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ALL game copies start at $10! (any platform/console). Console copies available even if the campaign doesn't reach stretch goals.
Add-ons: Game copy - $5 | Game + Soundtrack - $10 | Poster print - $25 | Physical Book of Knowledge - $40

CAN'T PLEDGE ON KICKSTARTER? THERE'S ALWAYS PAYPAL!

Update 14: We made it.. what now? Rewards, Stretch goals, Website, Livestreams.

Update 13: PayPal Support, Nathan's stream, Level Editor (video).
Update 12: Nathan is live composing music!
Update 11: Greenlight talk, Physical perks, Livestream, Gale.
Update 10: Console backers, GenGAME interview, Steam Greenlight, Knoll.
Update 9: All game copies at $10, New perks vote, Ember Beast.
Update 8: Add-ons / Ports explained, About NPCs, Shell.
Update 7: Definitive stretch goals, Video Updates, King Roy.
Update 6: New stretch goals, vote for your favorite console port!
Update 5: Future updates, Forest, Fish.
Update 4: Stretch goals explained.
Update 3: Stretch goals, Pike the dragon.

Remember, console copies are available even if we do not reach stretch goals! Read update 10 to find out why.

 Remember, console copies are available even if we do not reach stretch goals. Read update 10 to find out why!

 Midora (pronounced "mid-ora") is a love letter to the classic 2D action-adventure games, like The Legend of Zelda or Secret of Mana, that have frequented consoles and enamored audiences for generations. With a charming world to explore, new mechanics to learn and quests to fulfill all while hopefully tugging at your nostalgic heartstrings, Midora seeks to bring you the same tried and true feel of familiar titles, but with the grace of a new, modern experience, with in a beautiful, 100% pixel art setting.

• Fight using sharp swords and manipulate water to beat your opponents.
  
• Crawl through 12 unforgiving dungeons, each with their own challenges and boss.
• Discover ancient tools and forgotten magics to solve puzzles, some of them only available at night!
• Meet colorful characters and identify their roles, for even threats can help you on your journey.
• Collect, mine, fish, enchant, alchemize and craft over 200 unique items, from common food to potions with silly effects, from crafting materials to devastating runes!
  
• Journey on a huge map, from your village at the bottom of the map to the very top of a volcano, making stops in various cities and visiting the King's castle.
  
  
  

  Midora is a colorful world, crafted by an ancient architect with the elements as his tools. For an eternity after this creation, those elements populated the world, fashioning cultures and kingdoms all their own. They contested each other for land and prestige, and when the world was finally overwhelmed by the strife, the architect came back down to seal the elements away, preserving the world for its lesser inhabitants.

  This harmony lasted for centuries, until even the eldest tribes had only vague memories of the conflict and its participants. The town of Seawind will be the first to remember the Inferno in earnest.
 
  Enter Snow, the lead character of this adventure. A young girl growing up on the edge of Seawind, she embarks on what starts as just a simple chore, only to uncover the catalyst in a war as old as the world she lives in. On her journey, she will encounter help and obstacles in various forms. Elderly town matrons, kings, long extinct races, burly blacksmiths, and the living elements themselves will play a role in Midora's newest story, but it falls to Snow herself to see it to the end.

Combat

  Like in a lot of action-adventure games, Midora makes you fight and defend yourself constantly using common items such as sword and shields. While there is no leveling system in the game, swords and shields have their own attack/defense level, making it easy for you to determine which is best. Some stealth elements will be implemented to allow you to sneak behind enemies and deal critical damage. But that's not all you're going to do!

  All 12 dungeons of the game have their own unique item, and each of these items have many functions. While we're not going to spoil all the fun, here are two essential items that will help you on your journey:

The Wind Fan allows you to cut bushes, disarm enemies and goes back in your hand, like a boomerang. You can also make it carry items such as runes or bombs to throw them further.

The Vine Whip is used to push back certain types of enemies, but can also be attached to different objects to pull them or even throw yourself on the other side of a cliff.

