About this project
$35,764
488
Thanks for joining us on our journey. We will keep in touch and post our progress on our website and Facebook. We look forward to playing with you soon!
http://www.facebook.com/imaginarygames
http://www.imaginarygames.ca
Is this your first game?
Afterland is actually the 4th mobile game that we have brought to market. Imaginary Games was founded in 2009 under the name Deadbug Games and our last two games were Space Boss that placed second in the Swedish Mobile Game Awards and Swing the Bat, published by Chillingo.
How will the funds be used?
Hand painting a card game is simply taking more time than it would to make digitally. We are on track to release a beta of Afterland with 15 performing families in just 2 months but we will need funding support to make new paintings of heroines, freaks and misfits to add to the game. We would also love to work with a writer and an animator to make our grand vision of Afterland a reality.
Where are you in the development process?
Elin and I have been working on designing and painting Afterland for over 1 year. With the help of an incubator called the Execution Labs we began full time production 6 months ago.
What is Execution Labs?
The Execution Labs, co-founded by Jason Della Rocca ( former director of the IGDA ) was created specifically to help small teams develop innovative mobile games.
Rewards
Afterland Art Book!
Full color beautiful art book. Be the first to read the secret background stories of all of the characters and performers in Afterland. Featuring 75 paintings from Elin Jonsson and Megan Majewski. Each copy is numbered and signed by both artists!
And it just got better! The art book will now include 5 new characters from the gorgeous game called Contrast, coming to PS4 this fall. How is this even possible? Thanks to kindred game making spirits Guillaume & Whitney from Compulsion Games.
( we will update you with the new page count when it is finalized )
In the game you travel from town to town and give performances to charm an afterlife audience. On the road you find new characters ( cards ) that join your traveling caravan. You are also looking for fragments of your existing troop's souls that can be stacked and their abilities grow stronger. Almost all of the cards in Afterland can be found on the road or by combining family members in a process called fusing.
That being said, there are some elusive characters that are darn hard to find. They also have some pretty great tricks up their sleeve. The 3 reward decks will instantly supercharge your caravan deck with some of the rarest performers with amazing abilities.
Great performances are made by collecting members of the same family. They create a synergy when they are on stage together and give players the ability to customize their playing styles. The Fool deck is guaranteed to have several members of the Fool "family", the same for the Misfit family and the Freaks.
Note: the Freak Deck was renamed FREAKS! so that we could add 2 bonus items. FREAKS! will give you the opportunity to be part of the game's beta test. We are also proud to be able to include a digital download of an original dark circus music soundtrack made for Afterland by award winning composer Brian D'Oliveira. ( Papo & Yo )
Awesome!( There are more cards in the packs than the ones shown below )
The Fool Deck
The Misfit Deck
FREAKS!
8" by 10" Alice in Afterland Art Prints!
Alice in Afterland Heirloom Pendant
Afterland
Afterland is a unique, free-to-play mobile card game in development about a carnival of magical misfits searching for their lost souls in the afterlife. The game will first launch on iOS in the late summer of 2013, followed by an Android launch in early fall.
Cards are hand-painted by artists Megan Majewski and Elin Jonsson, whose style has been described as Tim-Burtonesque with a female twist. Gameplay is an exciting fusion between a Japanese style collectible card game (CCG) and a social turn-based game like Draw Something.
We've spent the last year creating this wonderfully dark and quirky world while distilling our gameplay. We're nearing the end of our prototype phase and starting towards a production release, and this is where we turn to Kickstarter.
We have an inspired vision for Afterland that we would love to achieve through the help of the Kickstarter community. A dynamic soundtrack, classical animations, and progressive character narratives will make our characters dance and give our carnival a pulse.
“From what I’ve seen and played on their iPhone demo, Imaginary Games has a potential hit on
their hands. The visuals are outstanding, the universe that they’ve
created is whimsical and creepy-fun, and the engagement they are
planning to offer looks to bring a new social perspective to the digital
card game genre. I can’t wait to play the finished product.”
- Carey Chico
“The macabre paintings made for Afterland are a welcome addition to the gaming industry.”
- Jonathan Jacques-Belletête
Art DIrector, Deus Ex, Eidos
* A great new article about Afterland here:
http://www.ragingmouse.com/game-news/afterland-cards-and-gothic-daydreams-all-on-your-mobile/
Gameplay
Below is a flow diagram of how our Player VS Player breaks the mobile CCG mold with a 4 turn performance. It is simply more fun to play when you have the opportunity to respond to your opponent's cards and choices. Each player has 4 cards that are compared one at a time in a match that allows combos for family troops and cumulative magical stacking.
Below are wire frames that show what a player's turn will look like. The first step is to see your opponent make their move on the left. The UI allows a player to easily scroll through previously played performers to make the best strategy based on both player's cards. You will make your move on the right and always have access to view your opponent's cards by a simple tab system.
Each performer card has 2 core attributes: Skill and trick. Skills are compared to determine the best performer and only the winner's trick is executed to receive fame from the audience.
One of my favorite elements of the design in PVP play are the magic card boosters that can be added to performers. They are hidden from the opponent when they make their choice giving a great opportunity for goading and bluffing.
