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NIRAVASI Devlog 09/02/2021: The Path to Naraka



Come support the game here:


Hey everyone,

It's your man, Sangos here, bringing you yet another update for NIRAVASI. As you know, it's been two weeks since I released the Kickstarter campaign. Last week, I made the announcement that the game reached its 25% funded status. As of right now, the campaign is setting at a £841 funded status, with the milestone almost reaching a third of the final goal. This doesn't surprise me too much, as it's said that the middle moments of a Kickstarter campaign are known to be rather quiet, leading to periods of no significant backer increases. Honestly speaking, I'm more happy knowing that more and more people are taking a look at NIRAVASI and seeing it for what it could be in the future. As for what lies in the future for all of you that have supported the project so far, let's go over them.

But before we do that, I would like to throw out my amazing thanks to everyone that's tried the game out for themselves. One particular audience I want to thank is the YouTube Community that accepted my request and go out of their way to give the game's demo a shot. Here's a list of the awesome YouTubers that did just that:

PureSpringLotus



Kirisaki Jackie



PatriotJax



Again, a huge thanks out for anyone that gave NIRAVASI a go! I apologise if I've missed anyone else from the list of people that have played it; I just didn't want to fill up this Kickstarter update with too many videos. Anyway, let's go back to the game itself and see what's going to be changing.




Player Feedback Changes

Following last week's Devlog, I made the announcement that I would be going back and updating the game to include the suggested changes that players gave during their time playing the game's demo. One exception I need to address though is that I will not be reducing the size of NIRAVASI's Demo. While I understand that a demo of this game's size (45-90 minutes worth of playtime) is very difficult for content creators and players alike to sit through, I feel that it's important for players to experience the game's setting and themes. My main hope with this was to ensure that players could see a variety of stuff in the game, and develop a sense of wanting to see what lies at the end of the road. However, I understand that for the sake of content creation, NIRAVASI's not an easy beast to wrangle.

Speaking of Demos, I plan to re-release a demo for NIRAVASI later down the Kickstarter's pipeline (most likely at the halfway point on the 27th February), which will include the new changes that I've made. While some may feel this to be an unnecessary step, I want to show you all how much your feedback and critiques are appreciated and that experiencing it first-hand in the game is a much better way of showing it off than just showing you pictures. Then again, pictures are nice, so let's take a look at some of them.









If the images I posted above aren't any indication of what's to come, let's just say that I've gone over the game's introduction level and given it quite a revamp. One of the most notable pieces of feedback was that the player essentially lost a large part of control while playing through the game's introduction. To remedy this, I've gone back and made these changes.

Removed the Storybook Introduction Sequence. You will now start the game on the Ship.

Changed where you start in the Introduction Level. You will be at the bottom part of the area, where a shorter dialogue exchange will take place between you and Rachael. You won't be meeting up with the Lieutenant until you go to the most northern part of the level.

New sequence after Proxy event. You will now be kicked out of the ruined building with the Lieutenant still trapped inside. This allows you to be able to roam around the environment for a bit and save as well.

Updated Escape Sequence. As well as including new camera angles, the player will now be able to regain control when escaping from the machine that abducted your friends. However, you will only have half-a-minute to get out of there, before the monster catches you (and no, you can't run back the way you came).

Quality of life changes in Old Hanirr, as well as a few new little goodies.

That should be all of the changes that have been made following all the feedback. I'm hoping with this overhaul, getting into the game should be a seamless experience that borders on the line of being too heavy for players to manage. But it's not just updating the first two levels that I'll be working on; let's focus on what's to come in the future

Third Level - Ishani Bazaar

What you see above is a VERY early draft of what to expect with the game's third level, Ishani Bazaar. In the context of the game's story, you've finally arrived within the city of Niravasi itself. But unlike what the game is leading you into believing, Niravasi's not just some ancient ruin filled with technology. It turns out the humans that used to live here were more advanced than they let on. Niravasi was the technological marvel of humanity, after all.

As you enter Ishani Bazaar, you'll bare witness to a grand scene. An underground train network, monolithic buildings, futuristic roads and vehicles and most importantly, many MANY more robots. In fact, the biggest opposition you'll be facing is the robot you'll find at the end of the game's demo. For those of you unaware, this is the robot that snatched away your friends at the beginning of the game, as well as the monster on the game's promotional art. This robot will play a massive role in the game's mechanics going forward, so be sure to stay tuned to that.

Ishani Bazaar will also further develop the narrative that you've seen so far in the game's demo. You'll have many more interactions with Clovis here, as well as have the opportunity to explore many more unique locations and uncover the stories within. I'm designing Ishani Bazaar to be much more open-ended than the previous two levels, with a bigger emphasis on exploration. However, I should also note that I'll be making sure to keep things simple for the player to navigate. After all, it's no fun getting lost in a city filled with robots that wanna super-unalive you.



That covers it for this week. I'll be continuing to work on the game as per usual, but please feel free to get in contact with me if you have any questions/feedback regarding the game. The best way to do that is to simply send me a message here or a response down below! As always, I hope you all have a lovely week and I'll be adding another Devlog next Tuesday. :)

Kind regards,
Angus (Sangos)