Magic

  Snow, our hero, can manipulate water at will. Even though she's not the best at it, she will get better. You start by generating small water attacks such as water "bombs", but later on have the ability to generate more water and control your attacks, such as stopping water in mid-air and making it rain on your enemies, or even throw more water onto it, making your water bomb bigger and bigger.

Water also plays an important role during the entire game because it interacts with a lot of things. A good example would be magic runes. Some runes can be crafted, but some have to be found. Some runes are activated by dropping water onto them, some can be combined with existing water around the place. Imagine a puddle of water on the ground. A group of enemies walk over it. What do you do? Throw a shock rune in the puddle of course!

Alchemy

  There are a lot of ways to get items in the game, and one of them is by doing alchemy. You will be able to gather ingredients from all parts of the world and combine them into potions, once you find the correct recipe, found in recipe books. Here's an incomplete list of effects from potions:

• Health Regen
• Double your speed
• Iron skin (immune against most projectiles)
  
• Smoke bombs (to sneak up on enemies!)
• Fire immunity
• Invisibility

  As you can see above, our bomb is actually done via alchemy. You can buy bombs in shops, but also create them yourself. And they're very effective on spiders.

Enemies

  The world of Midora is filled with many different monsters. From weak spiders to big bosses, your journey will progressively become harder and harder. But with the right mind and the right items, any battle can be won. And remember: the bigger they are, the harder they fall!

Exploration

  Starting at the edge of the map near the Great Sea, Snow will journey through a total of 6 villages and cities, the King's castle, 12 dungeons, mountains and forests, swamps and even underground to reach the end of her mission. Like in most 2D Zelda games, our map is filled with secrets and will often require that you unlock certain items (most of them found in dungeons) in order to get past a certain point.

Items, ..

  ... items everywhere! With more than 200 items planned for the game, you will never run out of things to use or look for. We already created 132 of these items with their icons. Think you got a great idea for an item? Check out the Item design perk!

   We have been working on Midora for a little more than a year now. After finding the perfect art style for the game we wanted to make, we decided to create more than a game. Pixel art takes time to make, especially with a single artist on the team, so we took the time to create our own tools. Here's the technology we now use to create the game:

• Microsoft's C# is a popular programming language used by many developers.
  
• XNA is a set of tools from Microsoft aimed at game developers to create their game more easily. A lot of notable indie games (Bastion, Magicka, Terraria, Dust: An Elysian Tail) have used it.
• The Shaman Tools is our level editor. After a year in development, we can almost create the entire game with it. Tiles, transitions, occlusions and objects can all be placed on seperate layers, and we can load any map instantly with a Live Mode.
• Shard is our new baby, a scripting language already capable of many things. Quests, AI (Artificial Intelligence), NPCs, dungeon traps, and more are scripted through the editor thanks to Shard.

  We are aiming to release the game around Summer 2015, if not before. Both the level editor and Shard will be available after we release the game to allow you to create your own maps and challenges for the Arena Mode and share them with your friends. We can't wait to see what you will make!

   Epic Minds started in 2011 as a simple indie game development company under the direction of "Mhyre". We have grown steadily up to today, where we are 5 people developing our first game project. This is the team:

  Mhyre is Midora's creator, but also a web developer with experience in many languages. He started working on the project in late 2011 but, after successfully completing his studies in 2013, decided to work full time on it and spend all his savings to hire qualified developers and artists. He has been directing the game ever since and designed every part of it. However, when it comes to game development, the real competition is right below.

  Ian Zimmérman, aka "Zazzmatazz", is a Microsoft certified solutions developer with at least 10 years of experience. He has development experience in Wurm Online as a codeveloper with Notch, creator of Minecraft, under the pseudonym "Cryptik", and has created several high quality addon solutions for games such as Microsoft Flight Simulator X, ArmA II (Armed Assault), and EVE Online.

   Zhi is a talented artist from China with 8 years of experience, specializing in high quality pixel art, responsible for all the art found in the game. Few artists can produce the art style from games that inspired Midora, and the game wouldn't be as charming if it wasn't for him.