The wire frames below show a match's result that plays out before a player makes their move. Their stacked magic is reveale the skill is multiplied and compared and the trick executed by the winner.
Exclusive In-game Cards
Two special cards have been painted specifically for this campaign and will be exclusive to Kickstarter backers. The cards are My Misery from the Aristocrat family by Elin Jonsson and Peppermint Girl from the Candy Circus family by Megan Majewski .
Fine Art Prints
We are proud to offer you our fine art prints. The first print we have chosen for you had over 400 likes when we showed it on our Facebook page and was shared 115 times. The painting, titled RAE, by Megan Majewski has been shown in an art gallery in LA.
Rae - A fine art print of Megan Majewski's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
Adam - A fine art print of Elin Jonsson's original acrylic painting.
Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
Prima Ballerina- A fine art print of Elin Jonsson's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
Forget Me Not - Fan request. A fine art print of Elin Jonsson's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 8.5"x11" (including the white border).
Alice in Wonderland
Elin and Megan have been painting a beautiful Alice in Wonderland set to the Kickstarter backers. The five cards are: The Hookah Caterpillar, Alice, The Cheshire Cat, The Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts. You have the option to get the in-game cards, the prints or even the original framed paintings!
Alice in Afterland Fine Art Prints
Alice - A fine art print of Elin's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
The Hookah Caterpillar - A fine art print of Megan's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
The Cheshire Cat - A fine art print of Elin's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
The Mad Hatter - A fine art print of Megan's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
The Queen of Hearts - A fine art print of Elin's original acrylic painting. Print dimensions: 10"x14" (including the white border)
Alice in Wonderland Original Paintings
The Hookah Caterpillar by Megan
Framed original painting of the Hookah Caterpillar by Megan. (Acrylic on wood, 8"x10")
Alice by Elin
Framed original painting of Alice in Wonderland by Elin. SOLD!
(Acrylic on wood, 8"x10")
The Cheshire Cat by Elin
Framed original painting of the Cheshire Cat by Elin. (Acrylic on wood, 8"x10")
Mad Hatter by Megan
Framed original painting of the Mad Hatter by Megan. SOLD!
(Acrylic on wood, 8"x10")
The Queen of Hearts
by Elin
Framed original painting of the Queen of Hearts by Elin (Acrylic on wood, 8"x10")
The Team
Chris Powell
Designer
Afterland is the fourth mobile game
designed by Chris Powell. His last game, Swing the Bat was published by
Chillingo and his previous game, Space Boss was nominated for a Swedish
Game design award.
Chris began his career designing parks and
schoolyards in New York, NY. He went on to design websites, flash
applications, small games and motion graphics for organizations such as
NBC, the New York Giants, Nascar, Spike TV and the Beastie Boys.
A
social mobile game is the ideal platform for Chris’ unique experience
and training. He aims to make social games that are a place for a
community of users to meet and share an experience that will catalyze
communication, collaboration and sharing.
Elin Jonsson
Artist
Elin Jonsson's twisted tale of darkness and beauty is inspired by Pop Surrealism and Art Nouveau. Her work draws inspiration from Victorian gothic, dark fairy tales and, of course, the circus. Elin began her career as an illustrator for the largest bohemian music festival in Sweden called Peace & Love. Her personal love for vintage circus and all things french became the identity of the festival and was seen across Sweden in Magazines and Television.
Cody Django
Programmer
Cody is a programmer and kickboxer. He spends his time programming and kickboxing. Cody is from Vancouver, where he can program and kickbox in English, but enjoys living in Montreal, where he can program and kickbox in French. Cody has a cat named Captain, and he is responsible for the Afterland Server and Database. Cody is, not Captain.
Jongwoo Kim
Technical Designer
After graduating from Vancouver Film School, Jongwoo went on to develop mobile games for iOS at Fathom Interactive and Imaginary Games. He has become an expert at front end development and articulating and implementing complex solutions.
Megan Majewski
Painter
Megan Majewski's cute'n'creepy art shows a world of twisted bizarre dead girls, forgotten pets and other sweet but formerly living things. Megan's work can be seen in several fine art galleries in the west coast of North America.
Follow us
If you’d like to keep up to date with what’s happening during our Kickstarter campaign and beyond, follow us on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/imaginarygames
In the meantime, thank you for checking out our video and campaign! If you have questions, just ask. We’ll be happy to help with anything you want to know.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ImaginaryGames
Spread the word and help us make Afterland a success!
Risks and challenges
Successfully launching a mobile game comes with challenges. There are definitely danger areas to be aware of and avoid. Sometimes I feel as though we have made every mistake possible in our 3 previous releases. We have definitely learned from our mistakes and became a stronger team because of it, but the market changes so quickly there will always be risk.
For us, a successful mobile launch will be the result of managing risk. Some examples of this are:
* Making a playable prototype for testing and iteration early on in the design process.
* Launching a minimum viable product, MVP, tracking metrics and implementing user feedback from the community.
* Making the initial launch on a single platform.
* Building out modular code that can be refactored with minimal effort
* Working with an agile process that allows quick course correction if necessary
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
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Funding period
- (30 days)