LeonDaydreamer

Our Kickstarter wrapped up at 76% ~ we didn't quite reach our goal, but thanks for all the support over the past few weeks!

Hey guys! We’re coming down to the last hours on our Kickstarter Campaign. It’s been a wild ride, but we’re still only at about 60% of the mark, and will need a lot more support to reach our goal. Also, there is now a Russian version of our Prologue, as well - You can find it on our Itch.io page… you know, if you dig Russian. Please consider sharing and supporting our project, we only have a short while left on our campaign!

For our Kickstarter Update #10: Mysteries and Science Fiction in A Near Dawn - well, like it says, I talk about some of the mysteries and science fiction in our story! I also mention another of my major influences (can you guess what it is?).

We just posted a new update on our Kickstarter Campaign: Update #9: ANDROID For All! The gist of it is that all our backers on Kickstarter at and above the Early Wakeup tier will receive a complimentary copy of the game on Android (for themselves or a friend) in addition to their other rewards!

Wow, we are up to 50% funded on our KickStarter! We will definitely need more support to get to our goal, though. Please help share and support our campaign!

I gave a pretty in-depth interview to IndieGraze about Visual Novels and my project in particular... https://www.indiegraze.com/2017/11/10/interview-a-near-dawns-leonid-pilchin/

Operation Rainfall wrote a really nice article about my game. : ) http://www.operationrainfall.com/2017/11/05/a-near-dawn/

Hi guys, I've been doing a lot of writing about my project A Near Dawn (largely about what it means to me personally), and I wanted to bring some of that discussion into the VN community. You can play the Prologue on Itch.io, Steam, or Google Play. First of all, it is in fact an OELVN. Please, don't run away. A Near Dawn is a project that is many things - I started out calling it my "dark humorous psychological thriller point and click visual novel adventure game," at this point it's my "dark humorous adventure", because that was quite a mouthful. But that is what this project is - my main influences for it are Ace Attorney (a puzzle adventure VN), Steins;Gate (it does not become apparent until later on in the story, but let's just say things begin going progressively supernatural/sci-fi), and traditional adventure games like Broken Sword (one of my favorite things). A little about me: I began working on this project, because I had to. I was an animator on many cartoons like Ugly Americans, Fresh Beat Band of Spies. I thought that was what I wanted, but at some point I began to realize the most 'difference' I would be making if I kept going in this direction. I would always be working on someone else's project (whatever the studio decides to produce), by the time my part comes in everything has already been planned out. So everybody already knows what my contribution will be, before I even sit down at my desk. Don't get me wrong, it can be very interesting work and the studio environment is great, but my passion was telling stories, trying to make a difference in the world with them. About A Near Dawn: I grew up on adventure games: Monkey Island, Indiana Jones - later Broken Sword, Ace Attorney. Those games inspire me, because of their clever writing and imaginative storylines. I always wanted to make an adventure like that. One key difference between them and most VNs is that they put you in control of every action and situation. If you look at something or speak to someone, that was your decision to do. To me that is something that is very powerful and immersive, and that was the concept behind A Near Dawn - if you strip an adventure game of the little character walking around, still allowing you to explore your environment and move from place to place, and you add these dramatic CG scenes to highlight the action in the story. What you get is a kind of interactive graphic novel adventure game that merges the Adventure and traditional Visual Novel genres together. This is what that looks like: I have been getting a mixed response from the VN community so far. You guys know that there is a strong aversion to anything that does not look expressly anime. I get that, I've been there. I had my anime phase, too. I wouldn't even watch 3D animation for a long time, and it was actually 3D anime like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts that got me to open my mind up to it more. Now, I love it. I know the amount of work that goes into it and being an animator myself I can completely appreciate the skill it takes and the decisions that were made (there are a hundred ways to do anything). My point is yes, it's different and unconventional, but is that a bad thing? I just launched this project on KickStarter, hoping to help get some support for it - take a look at our campaign if you have a minute. And I would love to hear your feedback if you check it out!

Does anyone watch Pouchmon? We are up to 1/4 funded on our KickStarter Campaign! Have a peek if you haven't already, we have some pretty snazzy rewards.

We launched on KickStarter! Excitement! Fireworks! Finally! This is my first ever KickStarter campaign (super nervous about it) - Please have a look at it and if there is anything you can do to help share or support it, we would greatly appreciate it!

May as well formally announce it: We will be launching our KickStarter on October 24th! Please have a look at our campaign and let us know what you think!

We just released A Near Dawn: Prologue on Android!! You can grab it on Google Play! It actually feels really nice and sleek on a handheld.

We just released the Prologue on Steam! So you can now grab it on Itch.io or Steam --

It's going to be an uphill climb trying to put this whole campaign business together, but if you have a chance, please have a look at our upcoming campaign on KickStarter (launching October 24th)!

So, this is a bit of a soft-release of the FULL PROLOGUE for A NEAR DAWN! We'll update with more details and information - and we really hope that the Linux version actually works, because it has yet to be properly tested. But please check it out and let us know what you think! AND, keep in mind that we hope to launch a KickStarter campaign to help fund the rest of the project. We really couldn't keep going with it the way we have been if we didn't get some support, so anything you could do to help share or support the project would be super appreciated. Thank you!

Our BRAND NEW TRAILER for A Near Dawn!

Awkward...

I added a little: -- sign up form on my website. Probably should have done all this sooner. Just one of the 10, 000 things I have to figure out for this project.

Yay! I finally finished the MENU (POSTER) ART for A Near Dawn! More importantly, we want to release the Prologue (free-to-play opening to the first chapter) to our game as soon as we can! SO.... ANNOUNCEMENT: We'd like to have the Prologue out by 11:00 AM MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH! And we hope to gear up a KickStarter Campaign shortly thereafter. Please look forward to it and wish us luck!

It was all amazingness! I learned so much doing the CNE Gaming Garage convention and met so many cool, creative, and interesting people - and, of course had lots of people check out my games. Got some really nice feedback all around!

We are starting to put together the UI for this baby! Writing for the Prologue is 100% done, as is the character artwork and most of the BG artwork.

Being super productive putting together character expression variations and animations for the project. Little sample here: https://twitter.com/FaroffDaydream/status/888878182484635648

So coolness! I’ve been accepted to exhibit this project (as well as my earlier one) at Bit Bazaar - a Toronto-based indie game con. I’ve never participated in a con before, so I’m equal parts nervous and excited about it! : ) Now, to hustle and put together a good quality demo for the event!

I love my composer! He's putting together some really nice tracks for the project. Hopefully I'll be able to share some of them soon.

And I'm back after a brief hiatus - which featured: Helping out with Event Photography 10 Day Trip to Chicago (it was wonderful and artistic) 7 Days in Cuba (quite pleasant indeed) Putting Together a 150-page Exhibition Catalogue for an Artist Now, without further ado, presenting some CG action from A Near Dawn: Who had the pasta? Opening art (which wound up being quite extensive), and CGs appear to be finally finished for the Prologue (Demo). We will be reaching out to voice actors to discuss recording voice for the Prologue, which will now hopefully be brought about without too many further interruptions along the way. Look forward to it!