment of certain backer rewards.
Nothing great in life comes without some risk. Game development in particular has many factors that need to be handled properly in order to make sure a project is successful. As this is our biggest undertaking to date, a lot of this process is one of learning and making mistakes. One of the risks that is of concern for us is that we encounter an issue during development that we cannot solve on our own.
Fortunately, throughout the entirety of Naima’s Melody’s development cycle to date, we have consulted with various people with more knowledge than us, to help with problems that came up. It’s important to be willing to reach out for help when you need it.
The team has experience with meeting deadlines for game development as we have participated in various game jams and contests in the past, but of course unforeseen events can always occur. We promise to always be transparent and upfront about any problems along the way. We encourage you to communicate any concerns you may have and we promise to listen, and take them into consideration.