Explore an unbelievable world, squeezed into the bizarre interior of a seemingly endless Castle. A 2D dark comedy puzzle-platformer.
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£6,248
pledged of £60,000 goal
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Explore an unbelievable world, squeezed into the bizarre interior of a seemingly endless Castle. A 2D dark comedy puzzle-platformer.
About this project
Download the playable demo from our website!
This campaign is now finished, but you can keep up with Perpetual Night on:
Facebook | Twitter | Steam Greenlight | YouTube | perpetualnight.com
Perpetual Night is a dark comedy puzzle-platformer with adventure elements, set in the bizarre interior of a kidnapping, trans-timensional prison Castle.
• Use your skill and smarts to blast through puzzles, centred around the Castle's light system. Find a variety of different lights and abilities to help you progress and unravel the mysteries of the Castle!
• Meet a huge cast of colourful characters which are intricately linked to your progression though the castle. You might help liberate a group of enslaved beings or cut a bargain with their masters. Choices may seem black and white but trust us, morality is warped in this universe and actions can have far-reaching, surprising consequences!
• Discover countless secrets over branching paths and multiple endings. Perpetual Night rewards players who experiment and explore. There's a lot to discover in the Castle, across several routes, and you can't see it all in one playthrough.
• Enjoy a world carefully realised through a painterly art style. We feel that this approach would be able to convey more emotion and detail, and hope that these softer, deeper visuals will be a refreshing change for our players. (Though we do love pixel art as much as the next indie!)
• Experience our groundbreaking and experimental Artist Residency Programme, in which artists of any medium respond personally to the characters and places of Perpetual Night. Part exposition and part art gallery, these artworks are hidden in-game as artefacts giving greater depth and lore to the world.
Evoking classic platformers but with a modern aesthetic, our game is visually dark but has real heart and humour at its core. We are carefully crafting a world brimming with secrets and stories just waiting to be discovered, spread across forgotten oceans, secret tombs, vast forests, beautifully bizarre places that defy reality and so much more.
We could talk for hours about why we love this project, but here's a quick summary of our key ingredients and inspirations:
Since before the beginning of time, a nameless Castle has been jumping through dimensions, ravishing whole worlds and abducting their inhabitants. Creatures great and small have been snatched from every conceivable place and put to work on random jobs within its walls. Now, a cloaked stranger awakens in its entrance chamber, greeted by an unnatural, glowing orb. Follow her and unravel the Castle's intricately woven sinister tapestry, whist discovering the stranger's past and future. Did the Castle capture her, or did she capture the Castle?
Gaze is the protagonist of Perpetual Night. The Castle's latest victim, the game start with her capture. But there's more to her story than meets the eye. As the game progresses and you gain glimpses into her past, and begin to unravel the strange truth about her arrival in the Castle.
Since arriving in the Castle, Gaze has gained a strange affliction - whenever she steps into the Light emitted by the strange objects of the castle, she undergoes a painful transformation into a shadowy, etherial being.
While transformed she weighs far less, and so she can jump higher, run faster, can climb light crystals in the wall with ease. But is it a gift, or is it a curse? Lacking the strength of her physical body she can no longer pull levers, push boxes or climb ladders. Plus she just generally looks kind of angry!
The gameplay of Perpetual Night centres around the many types of Light, bursting out of parts of the Castle. Here are a few of the most important ones, but who knows what else you'll find...
Transform Light
The most common of the Lights, Transform Light is found throughout the Castle. While in contact with this Light, Gaze will transform into her Shadow Form. Luckily for her, all she has to do to get her body back is walk about again!
Buildup Light
Buildup Light allows Gaze to stay in her Shadow Form even out of the light for a few precious seconds. Use them wisely!
Death Light
Inside the strange universe that is the Castle, it is technically impossible to die. However, that doesn't mean you can't painfully be disintegrated by Death Light! What's in a name? We personally wouldn't touch the stuff.
Along with Tractorbeam Light, Heavy Light, Checkpoint Light, Revert Light, and many more, we hope you'll enjoy learning how to use their strange properties to your advantage!
So far we've emptied our minds, hearts and generous portion of our personal savings into this project. It's been a tremendous effort to get it this far, but trust us when we say we have so much more energy to put into this game.
The demo that we have been showing at expos (and can be downloaded here) is an early prototype. This means that although everything about it can and will be improved by release, the framework is nicely in place, ready for all the bits and bobs to fit into it. All we really need is the financial support to create them.
We have so, so much more to give to Perpetual Night; new characters, puzzles, incredible places and stories to tell. All this is tucked away in our mind-vaults, ready to be transcribed into reality and straight to your fingertips, eyeballs and entertainment-hungry brain boxes... Our estimate is that it would take a bit under a year to finish the project. All we need now is the means to do it.
That's a great question. We are Kickstarter enthusiasts and between us have backed over 20 projects! We have seen wonderful games, films and much more come to life through your generosity. We know that getting funding from Kickstarter is about so much more than the money, but also the community. From the start the spirit of collaboration has been strong with Perpetual Night, and we can't wait to see where your input will take us.
This project has been an ambitious one from the start and has gradually grown in scope. We've worked incredibly hard up until now to improve every aspect of the game, and we really hope that this dedication shines through. But as strong as our passion burns, it can't buy us food and shelter. Kickstarter has enabled for some incredible games to be made, and its all down to brilliant people like you, who are willing to have faith in projects like ours. We hope to repay that faith with an incredible gaming experience.
So where would the £60,000 go? Besides keeping the core team alive and working full time, the funding also will cover animations, music and sound, legal fees and more. It may sound like a lot of money, but believe us when we say it will be no life of luxury. Once all the various factors are taken into account, it doesn't even equate to the UK minimum wage for the core team! Such is our dedication to Perpetual Night, that we would happily settle for this to have the chance to bring this project to life.
Armed with the skills to deliver the thrills! Let's meet the dev team:
I've been working as an artist, specialising in surrealist narrative and visual form for over six years. Now I'm applying this experience to game design and development.
I'm a digital painter who has long dreamed of working in the games industry, creating games since I was 10 years old. The success of this Kickstarter allowing me to continue working on Perpetual Night would mean the world to me. It would also mean I can finally afford to replace my hole-ridden shoes...
Kickstarter Profile | Twitter | deviantArt
I am the game engine creator and I have worked for many years on numerous games and apps projects. My most recent project is a quick-fun iOS game titled TaptapBadger.
Chris Harris is lending his excellent animations skills, kickass enthusiasm, expo support and more to the project.
The amazingly talented sound and music wizards at NoiseHook (Richard Vanryne and Matt Hayhurst) are creating an outstanding soundtrack ranging from mysterious ambience and quirky character themes to epic battles and experimental wailing.
Homepage | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud
Risks and challenges
For a young and small team, this is an ambitious project. We believe that we're up to the challenge, and we hope that what you've seen gives you a glimpse of what we can achieve if we had the resources to work on the game full time.
It's no secret the world of indie game development can be a difficult place with many hurdles. If this campaign is successful, that would arguably be the biggest hurdle cleared. As we spend the next year creating Perpetual Night, anything could happen to us, and with such a small team, it would be difficult to cover for each other. But we will not rest until this game is delivered!
In all honesty, we do believe that with our passion for Perpetual Night, the support from you wonderful backers, and help from our friends and family, we will be able to complete a game that we will be proud of, and you will be proud to have helped us create.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
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Funding period
- (31 days)