   Nathan Antony, a.k.a “Derris-Kharlan”, is a musician and composer from Melbourne, Australia. He is particularly well known in the chip music community, and composes music for video games for a living. Beyond his work in games, Nathan has given music workshops at ACMI in Melbourne, talked on panels at Melbourne’s inaugural Penny Arcade Expo, and been an actively involved member of his local game development community. Nathan has worked on many titles such as Dungeon Dashers, Time Surfer, Parallax and Francis, to name a few.

   Giorgos Christopoulos, aka “G-Chris”, is a freelance illustrator, cartoon artist and character designer from Greece with 5 years of experience. Continuously illustrating lots of pieces for various clients, he's also been illustrating logos for various local companies. He is responsible for the character designs, concept art and illustrations of Midora.

To see our team on a map, click here.

Note: all tiers include a DRM-Free copy of the game and all future DLCs for free (backer exclusive) + your name in the credits.

Add-ons: Game Copy: $5 | Soundtrack Edition: $10

$10  -  Hero
This basic perk gives you a DRM-Free copy of the game upon release and all future DLCs for free (backer exclusive) + Your name in the credits.

$15  -  Audiophile
This is the soundtrack edition of the game. You will get a DRM-Free copy of the game, all future DLCs for free + Your name in the credits + a DRM-Free copy of the Soundtrack composed by the great Derris-Kharlan. Curious what the music sounds like?

$25  -  Fighter
Feel like playing the game early and giving us your feedback? This tier rewards you with the standalone version of the Arena Mode (see FAQ), available 6 months before the full game. Includes a game copy + all future DLCs for free + your name in the credits + a copy of the game's soundtrack.

$25  -  Loremaster
If you're a fan of history and superb illustrations, then you might want to get a copy of the Book of Knowledge. The book of knowledge is a PDF containing all the lore, concept art and illustrations of characters, items and locations, all in one book.

$40  -  Fankit
This tier is a bundle of the two previous perks. Rewards include a copy of the game + all DLCs for free + your name in the game + Standalone version of the Arena Mode + A copy of the Book of Knowledge.

### From this point, all perks below include the Fankit tier. ###

$60 and $75 - Poster print and Physical Book of Knowledge
Both of these perks are a work in progress. We recently discussed them in Update 11.

$100  -  Narcissistic
This tier is the first of our limited perks. For $100, you will get all of the above + your own NPC in the game! All we need a picture of you and Zhi, our pixel artist, will take care of the rest!

 

$150  -  Crafter
Think you'll be missing an item in the game? Then why not make sure it will be in it? With this perk, you get to design one item and its function. All design perks are subject to creative oversight by our team.

$150  -  Quest Giver
Like to give quests instead? Then make one for the game, and choose its reward!  All design perks are subject to creative oversight by our team.


$300  -  Beastmaster
As weird as it may sound, Midora's fauna needs more monsters! If designing monsters is your thing, then go ahead! All design perks are subject to creative oversight by our team.

$500  -  Guardian
One unique opportunity to design a boss in the game with our team. All design perks are subject to creative oversight by our team.

$1000  -  Architect
If you feel safe in dungeons, you might want to attempt building one! With this perk, you will be in charge of all the rooms found in the dungeon, the traps and choose what enemies made it their home. All design perks are subject to creative oversight by our team.


$2500  -  Shaman
The ultimate perk. One unique opportunity to create the toughest challenge in the game with our team, including the dungeon, multiple enemies, the items found in it, the traps and puzzles AND the boss! Think you got what it takes? Show us! All design perks are subject to creative oversight by our team.

Why Kickstarter?

It is now known that Kickstarter is the biggest crowdfunding platform in the world. As game developers, we've seen it grow and watched a few projects while they were in development. Kickstarter is an amazing tool to both communicate, create a community and get people behind a project. Sharing a project is exciting. Even better when you can give the community the opportunity to build parts of the game with you!

We are independent game developers, working on a pure passion project. Without kickstarter and without you, there's a chance that Midora won't even exist. Two members of the team have quit their jobs to work on the game full time, and we believe people need to play our game. There is not only a story to tell with this game, there is history to make. As this is our first project, we would of course like to keep doing the same thing for as long as we can. A successful game would allow us to do just that.